Abstract
Background:
Although many risk factors have been proposed for the etiology of the addiction, little research has been conducted from the perspective of evolutionary psychology. The theory of life strategies (with respect to evolutionary causes) has led to a new understanding of addiction. While researchers have shown that Cloninger’s bio-psychological model is one of the most important personality factors in the etiology of addiction, there is no research about the relationship between life strategy and the temperament-character component of addiction.Objectives:
The main objective of this study was to examine the relationship between these two variables in individuals with opioid use disorder in comparison with the normal group.Patients and Methods:
This correlational study included 96 participants with opioid use disorder selected by convenience sampling from the Iranian national center for addiction studies (INCAS) and 97 participants without any substance use disorder, who were matched to the opioid-use group. After administering the mini-form of Arizona life history battery (ALHB) and the temperament and character inventory (TCI), data were analyzed with Pearson’s correlation coefficient and multivariate regression.Results:
Results showed a relationship between fast-life strategy and novelty seeking in the group with opioid use disorder and a positive relationship between slow-life strategy and co-operation in the control group. The regression analysis indicated that novelty seeking was able to predict fast-life strategy in the opioid use group and co-operation could predict slow-life strategy in the control group.Conclusions:
Life strategy could be a new variable in understanding and planning addiction prevention programs.Keywords
Substance-Related Disorders Life History Traits Temperament Character
1. Background
Substance use has been part of human life for thousands of years, and opium has been used for medical purposes for about 3500 years. Today, however, substance use disorder is one of the most complex psychiatric disorders with both environmental and biological factors involved in its genesis. According to the national institute on drug abuse (NIDA), more than 22 million people have a disorder associated with drugs in 2012 (1). Based on research results, personality could play a significant role in substance use and it’s etiology (2, 3). Addicted individuals are often different from normal people in personality traits, such as behavioral disinhibition, impulsivity, pessimism, and neuroticism (4). Other studies have also shown a relationship between substance use, conduct disorder, and anti-social behaviors (5, 6).
As a new personality theory, evolutionary psychology tries to explain different human behaviors (7). From this perspective, individual differences are interpreted as a strategy for solving compliance issues of survival and reproduction (8). Based on this explanation, evolutionary psychology has created a new way for understanding substance use disorder (9). Life history theory (in evolutionary psychology) states that humans are on a spectrum: on one side, are those looking for rapid reproduction and allocating resources for multiple mating efforts, while on the other side, are those, who spend their resources on efficient parenting. This continuum is known as the fast-to-slow strategy (10). High-risk behaviors, such as anti-social behaviors and multiple sexual relationships reflect the fast-life strategy, while sexual restrictions, deliberate behaviors and mental-physical health indicate the slow-life strategy (11). Life strategy and the cognitive dual processing model, explicit and implicit, in combination with each other, could introduce a new etiology for substance use disorder (9).
In unpredictable, insecure, and dangerous environments, in which life resources were rare, long survival had a little chance. Therefore, fast strategies for a short life were considered more valuable. Such a focus on short-term survival forced humans to use implicit processing of information to make quick and timely decisions. In today’s world, however, a fast life strategy and this type of cognitive processing could be a serious risk factor for drug use (9). Because drug, as a primary reinforcement, manipulates the basic emotional system, it leads to experiences similar to consuming food, gaining valuable resources, and escaping from threats (12, 13).
Another relevant character model is Cloning’s bio-psychological model (14, 15). According to this view, temperament is based on implicit memory, which is the infrastructure of associative learning and pre-semantic perceptual processing with the components of novelty seeking, harm avoidance, reward dependence, and persistence. Character components, which are responsible for higher functions, such as abstraction and symbolism, include self-transcendence, self-directedness, and cooperativeness (16-18).
All temperament components are inherited. Novelty seeking is a strong response to freshness and signs of reward; harm avoidance is a tendency to respond to painful stimuli; reward dependence is an inclination to responding to social and emotional reinforcements; and perseverance refers to continuous behavior without any reward (19, 20). Unlike temperament components, character components are mostly determined by the environment (21). Self-directedness points out to coping with difficult conditions for goal achievement; cooperativeness indicates how much a person is able to consider others as part of him or herself; and self- transcendence represents the way people obtain their identity by allying with all aspects of the world (17).
Research has demonstrated that individuals with substance use disorder are different from the normal population in temperament-character, life strategy, and cognitive processing (9, 20, 22). While the role of heredity, environment, and risk factors has been known in the development of substance use, little information is available on the relationship between these factors, implicit processing, and cognitive biases (23).
2. Objectives
The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between life strategy and temperament-character dimensions in individuals with opioid use disorder and the normal group.
3. Patients and Methods
This research was a correlational study with 96 participants with opioid use disorder, who were on methadone without any psychosis symptoms, according to the diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders, fifth edition (DSM-5). Participants were selected by convenience sampling from the Iranian national center for addiction studies (INCAS). The control group consisted of 97 normal participants, selected from a mosque, a park, and a cultural center in Tehran, who were matched to the opioid-using group in terms of socioeconomic and educational status. After back-translation and acquiring an acceptable Cronbach’s alpha, the mini-form of Arizona life history battery (ALHB) (24) and the Temperament and Character inventory (TCI), which were standardized in Iran (25), were administered. The data were analyzed by the Pearson correlation coefficient and multivariate regression.
4. Results
In the opioid use disorder group, the highest correlation was the negative correlation between life strategy and novelty seeking (Table 1), implying that fast-life strategy (lower scores on the test (in individuals with opioid use disorder was associated with greater novelty seeking, a positive approach to reward signs, and active avoidance of punishment. Moreover, there was a positive relationship between slow-life strategy and self-directedness (Table 1), suggesting that among individuals with opioid use disorder, those with a slow-life strategy had greater self-directedness. In the control group, slow-life strategy had a strong relationship with the character component, while the highest correlation coefficient was found with co-ordination (Table 1). Furthermore, a significant positive correlation was found between slow-life strategy and self-directedness on one hand, and self-transcendence on the other hand (Table 1).
The regression analysis showed that among temperament-character components, novelty seeking was able to predict fast-life strategy in the group with opioid use disorder (Table 2), whereas co-cooperativeness was the only character component that could predict a slow-life strategy (Table 2).
Coefficients of Multivariate Regression in Assessing Life Strategy
| Group | B Coefficients | standard Error | Beta Standardized Coefficients | t | P Value | Tolerancee | Collinearity Statistics |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| VIF | |||||||
| Opioid use disorder | |||||||
| Constant value | 29.07 | 13.47 | 2.15 | 0.034 | |||
| Novelty Seeking | -2.06 | 0.663 | -0.354 | -3.1 | 0.003 | 0.664 | 1.5 |
| Harm Avoidance | 0.710 | 0.506 | 0.143 | 1.4 | 0.164 | 0.830 | 1.2 |
| Reward- Dependence | 0.128 | 0.390 | 0.034 | 0.329 | 0.743 | 0.794 | 1.2 |
| perseverance | 0.445 | 1.61 | 0.033 | 0.275.0 | 0.784 | 0.593 | 1.7 |
| Self-Directedness | 0.777 | 0.474 | 0.208 | 641 | 0.104 | 0.533 | 1.9 |
| Co-Operation | -0.176 | 0.453 | -0.047 | -0.389 | 0.698 | 0.584 | 1.7 |
| Self-Transcendence | 0.143 | 1 | 0.017 | 0.143 | 0.87 | 0.630 | 1.6 |
| Group control | |||||||
| Constant value | -9.59 | 6.9 | -1.38 | 0.168 | |||
| Novelty Seeking | -0.305 | 0.322 | -0.086 | -0.948 | 0.346 | 0.865 | 1.15 |
| Harm Avoidance | 0.241 | 0.387 | 0.060 | 622 | 0.536 | 0.716 | 1.3 |
| Reward- Dependence | 0.431 | 0.544 | 0.084 | 0.739 | 0.430 | 0.625 | 1.6 |
| perseverance | 0.303 | 0.425 | 0.063 | 0.712 | 0.478 | 0.910 | 1.1 |
| Self-Directedness | 0.491 | 0.258 | 0.189 | 1.9 | 0.060 | 0.713 | 1.4 |
| Co-Operation | 1.22 | 0.309 | 0.39 | 3.95 | 0.000 | 0.570 | 1.7 |
| Self-Transcendence | -0.02 | 0.338 | 0.006 | -0.058 | 0.954 | 0.616 | 1.6 |
5. Discussion
As some studies have demonstrated, life strategy is faster in adults, who smoke and use psychoactive substances, as well as in alcoholic individuals and those with eating disorders (22, 26-28). Novelty seeking is also higher in addicts than the general population (29-31). Novelty seekers are capricious, curious, impulsive, and chaotic individuals, who desperately look for new stimuli (18). The majority of these features, including high-risk behaviors, impulsivity, anti-social behaviors, substance use, and multiple sexual relations are also observed in the fast-life strategy (32). Studies indicate a correlation between the fast-life strategy and a lower executive function (33), which shows that the fast-life strategy is associated with implicit processing and can harm explicit processing in the pre-frontal lobe (34). Since novelty seeking is also based on implicit processing (17), the relationship between fast-life strategy and novelty seeking is justifiable.
Similar to self-directed individuals, conscious and purposeful information processing in individuals with a higher slow-life strategy makes them more disciplined and responsible (35). By living in a safe and predictable environment with enough resources for everyone, individuals with a slow-life strategy (9) have developed features of co-operative and self-transcending character, such as empathy and morality (18). In a safe environment, commitment to ethics, supporting others, and having empathy would not jeopardize the available resources. Therefore, individuals could go beyond themselves.
The result indicates that in the temperament component, novelty seeking was able to predict a fast-life strategy in the opioid-use group. Novelty seeking, which is based on primary information processing and the dopamine system (36), forms the origin of instinctive behavior, and results in an active effort to obtain resources that are able to create pleasure. These mechanisms allow mammals to search for resources that are vital for their survival and avoid threats (37). As studies have suggested, the fast-life strategy has exactly the same task of saving life in dangerous and unpredictable environments (35). Because individuals with a fast-life strategy have no conscious processing of information, they may conceive substance as a rich pleasurable source (by implicit processing) and continue consumption until it leads to addiction (35).
As some fast-life strategy features are rooted in harsh environments (35), it is necessary for individuals with greater novelty seeking and fast-life strategy to have a safe and predictable environment. Since cooperation, which was able to predict slow-life strategy, is one of the character components (36), it could be taught and reinforced as one of the most important prevention factors in substance use disorder. Generally, the slow-life strategy can be a prevention variable, not only for substance use disorder, but also for numerous high-risk behaviors, such as high-risk sexual relations, impulsivity, and crimes.
A sample with only male participants and the mini-form of ALHB were the most important limitations of this research.
Acknowledgements
References
-
1.
Kaplan BJ. Kaplan and sadocks synopsis of psychiatry, behavioral sciences, clinical psychiatry. 58. Nederlandse: Tijdschrift voor Psychiatrie; 2016.
-
2.
Belcher AM, Volkow ND, Moeller FG, Ferre S. Personality traits and vulnerability or resilience to substance use disorders. Trends Cogn Sci. 2014;18(4):211-7. [PubMed ID: 24612993]. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2014.01.010.
-
3.
Kienast T, Stoffers J, Bermpohl F, Lieb K. Borderline personality disorder and comorbid addiction: epidemiology and treatment. Dtsch Arztebl Int. 2014;111(16):280-6. [PubMed ID: 24791755]. https://doi.org/10.3238/arztebl.2014.0280.
-
4.
Kotov R, Gamez W, Schmidt F, Watson D. Linking big personality traits to anxiety, depressive, and substance use disorders, A meta analysis. Psychol Bull. 2010;136(5):768-821. [PubMed ID: 20804236]. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0020327.
-
5.
Samek DR, Hicks BM, Keyes MA, Bailey J, McGue M, Iacono WG. Gene-environment interplay between parent-child relationship problems and externalizing disorders in adolescence and young adulthood. Psychol Med. 2015;45(2):333-44. [PubMed ID: 25066478]. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0033291714001445.
-
6.
Ogloff JR, Talevski D, Lemphers A, Wood M, Simmons M. Co-occurring mental illness, substance use disorders, and antisocial personality disorder among clients of forensic mental health services. Psychiatr Rehabil J. 2015;38(1):16-23. [PubMed ID: 25799303]. https://doi.org/10.1037/prj0000088.
-
7.
Buss D. Evolutionary psychology, the new science of the mind. London: Psychology Press; 2015.
-
8.
Giudice MD, Gangestad SW, Kaplan HS. Life history theory and evolutionary psychology. In: Buss DM, editor. The handbook of evolutionary psychology. United States: Wiley; 2015. p. 1-27.
-
9.
Richardson GB, Hardesty P. Immediate survival focus: synthesizing life history theory and dual process models to explain substance use. Evol Psychol. 2012;10(4):731-49. [PubMed ID: 23213672].
-
10.
Figueredo A, Vasquez G, Brumbach B, Schneider S, Sefcek J, Tal I, et al. Consilience and life history theory, from genes to brain to reproductive strategy. Dev Rev. 2006;26(2):243-75. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dr.2006.02.002.
-
11.
Ellis BJ, Figueredo AJ, Brumbach BH, Schlomer GL. Fundamental Dimensions of Environmental Risk : The Impact of Harsh versus Unpredictable Environments on the Evolution and Development of Life History Strategies. Hum Nat. 2009;20(2):204-68. [PubMed ID: 25526958]. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12110-009-9063-7.
-
12.
Goldman MS, Darkes J, Reich RR, Brandon KO. From DNA to conscious thought, the influence of anticipatory processes on human alcohol consumption. In: Munafo M, Albery IP, editors. Cognition and addiction. New York: Oxford University Press; 2006.
-
13.
MacDonald KB. Effortful control, explicit processing, and the regulation of human evolved predispositions. Psychol Rev. 2008;115(4):1012-31. [PubMed ID: 18954212]. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0013327.
-
14.
Schneider RJ, Ottoni GL, de Carvalho HW, Elisabetsky E, Lara DR. Temperament and character traits associated with the use of alcohol, cannabis, cocaine, benzodiazepines, and hallucinogens: evidence from a large Brazilian web survey. Rev Bras Psiquiatr. 2015;37(1):31-9. [PubMed ID: 25697129]. https://doi.org/10.1590/1516-4446-2014-1352.
-
15.
Vitoratou S, Ntzoufras I, Theleritis C, Smyrnis N, Stefanis NC. Temperament and character dimensions assessed in general population, in individuals with psychoactive substance dependence and in young male conscripts. Eur Psychiatry. 2015;30(4):474-9. [PubMed ID: 25687735]. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eurpsy.2015.01.007.
-
16.
Cloninger CR. Brain networks underlying personality development. In: Carroll BJ, Barrett JE, editors. Psychopathology and the brain. New York: Raven Press; 1991. p. 183-208.
-
17.
Celikel FC, Kose S, Cumurcu BE, Erkorkmaz U, Sayar K, Borckardt JJ, et al. Cloninger's temperament and character dimensions of personality in patients with major depressive disorder. Compr Psychiatry. 2009;50(6):556-61. [PubMed ID: 19840594]. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.comppsych.2008.11.012.
-
18.
Cloninger CR. A systematic method for clinical description and classification of personality variants. A proposal. Arch Gen Psychiatry. 1987;44(6):573-88. [PubMed ID: 3579504].
-
19.
Rosenstrom T, Jylha P, Robert Cloninger C, Hintsanen M, Elovainio M, Mantere O, et al. Temperament and character traits predict future burden of depression. J Affect Disord. 2014;158:139-47. [PubMed ID: 24655778]. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2014.01.017.
-
20.
Ball SA. Personality traits, problems, and disorders, clinical applications to substance use disorders. J Res Pers. 2005;39(1):84-102. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrp.2004.09.008.
-
21.
Yang S, Sung J, Kim JH, Song YM, Lee K, Kim HN, et al. Some personality traits converge gradually by long-term partnership through the lifecourse--genetic and environmental structure of Cloninger's temperament and character dimensions. J Psychiatr Res. 2015;63:43-9. [PubMed ID: 25748752]. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpsychires.2015.01.020.
-
22.
Richardson GB, Chen CC, Dai CL, Swoboda C. Life history strategy and young adult substance use. Evol Psychol, (An international journal of evolutionary approaches to psychology and behavior). 2013;12(5):932-57.
-
23.
Munafo ME, Albery IP. Cognition and addiction. United Kingdom: Oxford University Press; 2006.
-
24.
Figueredo AJ. The Arizona life history battery, electronic version. Arizona: Figueredo, A. J; 2007. Available from: http://www.u.arizona.edu/~ajf/alhb.html.
-
25.
Kaviani H. Normative data on temperament and character inventory, (TCI) Complimentary findings. Tehran Univ Med J. 2009;67(4).
-
26.
Hill EM, Chow K. Life-history theory and risky drinking. Addiction. 2002;97(4):401-13. [PubMed ID: 11964057].
-
27.
Salmon C, Figueredo AJ, Woodburn L. Life history strategy and disordered eating behavior. Evol Psychol. 2009;7(4). https://doi.org/10.1177/147470490900700408.
-
28.
Jones DN, Figueredo AJ. Mating effort as a predictor of smoking in a college sample. Curr Res Soc Psychol. 2007;12(13):186-95.
-
29.
Abbate-Daga G, Amianto F, Rogna L, Fassino S. Do anorectic men share personality traits with opiate dependent men? A case-control study. Addict Behav. 2007;32(1):170-4. [PubMed ID: 16626875]. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.addbeh.2006.03.010.
-
30.
Hosak L, Preiss M, Halir M, Cermakova E, Csemy L. Temperament and character inventory (TCI) personality profile in metamphetamine abusers: a controlled study. Eur Psychiatry. 2004;19(4):193-5. [PubMed ID: 15196599]. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eurpsy.2004.04.003.
-
31.
Fassino S, Daga GA, Delsedime N, Rogna L, Boggio S. Quality of life and personality disorders in heroin abusers. Drug Alcohol Depend. 2004;76(1):73-80. [PubMed ID: 15380291]. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2004.04.005.
-
32.
Gladden PR, Figueredo AJ, Jacobs WJ. Life history strategy, psychopathic attitudes, personality, and general intelligence. Personal Individ Differ. 2009;46(3):270-5. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2008.10.010.
-
33.
Figueredo AJ, Gladden PR, Beck CJ. Intimate partner violence and life history strategy. New York, NY, USA: Oxford University Press; 2011.
-
34.
Lieberman MD. Social cognitive neuroscience: a review of core processes. Annu Rev Psychol. 2007;58:259-89. [PubMed ID: 17002553]. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.psych.58.110405.085654.
-
35.
Richardson GB. An immediate survival focus, Linking substance abuse, fight, flight, and prosocial behavior. USA: University of Louisville; 2011.
-
36.
Cloninger CR, Svrakic DM, Przybeck TR. A psychobiological model of temperament and character. Arch Gen Psychiatry. 1993;50(12):975-90. [PubMed ID: 8250684].
-
37.
Wright JS, Panksepp J. An evolutionary framework to understand foraging, wanting, and desire, the neuropsychology of the SEEKING system. Neuropsychoanalysis. 2012;14(1):5-39. https://doi.org/10.1080/15294145.2012.10773683.