Marijuana usage as social behavior
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Marijuana usage as social behavior
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[post_date] => 2024-12-25 13:37:28
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[post_content] => Practice Passage (Question 1-5)
*This passage is the property of Khan Academy and has been reformatted into an AAMC-style interface in their entirety by MedLife Mastery. MedLife Mastery does not endorse and is not an affiliate of Khan Academy.
In studies of drug usage, individual physical or psychological characteristics have been used to differentiate users from non-users. This approach, common in “deviant behavior” studies, assumes that certain traits of individuals predispose or motivate them to engage in negative behavior. However, some researchers have suggested that drug usage behavior should be instead viewed as interactive social processes, and that the influence of peers should be taken into account.
An early study (Study 1) focusing on marijuana users found that socialization is an important aspect in the maintained “pleasurable” usage of the drug (regular users). The researcher conducted participant observation and interviews with 50 marijuana users. Respondents who eventually used marijuana regularly were observed to undergo three stages:
1) they learn to smoke it in a way that produces real effects;
2) they learn to recognize the effects and connect them with drug use; and
3) they learn to enjoy the sensation they perceive. Individuals who do not go through the sequence of changes do not end up using marijuana regularly.
In a more recent study (Study 2) illustrating the social aspects of drugs, researchers used data from National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health) to further examine the peer effects of marijuana usage among adolescents grades 7-12. The investigators looked at close friends and classmates. The measure for close friends is “nominated peers”, which refers to the percentage of friends who used marijuana in the past 30 days and were named by the respondent as friends, and the classmates measure is “grade-level peers”, which refers to the percentage of peers who used marijuana in the past 30 days in the same grade and school as the respondent. The main results are shown below in Table 1.
Table 1: Increase in likelihood of individual marijuana usage (in %), with every 10% increase in nominated peers and grade-level peers
*The coefficients for both are significant (p-values=0.000]). The two groups are not mutually exclusive.
Source: Adapted from Becker, H. S. (1953). Becoming a Marihuana User. American Journal of Sociology, 59(3), 235-242. Ali, M. M., Amialchuk, A., & Dwyer, D. S. (2011). The Social Contagious Effect of Marijuana Use among Adolescents. Plos One. 6(1), e16183
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[question] => According to the above study, which concept is most relevant for explaining sustained marijuana usage?
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[answer] => 4
[description] => Reason for the Correct Answer:
The study demonstrates that social interaction is key to sustained marijuana usage.
Through the process of social interaction, the meaning and interpretation of marijuana usage is transformed.
The symbolic meaning of marijuana usage, developed through social interactions, explains why individuals become sustained marijuana users.
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[each_answer] => A. Social subjectivity
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[each_answer] => B. Deviance theory
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[each_answer] => C. Antecedent predisposition
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[each_answer] => D. Symbolic interactionism
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[quiz_unique_key] => 3873426850
[question] => Which conclusion is best supported by the findings in Table 1?
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[answer] => 3
[description] => Reason for the Correct Answer:
The dependent variable is individual marijuana usage, so it is the variable that would increase and decrease with every unit increase in percentage of close friends or classmates.
In the study, the measures for close friends and classmates are designed to be 10% increments.
With a 10% increase in close friends (nominated-peers), the likelihood of individual marijuana usage increases by more than 2% (2.8%).
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[each_answer] => A. Individual marijuana usage leads to a 2.8% increase in close friends’ marijuana usage.
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[each_answer] => B. A 4.4% increase in grade-level peers leads to more than 10% increase in the likelihood of individual marijuana usage.
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[each_answer] => C. A 10% increase in close friends who use marijuana leads to a more than 2% increase in the likelihood of individual marijuana usage.
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[each_answer] => D. Classmates influence the likelihood of nominated peers using marijuana by 4.4%.
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[2] => Array
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[quiz_unique_key] => 83407773
[question] => Which of the following conclusion can be drawn from Study 2?
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[answer] => 1
[description] => Reason for the Correct Answer:
In Study 2, peer networks are found to influence the likelihood of individual marijuana usage.
The effect of peer networks on individuals indicate that drug-related interventions should target larger networks.
Interventions that utilize peer effects and target the entire network of students may be more cost-effective than singling out individual users.
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[each_answer] => A. Interventions targeting all students in a school may be more cost-effective than targeting individual marijuana users.
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[each_answer] => B. Identifying individual marijuana users is an effective way to decrease drug consumption rates at school.
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[each_answer] => C. Peer groups do not significantly affect individual marijuana usage.
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[each_answer] => D. If a student expresses deviant behavior, the likelihood of individual marijuana usage will increase.
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[question] => If we study heroin usage and addiction using a similar social process model similar to Study 1, which of the following statements is most likely to be a reasonable finding?
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[answer] => 1
[description] => Reason for the Correct Answer:
A social process model emphasizes social interaction and influence in shaping behavior or actions.
From social interactions with others, individuals develop novel interpretations or conceptual reorganizations of drug usage, different from their original self-understandings of a drug.
Employing a social process model in examining heroin addiction, we would likely find that self-perceptions and interpretations are organized according to a user’s social interactions.
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[each_answer] => A. Symbolic interactionism
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[each_answer] => B. Cognitive expectancies due to the rewarding drug effects of heroin significantly influence an individual’s drug usage behavior.
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[each_answer] => C. Individuals who express deviant behavior in general are more likely to become heroin addicts.
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[each_answer] => D. Heroin usage is learned but self-interpretation of usage is the key indicator of prolonged abuse.
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[question] => The above study emphasizes the effects of social interaction on drug usage. One further aspect to consider is how an individual’s drug-related behavior may be further reinforced by the way others judge or classify him/her. A guiding concept for this aspect would likely be:
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[answer] => 2
[description] => Reason for the Correct Answer:
This concept holds that terms used to negatively identify or classify a drug user are considered to also negatively influence the person’s self and social identity.
This concept indicates that deviant or negative behavior is not inherent; behavior is only deviant when society or other individuals refer to it as deviant.
Labeling theory as a concept refers to how deviant individual behavior becomes even more deviant when a person is negatively labeled or classified as such.
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[each_answer] => A. Negative reinforcement
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[each_answer] => B. Labeling
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[each_answer] => C. Discrimination
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[each_answer] => D. Prejudice
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