Blackwell Reference Online

Extract

For many people the concept of addiction involves the ingestion of a drug. However, there is now a growing movement that views a number of behaviors as potentially addictive, including some that do not involve the ingestion of a drug, such as gambling, sex, and exercise ( Orford 2001 ; Griffiths 2005 ). Increasing research into behavioral addictions has also concentrated on a particular sub-group that has been termed “technological addictions.” Technological addictions are nonchemical (behavioral) addictions that involve excessive human–machine interaction. They can either be passive (e.g., watching television) or active (e.g., playing video games), and usually contain inducing and reinforcing features, which may contribute to the promotion of addictive tendencies. Possible activities that could be included under this category are such activities as television addiction, computer addiction (e.g., hacking, programming), video game addiction, mobile phone addiction, and Internet addiction (→  Exposure to Communication Content ). Addiction is a complex biopsychosocial process and always results from an interaction and interplay between many factors, including the person's biological and/or genetic predisposition, their psychological constitution (e.g., personality factors, unconscious motivations, attitudes, expectations and beliefs, etc.), their social environment and exposure ... log in or subscribe to read full text