PSYC 335: Gambling and Decision Making - Problem Gambling, Theory, and Cognitions

Comprehensive vocabulary practice flashcards for PSYC 335 covering the assessment, epidemiology, theoretical models, neurobiology, and cognitive distortions associated with Gambling Disorder.

Pathological Gambling

The historical diagnostic term first introduced in the DSM-III in 1980 categorized as an impulse control disorder alongside kleptomania and pyromania, which was later renamed Gambling Disorder in DSM-5 (2013).

Gambling Disorder

The formal DSM-5 diagnosis classified under 'Substance-Related and Addictive Disorders' as the sole non-substance behavioral addiction, requiring an individual to meet at least 4 of 9 diagnostic criteria within a 12-month period.

Problem Gambling

A broader, less rigid clinical and research term referring to individuals showing objective evidence of gambling having a negative impact on their lives, typically defined as endorsing at least one DSM symptom or scoring above screening cutoffs.

Polythetic Classification

A diagnostic system structure in the DSM where a diagnosis requires meeting any threshold number from a list of criteria, allowing two individuals to share the exact same diagnosis without exhibiting any overlapping symptoms.

Loss Chasing

The behavior of returning another day or betting larger amounts to recover past losses; widely regarded by clinicians and researchers as a primary hallmark transition from recreational gambling to disordered gambling.

Tolerance (in Gambling Disorder)

A DSM-5 diagnostic criterion defined as the need to gamble with increasing amounts of money to achieve the desired feeling of excitement, directly translated from substance tolerance.

Withdrawal (in Gambling Disorder)

Psychological disturbances (such as irritability, restlessness, and lack of concentration) and somatic symptoms (such as nausea, palpitations, and clammy skin) experienced when attempting to stop or cut down gambling.

Item Sensitivity (Toce-Gerstein et al., 2003)

The psychometric evaluation of DSM-IV criteria demonstrating that loss chasing was overly sensitive (endorsed by non-problem gamblers), illegal acts was overly insensitive (endorsed only by severe cases), and withdrawal showed an optimal graded increase with severity.

South Oaks Gambling Screen (SOGS)

An early screening questionnaire developed by Lesieur and Blume (1987) based on DSM-III, using binary yes/no questions to assess lifetime gambling involvement, where a score greater than 5 indicates probable pathological gambling.

Problem Gambling Severity Index (PGSI)

The gold-standard 9-item self-report questionnaire assessing gambling problems over the past 12 months, scored from 0 to 27 ($0 = \text{non-problem}$, $1\text{--}2 = \text{low risk}$, $3\text{--}7 = \text{moderate risk}$, $8+ = \text{problem gambling}$).

Total Consumption Model

A public health model proposing that as gambling availability and accessibility increase across an entire population, overall gambling and rates of problem gambling will rise in tandem.

Adaptation Hypothesis

The hypothesis proposing that sharp initial rises in problem gambling following the introduction of new gambling formats are temporary blips that subside as society gradually adapts to the technology.

Comorbidity

The co-occurrence of two or more distinct medical or psychiatric disorders in the same person, observed in approximately $96\%$ of individuals diagnosed with pathological gambling in the National Comorbidity Survey.

Pathways Model

An etiological framework developed by Blaszczynski and Nower (2002; revised 2022) proposing that while all gamblers pass through a final common conditioning pathway, individuals enter problem gambling through three distinct developmental routes.

Pathway 1: Behaviourally Conditioned

The subtype in the Pathways Model characterized by an absence of pre-existing psychological vulnerabilities; individuals develop problem gambling via ecological exposure, classical/operant conditioning, cognitive distortions, and early big wins.

Pathway 2: Emotionally Vulnerable

The subtype in the Pathways Model where individuals possess pre-existing emotional vulnerabilities (depression, anxiety, childhood trauma) and persist in gambling as a maladaptive coping mechanism to escape negative affect via negative reinforcement.

Pathway 3: Antisocial Impulsive

The biologically based subtype in the Pathways Model characterized by early-onset, severe gambling driven by impulsivity, ADHD, executive dysfunction, and engagement in a broad spectrum of high-risk and delinquent behaviors.

Early Big Win

A formative conditioning event in a gambler's early career where an unexpectedly large monetary payout reinforces play, alters expected value calculations, and increases susceptibility to problem gambling.

Dark Flow

A trance-like, dissociative psychological state of deep absorption and narrowed attention during continuous gambling (such as slot machines), providing relief from negative affect while worsening financial harm.

Gambling Harm

Any measurable negative outcome attributable to gambling across seven major domains: financial, relational, emotional distress, physical health, occupational, cultural, and crime-related harms.

Voluntary Self-Exclusion

A formal, legally binding harm reduction program allowing individuals to place themselves on a registry that bans them from entering land-based casinos or logging into regulated gambling websites for a specified period.

Cognitive Distortion

A systematic, inaccurate belief or interpretation regarding chance, skill, probability, or personal agency that leads a gambler to believe random events are predictable or controllable.

Illusion of Control

An expectancy of personal success inappropriately higher than the objective probability, characterized by confusion between skill and chance where individuals behave as if chance games are skill-based.

Langer's Five Skill Features

Five contextual factors associated with skillful tasks that induce an illusion of control when introduced into chance environments: choice, motor involvement, familiarity, competition, and early success.

Think-Aloud Technique

An observational research method where gamblers vocalize all spontaneous thoughts while playing, revealing that $70\%$ to $90\%$ of verbalized thoughts contain cognitive distortions and erroneous beliefs.

Post-Hoc Rationalization

A behaviorist explanation for cognitive distortions proposing that verbalized beliefs during gambling are retrospective, confabulated justifications for automatic operant responding rather than conscious drivers of behavior.

Gambling-Related Cognitions Scale (GRCS)

A 23-item questionnaire developed by Raylu and Oei (2004) measuring five subscales of cognitive distortions: illusion of control, predictive control, interpretive bias, gambling expectancies, and inability to stop.

Interpretive Bias

A cognitive distortion measured by the GRCS in which gamblers attribute winning outcomes to their own personal skill and talent while rationalizing or discounting losses as bad luck.

Predictive Control

A cognitive distortion measured by the GRCS involving the belief that a gambler can sense or predict when a win is coming, or that a streak of losses must be followed by wins.

Probability of Alternation

A metric quantifying the randomness of a binary sequence calculated as $P(\text{Alt}) = \frac{r - 1}{n - 1}$, where truly random sequences yield $0.5$, whereas humans expect a higher alternation rate around $0.6$.

Gambler's Fallacy (Negative Recency)

The cognitive error where an individual falsely believes that after a streak or run of an independent random outcome, the alternative outcome becomes more likely or is 'due'.

Hot-Hand Belief (Positive Recency)

The cognitive belief that an individual who has experienced successful outcomes across previous attempts is in a temporary state of elevated performance and is more likely to succeed on the next attempt.

Re-referencing (Wiping the Slate)

The psychological resetting of one's decision-making reference point back to baseline; failure to re-reference after losses causes people to operate on the flattened portion of the prospect theory loss curve, driving loss chasing.

Near-Miss

An unrewarded outcome that falls tantalizingly close to a successful payout; objectively a loss, but physiologically aversive and paradoxically motivating continued play while activating the ventral striatum.

Variable Ratio (VR) Schedule

An operant schedule of reinforcement where rewards are delivered after an unpredictable, varying number of responses; characterized by high, steady response rates that are exceptionally resistant to extinction.

Savoring

George Loewenstein's concept describing positive utility derived from anticipating a future rewarding event, which can invert traditional delay discounting by causing people to prefer waiting over immediate delivery.

Dread

The negative emotional counterpart to savoring in which the anticipation of an inevitable aversive event causes distress, leading individuals to prefer experiencing the unpleasant outcome sooner.

Reward Prediction Error (RPE)

The difference between expected and received reward, encoded by midbrain dopamine neurons that fire in bursts when a reward is better than expected and pause when an expected reward is omitted.

Hyper-Learning

A computational model of addiction proposing that surplus dopamine surges prevent the normal resolution of prediction errors, resulting in unchecked, escalating valuation of conditioned gambling cues.

Interoception

The brain's perception and representation of internal physiological signals from the body (such as heartbeats, gastric motility, and autonomic arousal), primarily localized within the insular cortex.

Cognitive Appraisal Theory

The psychological theory proposing that physiological arousal is non-specific and must be cognitively interpreted within its situational context to produce a distinct subjective emotional state.

Misattribution of Arousal

The psychological phenomenon where individuals incorrectly interpret physiological arousal caused by an unrelated environmental stimulus as excitement or motivation relevant to a subsequent task.

Insula (Insular Cortex)

A deep cortical structure within the lateral sulcus that maps bodily physiological states; implicated in cue-elicited craving, risk evaluation, and the spontaneous cessation of smoking addiction following stroke lesions.

Cue Reactivity

The learned psychological, physiological, and neural response elicited when an individual with an addiction encounters conditioned visual, auditory, or environmental stimuli associated with past gambling.

Prospective Design

A longitudinal research design where predictor traits (such as impulsivity at age 18 in the Dunedin birth cohort) are assessed prior to the emergence of addictive disorders to establish temporal causality.

PET Amphetamine Displacement Procedure

A two-scan neuroimaging technique measuring dopamine release by tracking how much an amphetamine-induced surge of endogenous dopamine knocks a radiotracer (such as $[^{11}\text{C}]\text{-(+)-PHNO}$ or raclopride) off dopamine receptors.

Lahal (Bone Game)

A traditional ceremonial hand game played by Coast Salish Indigenous peoples involving hidden marked bones and social singing, regarded culturally as a sacred ritual rather than commercial gambling.

Motivational Interviewing (MI)

A non-judgmental, client-centered psychological counseling technique focused on resolving ambivalence about gambling behavior and eliciting 'change talk' to increase personal commitment to recovery.

Naltrexone

An opioid receptor antagonist medication that blocks endogenous opioid signaling, demonstrating superior efficacy over placebo in clinical trials for reducing urges and cravings in Gambling Disorder.