ABSTRACT
Drug-taking is maintained primarily by its reinforcing effects, broadly conceived. These effects may be in the form of alleviation of pressure to perform undesirable behaviors, affect enhancement, a change in organismic status, or desirable consequences on the personality, cognition, perception, or consciousness systems. The structural properties of individual behaviors must be considered within the interactive, ecological context of other characteristic behaviors performed and precluded so as to elaborate a theoretical network that has both convergent and discriminant validity. Financial resources are a function of the individual’s psychological status as well as various social-system variables. Socioeconomic resources, or status, will also have an influence on the individual’s psychological status. One important aspect of the current model is the set of the implications it carries for the design and implementation of drug education programs. Environmental stress is seen to have a more vigorous role in relapse than initiation, unless adequate counter-drug behavioral styles have been developed in the individual.
