- Rewards encourage an activity.
- Punishment discourages an activity.
- Tolerance can build up, making rewards less potent.
You can view rewards, punishment and tolerance as parts of feedback cycles, more components of the complex network of feedback cycles organising human functioning.
Reward cycles
When an activity produces a reward, this tends to increase motivation for the activity.
In this amplifying cycle, a person:
- Increases their performance of an activity, which tends to
- Increase the rewards from the activity, which tends to
- Increase their motivation for the activity, which tends to
- Increase their performance of the activity, and the cycle repeats.
For many gamblers, it is a big win that gives them unrealistic hopes about gambling and hooks them. A big win can be dangerous for someone in need. Winning streaks certainly infatuated client Zed, as discussed above.
Tolerance Cycle
When a person repeats a rewarding activity often enough, the reward’s impact diminishes: tolerance develops.
This pattern occurs in drug use, alcohol dependence, and problem gambling. As tolerance increases, gamblers must risk larger amounts of money to achieve the same level of excitement they once felt with smaller bets. Tolerance is one of nine criteria used in diagnosing problem gambling (DSM-5).
That escalating need for stimulation creates yet another amplifying feedback cycle, where rising tolerance drives riskier behaviour, and riskier behaviour further entrenches the addiction.
In this cycle:
- Increased gambling tends to
- Increase tolerance, which tends to
- Reduce the excitement gained from the same amount of gambling, which tends to
- Increase gambling to achieve the same excitement, and the cycle repeats.
Punishment and Control
When an activity results in negative consequences like punishment, damage, or shocks, those consequences tend to bring control that limits or stops the activity. This is damping feedback or negative feedback.
In this cycle, a person:
- Monitors the damage caused by an activity, and when the damage is excessive, they tend to
- Increase their control over the activity and decrease their use of the activity, which tends to
- Reduce the damage, and then the monitoring continues.
For a gambler, the ”unacceptable damage” can be lost money, time, or relationships. When a gambler hits a limit, like running out of cash, their values determine what constitutes unacceptable damage and whether they circumvent the limit, say by stealing to fund gambling.
These cycles are part of the complex network of feedback cycles organising human functioning.
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