a Department of Psychology , University of Washington , Seattle , Washington , USA.
b Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center , Seattle , Washington , USA.
Subst Use Misuse. 2019;54(7):1086-1095. doi: 10.1080/10826084.2018.1555259. Epub 2019 Mar 20.
Lay belief systems about the malleability of human attributes have been shown to impact behavior change in multiple domains. Addiction mindset-i.e., beliefs about the permanence (vs. malleability) of addiction - may affect cigarette smokers' ability to quit, but this has never been examined.
The aims of the present research were to develop a measure of addiction mindset (study 1) and examine its associations with various psychological aspects of quitting smoking (study 2).
In Study 1, using factor analysis of current smokers' and nonsmokers' (n = 600) responses to 22 items designed to measure addiction mindset, we developed a reliable six-item Addiction Mindset Scale (AMS). In Study 2, adult smokers (n = 200) completed the AMS, and measures of a number of psychological processes related to smoking.
Higher scores on the AMS, indicative of the belief that addiction is malleable (referred to as a growth mindset), were positively and significantly associated with greater motivation to quit, greater commitment to quitting, greater self-efficacy to abstain, less attribution of failure to lack of ability to change addiction, and fewer self-reported barriers to cessation (all p's < .05).
The results of this study show a relationship between the beliefs about the permanence of addiction and psychological processes relevant to quitting smoking. The findings underscore the potential of future research exploring how addiction mindsets relate to successful smoking cessation as well as other types of addictive behavior and how they can be applied to change people's behavior.
人们对人类属性可塑造性的普遍观念会影响多个领域的行为改变。成瘾心态，即关于成瘾的持久性（而非可塑造性）的信念，可能会影响烟民戒烟的能力，但这一点尚未得到检验。
本研究旨在开发一种成瘾心态的测量工具（研究 1），并考察其与戒烟过程中的各种心理因素的关联（研究 2）。
在研究 1 中，我们对 600 名当前吸烟者和非吸烟者对 22 个旨在衡量成瘾心态的项目的回答进行因子分析，开发了一个可靠的六项目成瘾心态量表（AMS）。在研究 2 中，200 名成年吸烟者完成了 AMS 以及与吸烟相关的多种心理过程的测量。
AMS 得分越高，表明对成瘾可塑造性的信念（即成长心态）越强，与更强的戒烟动机、更大的戒烟决心、更高的戒烟自我效能、较少将失败归因于缺乏改变成瘾的能力以及更少报告戒烟障碍呈正相关（均 p 值<.05）。
这项研究的结果表明，对成瘾持久性的信念与与戒烟相关的心理过程之间存在关联。研究结果强调了未来研究探索成瘾心态与成功戒烟以及其他类型的成瘾行为之间的关系以及如何将其应用于改变人们行为的潜力。
