AMBIVALENCE AND ADDICTION AMONG ADOLESCENTS

Emory University, Atlanta GA

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Abstract

The long-term objective of this research is to develop integrated approaches to understanding drug use and abuse. Conceptually, this objective relies on (a) development of a biocultural anthropology approach to drug abuse, and (b) integration of the biocultural approach with more traditional theories of drug abuse, such as the biopsychosocial approach. Methodologically, this objective relies on (a) ethnographic research on ambivalence and drug use and abuse among adolescents in Bogota, Colombia, and (b) psychophysiological research testing a preliminary theoretical approach to drug abuse among these adolescents. This preliminary theory contains three aspects-wanting, frames, and self. Wanting refers to the implication of dopamine systems in drug abuse, frames to the role cognitive processes play, and self as an encompassing construct around wanting and frames. The psychophysiological research is the main emphasis of the present proposal, and relies on integrating physiological responses of the sympathetic nervous systems to verbal statements emphasizing "wanting" and "self" respects of drugs. Greater sympathetic response by drug abusers is predicted to wanting and self stimuli that emphasize drugs, as well as quicker response to a change (in frames) between these stimuli.