Is “Loss of Control” Always a Consequence of Addiction?

Research into addiction has a long history although there has always been much debate as to what the key components of addiction are. Irrespective of the theory and model of addiction, most theorizing on addiction tends to assume (implicitly or explicitly) that “loss of control” is central (if not funda -mental) to addiction. This short paper chal -lenges such notions by arguing that there are a minority of individuals who appear to be addicted to a behavior (i.e., work) but do not necessarily appear to display any loss of control.

[1]  M. Griffiths,et al.  Contextualising over-engagement in work: Towards a more global understanding of workaholism as an addiction. , 2012, Journal of behavioral addictions.

[2]  M. Griffiths,et al.  Development of a work addiction scale. , 2012, Scandinavian journal of psychology.

[3]  A. Tabassum,et al.  Gaining the insight of workaholism, its nature and its outcome: A literature review , 2012 .

[4]  C. S. Andreassen,et al.  Development of a Facebook Addiction Scale , 2012, Psychological reports.

[5]  Jeroen S. Lemmens,et al.  Development and Validation of a Game Addiction Scale for Adolescents , 2008 .

[6]  Marilyn Clark,et al.  Shopping addiction: A preliminary investigation among Maltese university students , 2008 .

[7]  M. Griffiths,et al.  The exercise addiction inventory: a quick and easy screening tool for health practitioners , 2005, British Journal of Sports Medicine.

[8]  M. Griffiths.  A ‘components’ model of addiction within a biopsychosocial framework , 2005 .

[9]  H. Rachlin.  The Science of Self-Control , 2004 .

[10]  Mark D. Griffiths,et al.  The Exercise Addiction Inventory: A New Brief Screening Tool , 2004 .

[11]  Peter E. Mudrack,et al.  Job involvement, obsessive‐compulsive personality traits, and workaholic behavioral tendencies , 2004 .

[12]  T. Naughton,et al.  The Assessment of Workaholism as Behavioral Tendencies: Scale Development and Preliminary Empirical Testing , 2001 .

[13]  G F Koob,et al.  Drug abuse: hedonic homeostatic dysregulation. , 1997, Science.

[14]  Griffiths.  Workaholism: a 21st century addiction , 2011 .

[15]  G. Porter.  Organizational impact of workaholism: suggestions for researching the negative outcomes of excessive work. , 1996, Journal of occupational health psychology.

[16]  Jr. John B. Griffin,et al.  Loss of Control , 1990 .