Hostname: page-component-7c8c6479df-7qhmt Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-03-29T19:59:29.341Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Towards a Cognitive-Behavioural Theory of Problem Gambling

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Louise Sharpe*
Affiliation:
Badham Clinic, Department of Psychology, University of Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia
Nicholas Tarrier
Affiliation:
Badham Clinic, University of Sydney, Australia
*
Correspondence

Abstract

A heuristic model to account for the development and maintenance of problem gambling is provided with the aim of directing clinical management and future research. Previous explanations of problem gambling have been limited in two main ways. Firstly, the models have been primarily descriptive, and secondly they have generally lacked clinical value. Most explanations have ignored the mechanisms through which this behaviour becomes problematic, and have not identified the relationships between different variables.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal College of Psychiatrists 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Anderson, G. & Brown, R. I. F. (1984) Real and laboratory gambling, sensation seeking and arousal. British Journal of Psychology, 75, 401410.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bergler, E. (1970) The Psychology of Gambling. London: International Universities Press.Google Scholar
Blume, S. B. (1987) Compulsive gambling and the medical model. Journal of Gambling Behaviour, 3, 237249.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brown, R. I. F. (1987) Models of gambling and gambling addictions act as perceptual filters. Journal of Gambling Behaviour, 3, 224236.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carlton, P. L. & Manowitz, P. (1988) Physiological factors as determinants of pathological gambling. Journal of Gambling Behaviour, 3, 274285.Google Scholar
Dickerson, M. (1989) Gambling: a dependence without a drug. International Review of Psychiatry, 1, 157172.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hawton, K., Salkovskis, P. M., Kirk, J., et al (1989) Cognitive Behaviour Therapy for Psychiatric Problems. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Leary, K. & Dickerson, M. (1985) Levels of arousal in high and low frequency gamblers. Behaviour, Research and Therapy, 23, 635640.Google Scholar
Leopard, D. (1978) Risk preference in consecutive gambling. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 4, 521528.Google Scholar
Mash, E. G. & Terdal, L. G. (1988) Behavioural Assessment of Childhood Disorders (2nd edn). New York: Guilford Press.Google Scholar
McConaghy, N. (1980) Behaviour completion mechanisms rather than primary drives maintain behavioural patterns. Activas Nervosa Superior (Praha), 22, 138151.Google Scholar
McConaghy, N., Armstrong, M. S., Blaszczynski, A., et al (1983) Controlled comparison of aversive therapy and imaginal desensitisation in compulsive gambling. British Journal of Psychiatry, 142, 366372.Google Scholar
McConaghy, N., Blaszczynski, A. & Frankova, A. (1991) Comparison of imaginal desensitisation with other behavioural treatments of pathological gambling: a two-to nine-year follow-up. British Journal of Psychiatry, 159, 390393.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Schwarz, B. (1989) The Psychology of Learning and Behaviour (3rd edn). Ontario: Penguin.Google Scholar
Sharpe, L. & Tarrier, N. (1992) A cognitive-behavioural treatment programme for problem gamblers. Journal of Cognitive Psychotherapy, 6, 193203.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Taber, J. I. (1988) Journal of Gambling Behaviour, 3, 219223.Google Scholar
Turpin, G. (1989) An overview of clinical psychophysiological techniques: tools or theories. In Handbook of Clinical Psychophysiology, pp. 344. London: Wiley.Google Scholar
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.