Psychological and Sociological Factors in Smoking Addiction

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Psychological and Sociological Factors in Smoking Addiction

Understanding the habit of smoking tobacco

The essay will discuss how smoking tobacco became a habit among people; what are the factors that affect the thinking of individuals in experimenting tobacco smoking; and what makes them think of quitting smoking. It will address both psychological and sociological ideas and will attempt to apply each idea in order to understand people’s lifestyles.

Introduction

Tobacco is a green and leafy plant and mostly grows in a warm environment. When it is fully grown, it will be harvested, dried, processed and can be used in different ways. It can be smoked in the form of cigarette, cigar, pipe, sniffle through the nose or it can also be chewed.

In tobacco, there are thousands of chemicals and one of these chemicals is the nicotine that makes it addictive or can form a habit. Once you smoke tobacco, the nicotine goes to your bloodstream that triggers your body to want more. Nicotine is a drug and a stimulant that changes your body in some way. If you smoke, it speeds up part of your system (nervous) and makes you feel you have the energy to cope with your daily living. Smoking also make your heart beat faster and raise your blood pressure (Jacobs, 1997). However, Jarvis (2004), states that the link with nicotine addiction does not imply that pharmacological properties drives smoking behaviour in a simple way. It does not excludes other influences such as personal, social, economic and political and these influences play an important part in determining patterns of smoking prevalence (Jarvis, 2004).

Psychological Aspects of the Habit of Smoking

Once smoking became a habit or you became addicted, it is hard to beat. It is ...

... middle of paper ...

.../niceMedia/documents/smoking_low_income.pdf [Accessed 24th July 2010]

Niven, N. and Robinson J. (1994) Psychology applied to nurses. In: Müller, D. Psychology applied to nurses’ series. Chippenham: Antony Rowe Ltd.

Office of National Statistics (2010). General Lifestyle Survey, Smoking and Drinking among Adults 2008 [online]. London: statistics.gov.uk Available from http://www.statistics.gov.uk/downloads/theme_compendia/GLF08/GLFSmoking&DrinkingAmongAdults2008.pdf [Accessed 20th July 2010]

Office of National Statistics (2007). Smoking-related Behaviour and Attitudes, 2007 [online] London: statistics.gov.uk Available from http://www.statistics.gov.uk/downloads/theme_health/smoking2007.pdf [Accessed 25th July 2010]

Office for National Statistics (2004) Prevalence of cigarette smoking by sex and age: 1974 to 2003: General Household Survey 2003 London: OPSI

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