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Addictive Personality

  • Living reference work entry
  • First Online:
Encyclopedia of Personality and Individual Differences

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Synonyms

Addiction proneness; Personality risk for addiction

Definition

Relatively stable preexisting psychological traits that increase the risk for engaging in, and becoming dependent on, addictive behaviors

Introduction

Among the general public, the notion of an addictive personality appears to be a widely held credo judging by its frequent use in common parlance, particularly in reference to “confessions” of almost irresistible preferences for certain very rewarding experiences, objects, or substances. Members of the scientific community also attest to the existence of an addictive personality as seen by the numerous books and journal articles published on this theme in the past several decades. Existing theories of risk for addiction are generally embedded in a biomedical model, and attempts to provide a tangible description of a vulnerability profile have relied largely on biobehavioral and psychological constructs (Clark 2015). Identification of the components of this putative...

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Kinesiology & Health Science, York University, Toronto, ON, Canada

    Caroline Davis PHD

Authors
  1. Caroline Davis PHD
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Correspondence to Caroline Davis PHD .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Oakland University, Rochester, USA

    Virgil Zeigler-Hill

  2. Oakland University, Rochester, USA

    Todd K. Shackelford

Section Editor information

  1. Oakland University, Rochester, MI, USA

    Ashton Southard

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Davis, C. (2016). Addictive Personality. In: Zeigler-Hill, V., Shackelford, T. (eds) Encyclopedia of Personality and Individual Differences. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-28099-8_1198-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-28099-8_1198-1

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-28099-8

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