Disinhibition

5 Key excerpts on "Disinhibition"

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  eBook - ePub

  Political Cyberbullying

  Perpetrators and Targets of a New Digital Aggression

  • Sheri Bauman(Author)
  • 2019(Publication Date)
  • Praeger

    (Publisher)

  4 Online Disinhibition Effect

  The sheer volume of digital aggression is a challenge for people to understand, and the psychological theories summarized in Chapters 2 and 3 have been offered as possible clues. The theory of online Disinhibition is often referred to as the explanation of the cruelty often seen online, and because it is so frequently mentioned, I will devote this chapter to looking closely at it. Although some of the tenets of the theory may be a bit esoteric, I make my best effort at making the ideas understandable.

  Disinhibition as a psychological concept was known long before the internet and is a symptom of several mental disorders, including mania, chronic alcohol abuse, and borderline personality disorder .

  Disinhibition as a psychological concept was known long before the internet and is a symptom of several mental disorders, including mania, chronic alcohol abuse, and borderline personality disorder . Disinhibition means a reduced ability to control (inhibit) impulses that are inappropriate or in violation of social norms. If I am tempted to steal an item from the store, I remind myself this is both wrong and illegal, and I inhibit that impulse. If I stole it anyway, that would be an example of Disinhibition. When observers noticed a similar behavior on the internet, the term was adapted and called online Disinhibition . In this chapter, after defining the term, I review the essential components of this theory, and then examine some of the research that has tested it. Finally, I discuss its relevance to the concerns about the increase in prevalence and intensity of online aggression.

  A basic definition of online Disinhibition

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  Principles of Addiction

  Comprehensive Addictive Behaviors and Disorders, Volume 1

  • (Author)
  • 2013(Publication Date)
  • Academic Press

    (Publisher)

  Disinhibition is often referred to a general failure to plan, control, or regulate behavior, especially behavior that can be unduly risky or can sometimes result in negative consequences. Recent research on the structure of disinhibited behavior and personality also supports a hierarchical structure of disinhibited or externalizing disorder symptoms and traits, indicating that while they are all correlated with each other and share common variance, subfactors exist that capture the unique variance of some disinhibited behaviors and traits. Certainly, disinhibited tendencies have been referred to in a number of ways in the personality, behavioral and psychopathology literatures, from “acting without premeditation,” “lack of planning,” “excitement seeking,” “low tolerance to boredom,” “behavioral undercontrol,” and impulsivity, among others. Consequently, measures labeled “Disinhibition” or “impulsivity” may measure different constructs from each other. Indeed, although general factor models of personality typically identify only one factor for Disinhibition/impulsivity, extensive research has been carried out on the differentiation between different dimensions of disinhibited personality, which usually results in between two and four subfactors of Disinhibition. Using methodologies like factor analysis, recent research in the field of personality has identified, as many as four personality facets associated with impulsive-like behavior: lack of planning, lack of persistence, urgency (acting rashly when upset or anxious), and sensation seeking, but most studies in the field of personality as well as cognitive sciences, agree that at least two clear subdimensions of Disinhibition exist: one which is referred to as impulsivity in this chapter, and another which is referred to as sensation seeking.

  Impulsivity

  Impulsivity is generally associated with a deficit in reflectiveness and planning, rapid decision-making and action, and a failure to inhibit a behavior that is likely to result in negative consequences. It is clear from the literature on substance misuse in adolescent and adult samples that impulsive traits play a prominent role in addictive behavior. Impulsivity has often been associated with substance misuse, specifically, quantity and frequency of drug use, and early experimentation with drugs. Impulsivity has also been associated with the consumption of a range of different drugs, such as cannabis, ecstasy, and heroin use, and is the personality trait that has most consistently been associated with alcohol disorders in the literature.

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  Psychology

  Selected Papers

  • Gina Rossi(Author)
  • 2012(Publication Date)
  • IntechOpen

    (Publisher)

  Biological Psychiatry , 59 (7), 625-634. doi:10.1016/j.biopsych.2005.08.017 Kirisci, L., Tarter, R. E., Reynolds, M., & Vanyukov, M. (2006). Individual differences in childhood neurobehavior Disinhibition predict decision to desist substance use during adolescence and substance use disorder in young adulthood: a prospective study. Addictive Behaviors , 31 (4), 686-696. doi:10.1016/j.addbeh.2005.05.049 Logan, G D, Cowan, W. B., & Davis, K. A. (1984). On the ability to inhibit simple and choice reaction time responses: a model and a method. Journal of Experimental Psychology. Human Perception and Performance , 10 (2), 276-291. Logan, Gordon D. (1994). On the ability to inhibit thought and action: A user’s guide to stop signal paradigm. Inhibitory processes in attention, memory and language (Academic Press., p. 189-239). San Diego, CA: D. Dagenbach, T.H. Carr. Lusher, J., Chandler, C., & Ball, D. (2004). Alcohol dependence and the alcohol Stroop paradigm: evidence and issues. Drug and Alcohol Dependence , 75 (3), 225-231. doi:10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2004.03.004 Lyvers, M. (2000). « Loss of control » in alcoholism and drug addiction: a neuroscientific interpretation. Experimental and Clinical Psychopharmacology , 8 (2), 225-249. Marczinski, C. A., Abroms, B. D., Van Selst, M., & Fillmore, M. T. (2005). Alcohol-induced impairment of behavioral control: differential effects on engaging vs. disengaging responses. Psychopharmacology , 182 (3), 452-459. doi:10.1007/s00213-005-0116-2 May, J., Andrade, J., Panabokke, N., & Kavanagh, D. (2004). Images of desire: cognitive models of craving. Memory , 12 (4), 447-461. doi:10.1080/09658210444000061 Mazur, J. (1987). An adjusting procedure for studying delayed reinforcement. The effect of delay and of intervening events on reinforcement value, In: The effect of delay and of intervening events on reinforcement value, Quantitative analyses of behavior , M.L. Alcoholism: An Impulsive/Disinhibition Disorder? 35 Commons, J.E.

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  Routledge International Handbook of Self-Control in Health and Well-Being

  • Denise de Ridder, Marieke Adriaanse, Kentaro Fujita, Denise de Ridder, Marieke Adriaanse, Kentaro Fujita(Authors)
  • 2017(Publication Date)
  • Routledge

    (Publisher)

  Recent research by Fennis, Andreassen, and Lervik-Olsen (2015) indeed has shown that such commitment to the old, trusted lifestyle strongly and negatively affects people’s intentions to change their lifestyle to a healthier, more sustainable alternative, even when accounting for variables that traditionally are thought to be powerful predictors of such intentions (i.e., predictors such as attitude, subjective norm, and perceived behavioral control; Conner et al., 2002). However, this same study also demonstrated that this “pull of the past” is not an obstacle to change for everyone by focusing on a key constituent component of (chronic) low self-control: behavioral Disinhibition or the tendency to “let go.” More specifically, such Disinhibition has been identified in a framework developed by Carver and White (1994) that distinguishes between two systems of self-regulatory behavior – the behavioral inhibition system (BIS) and behavioral activation system (BAS). Behavioral inhibition entails suppressing behavior that might have aversive consequences, while behavioral activation captures appetitive, approach oriented, goal-directed behavior toward potentially rewarding stimuli. While strong BIS is related to controlled, deliberate judgment and choice, weak BIS (also labeled strong Disinhibition, as was done in the focal study) is the opposite and is thus associated with lower levels of impulse control and hence no or only a weak tendency to withhold a prepotent behavioral response.

  p.456

  Behavioral Disinhibition as a core component of low self-control might at first glance be thought of as an unlikely candidate to foster healthy lifestyle change, as it is associated with increased impulsivity and risk behaviors such as binge eating and drinking, substance abuse, and gambling (e.g., Dawe & Loxton, 2004; Loeber, Grosshans, Herpertz, Kiefer, & Herpertz, 2014). Yet, in the present context, Disinhibition was actually found to have a “bright side.” As the authors reasoned, if commitment to past behavior inhibits positive behavior change to a healthier lifestyle, then behavioral Disinhibition may do the opposite and so may overcome the inhibiting effect of commitment on intentions to change lifestyle. This is what they found. While commitment to past habitual behavior strongly inhibited the tendency to change lifestyles (with markedly lower intentions to change under these conditions), it did not do so for individuals with higher chronic levels of behavioral Disinhibition who were essentially unaffected by commitment’s negative influence on the intention to change lifestyle. Hence, chronic low self-control levels might predispose consumers to change to a healthier lifestyle, but mainly if commitment to the old and trusted behavior is the obstacle to such change.

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  The Mind in Therapy

  Cognitive Science for Practice

  • Katherine D. Arbuthnott, Dennis W. Arbuthnott, Valerie A. Thompson(Authors)
  • 2014(Publication Date)
  • Routledge

    (Publisher)

  Thus, we conclude that inhibition neither makes us sick nor makes us well. Rather, it is a cognitive tool that humans can use as they pursue the goals of their lives. All therapies aid clients in developing and maintaining skills in the appropriate inhibition or expression of thoughts, emotions, and actions. Therapists should be aware that the tools are dependent on the theoretical underpinnings of the therapy and may not always match the needs and style of the client. For example, clients who are relieved by disinhibiting their emotional expressiveness may not be a good match for a strictly cognitive behavioral approach, and clients who become ruminative and distressed after experiencing deep emotion may not be a good match for expressive therapies. This illustrates the need to get feedback concerning the effects of our approach and techniques with each client (e.g., see S. D. Miller et al., 2004) and for therapists to be able to shift approaches when the feedback dictates a need to do so.

  Key Points

  • Inhibition is the suppression of thoughts, feelings, or behaviors.
  • Inhibition is considered detrimental to health in some literatures and beneficial to efficiency and social adjustment in others.
  • We can distinguish between cognitive inhibition (suppression of experience) and behavioral inhibition (suppression of action).
  • Cognitive inhibition has been associated with greater rumination, whereas behavioral inhibition of emotion expression has been associated with stress-related disorders.
  • Deficient inhibition, both cognitive and behavioral, is implicated in several psychiatric disorders, including schizophrenia, OCD, ADHD, and DID.
  • Inhibition or self-regulation is a limited resource.
  • Whether inhibition is beneficial or detrimental to health and psychological function depends on several factors, including the target of inhibition (e.g., cognitive or behavioral), the context, cultural attitudes, and personal characteristics such as habitual expressive style, age, and ethnicity.
  • Appropriate levels of inhibition for each individual are influenced by three factors: (a) the match between level of expression and preferred style and resulting ambivalence, (b) early training and culture, and (c) characteristics of the inhibited experience.

  Notes

  1. This is not to suggest that therapists encourage unstructured or random expressions. Rather, inhibition of important thoughts, acts, or emotions, is considered problematic.

  2. Emotions are considered to be mental representations in the same way that thoughts are (see chapter 13).

  3.

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