An empirical validation of the three processes model for the development of gambling disorder

• Grant number: 14/27361-6
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: July 01, 2015
• End date: December 31, 2015
• Field of knowledge: Health Sciences - Medicine - Psychiatry
• Principal Investigator: Hermano Tavares
• Grantee: Bruna Mayara Lopes
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Medicina (FM). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil

Abstract

The researchers Blaszczynski and Nower (2002) conducted a theoretical study about the development of Gambling Disorder (GD). For these researchers, the GD can occur through three pathways: a) the pathway based on the principle of the operant conditioning, considering contingencies of reinforcement that cause recurrent behavior of betting; b) the pathway based on the emotional vulnerability, which the subject seeks the gambling as a way to modulate their negative affective states; c) the pathway based on impulsivity, which is a facilitator of progressive and problematic involvement with gambling. Assuming that the central pathologies of the GD is the craving - memories of pleasant moments caused by dependence that stand to the negative emotional state - and cognitive distortion - which the subject believes in the possibility to predict or control outcomes that are random -, this study proposes to investigate the relationship between the three measures associated the pathways of the tripartite model for the development of GD and the psychopathological phenomena of the gambling. For this, the measures to be used, associated with the three pathways are respectively: a) The Iowa Gambling Task (IGT); b) Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI), and Beck Depression Inventory (BDI); c) the questionnaire Barratt Impulsiveness Scale version 11 (BIS-11). For the measurement of cognitive distortions related to the gambling, the fill scale Gambling Beliefs Questionnaire will be used, and for the evaluation of the craving, the item 4 of the Gambling Follow-up Scale (GFS).