Commentary on: Are we overpathologizing everyday life? A tenable blueprint for behavioral addiction research: Addictions as a psychosocial and cultural construction
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This commentary proposes a complementary perspective to that developed by Billieux, Schimmenti, Khazaal, Maurage and Heeren (2015). The addiction-as-disease approach tends to sideline explanatory factors of a psychosocial, cultural, political, or historical nature. I therefore suggest taking into account not only the personal characteristics (loss of self-control, impulsivity) related to the disease model, but also the social determinants of addictive behaviors (weak social ties, social exclusion, hyperindividualism, poverty, unemployment, etc.). Moreover, the disease model of addiction removes addictive behaviors from the cultural and historical contexts that shape them. I argue that the cultural and historical reasons for which certain factors (such as loss of self-control) became so important in the explanation of addictive behaviors should be more thoroughly considered.
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Socio-environmental and cultural factors influence the nature and type of excessive and addictive behaviors displayed in a specific country or geographic area.
“it has been established that socio-environmental and cultural factors influence the nature and type of excessive and addictive behaviors displayed in a specific country or geographic area [19–21].”
From Prevalence and correlates of problematic smartphone use in a large random sample of Chinese undergraduates (2016) · cites this paper as [21]
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L'approche transdiagnostique en psychopathologie
der Linden, M. V. (2026) · Dunod eBooks · doi:10.3917/dunod.mones.2026.01.0016
- Authors
- van der Linden, M.
- Affiliations
- Cognitive Psychopathology and Neuropsychology Unit, Psychology Department, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland
- Venue
- Journal of Behavioral Addictions
- Publisher
- Akademiai Kiado Zrt.
- Published
- 2015-09
- Volume
- 4
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 145-147
- ISSN
- 2062-5871 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC4627673
- OpenAlex
- W2410801027
- Cited by
- 59
- References
- 22
- Citations by year
- 2026: 2 · 2025: 1 · 2024: 2 · 2023: 1 · 2022: 1 · 2021: 1 · 2020: 45 · 2019: 1 · 2018: 2 · 2017: 1 · 2016: 2
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Journal of Behavioral Addictions (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Repository of the Academy's Library (Library of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences) (acceptedVersion)
- Open Repository and Bibliography (University of Liège) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Gambling Behavior and Treatments
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Epidemiology › Substance Abuse Treatment and Outcomes
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Impact of Technology on Adolescents
- Keywords
- behavioral addiction, disease model of addiction, self-control, impulsivity, social exclusion, hyper-individualism, poverty, unemployment
- MeSH terms
- Humans, Models, Theoretical, Behavior, Addictive, Behavioral Research
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