Department of Psychology, University of Memphis.
Peter Boris Centre for Addictions Research, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioural Neurosciences, McMaster University/St Joseph's Healthcare Hamilton.
Psychol Addict Behav. 2018 Nov;32(7):846-857. doi: 10.1037/adb0000404.
The widespread availability of the Internet has had profound social, educational, and economic benefits. Yet, for some, Internet use can become compulsive and problematic. The current study seeks to apply a behavioral economic framework to Internet use, testing the hypothesis that, similar to other addictive behaviors, problematic Internet use is a reinforcer pathology, reflecting an overvaluation of an immediately acquirable reward relative to prosocial and delayed rewards. Data were collected through Amazon's Mechanical Turk data collection platform. A total of 256 adults (Mage = 27.87, SD = 4.79; 58.2% White, 23% Asian; 65.2% had an associate degree or greater) completed the survey. Measures of delay discounting, consideration of future consequences, Internet demand, and alternative reinforcement all contributed unique variance in predicting both problematic Internet use and Internet craving. In aggregate models controlling for all significant predictors, alternative reinforcement and future valuation variables contributed unique variance. Individuals with elevated demand and discounting were at greatest risk for problematic Internet use. Consistent with behavioral economic research among substance abusing samples, individuals engaging in heavy Internet use report elevated motivation for the target behavior coupled with diminished motivation for other potentially rewarding activities, especially those associated with delayed reward. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).
互联网的广泛普及带来了深远的社会、教育和经济效益。然而，对于某些人来说，互联网的使用可能会变得强迫和出现问题。本研究旨在将行为经济学框架应用于互联网使用，检验这样一种假设，即与其他成瘾行为类似，问题性互联网使用是一种强化物病理，反映了对即时可获得奖励的过度重视，而不是对亲社会和延迟奖励的重视。数据是通过亚马逊的 Mechanical Turk 数据收集平台收集的。共有 256 名成年人（Mage = 27.87, SD = 4.79；58.2% 是白人，23% 是亚洲人；65.2% 拥有大专或以上学历）完成了这项调查。延迟折扣、未来后果考虑、互联网需求和替代强化的测量都对预测问题性互联网使用和互联网渴望有独特的影响。在控制所有显著预测因子的综合模型中，替代强化和未来评估变量都有独特的影响。需求和折扣较高的个体有最大的问题性互联网使用风险。与物质滥用样本中的行为经济学研究一致，大量使用互联网的个体报告说对目标行为有更高的动机，同时对其他潜在奖励活动的动机降低，尤其是那些与延迟奖励相关的活动。（PsycINFO 数据库记录（c）2018 APA，保留所有权利）。
