Julian has been smoking high-strength, hand-rolled cigarettes for several years. Both his father and older brother are also heavy smokers who have repeatedly tried and failed to quit. When Julian takes his first drag of a cigarette in the morning, he immediately experiences an intense sense of calm, followed by a sharp increase in focus and alertness.
Although Julian initially only smoked occasionally when socializing on weekends, he now finds himself smoking more than 20 cigarettes a day. If he goes more than a couple of hours without a cigarette, he suffers from severe irritability, headaches, and an overwhelming craving to smoke, which vanish almost immediately after his next cigarette.
To what extent can biological explanations account for Julian's nicotine addiction?
You must make reference to the context in your answer.
84 exam-style questions on Edexcel A Level Psychology Content, covering Issues around drug taking, Biological explanations of drug addiction, Learning explanations of drug addiction, Treatments for drug addiction, Anti-drug campaign and strategies, Individual differences, and Developmental psychology. Each one has a worked solution and a mark scheme showing where the marks go.