The Role of Cultural Factors in Differentiating Pathological Gamblers

Abstract

It is recognised that cultural factors play a role in the onset and continuation of several mental health problems. However, there is a significant lack of empirical studies investigating the relationships between cultural factors and gambling behavior. This study assessed whether the subjective cultures through which subjects interpret and enact their experience of the social environment play a major role in increasing (or decreasing) the probability of pathological gambling. Participants, recruited in three different contexts (public health services for the treatment of addiction, casino, undergraduate course) were subjected to the South Oaks Gambling Screen (SOGS) (Lesieur and Blume in Am J Psychiatry 144(9):1184-1188, 1987), in order to identify a group of pathological gamblers-and with the Questionnaire on the Interpretation of the Social Environment (QUISE) (Mossi and Salvatore in Eur J Educ Psychol 4(2):153-169, 2011)-in order to detect their subjective cultures. The study compares pathological group (scoring >5 on SOGS, n = 34) and a healthy control group (scoring <1 on SOGS, n = 35). One-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to compare groups on QUISE scores of subjective culture. Moreover, a logistic regression was applied in order to esteem the capability of the QUISE scores to differentiate between pathological gamblers and control. The results are consistent with the hypothesis that pathological group expresses different subjective cultures compared with no gambler subjects. The theoretical and clinical implications of the results are discussed.

Symbolic universes between present and future of Europe. First results of the map of European societies' cultural milieu

“…The structure of sample 1 meets the criterion of maximum variability ( also defined as optimal allocation) , according to which the sample has to mirror as closely as possible the population’s variability, regardless of the probability associated with states (for a similar procedure see [ 25 , 26 ]; for a discussion, see [ 18 ]). In any population there are patterns of conditions that even if quantitatively marginal, may have an important heuristic value.…”

“…VOC is the revised version of a family of questionnaires aimed at analysing the cultural milieu in terms of latent dimensions of sensemaking. Previous versions of the questionnaire have been used for the last 20 years with the aim of analysing the cultural milieu characterizing specific domains of activity (school: [ 27 , 28 ]; higher education: [ 17 ]; organizations: [ 29 ]; health: [ 30 ]; local community: [ 31 ]; local development: [ 32 , 33 ]; as well as the cultural frame of the representation of social objects -e.g., the profession of psychologist: [ 25 ]; urban mobility: [ 34 ]; risks in the workplace: [ 35 ]; gambling: [ 26 ]. All these analyses were performed in Italy.…”

The identity of Brexit: A cultural psychology analysis

“…Second, the cultural analysis is also aimed at understanding the structure grounding the symbolic universes, namely, the latent, basic, dimensions of sense underpinning them. Indeed, following the SCPT, each dimension of sense consists of the foregrounding of a basic component of experience (e.g., pleasantness and powerfulness; Venuleo, Salvatore, & Mossi, ). Accordingly, latent dimensions of sense are the grounds for psychological life: Each dimension of sense foregrounds one component of the world, in so doing presentifies it as the content of experience (Salvatore, ).…”

The Social Construction of the Pathological Gambler's Identity and Its Relationship With Social Adaptation: Narratives From Members of Italian Gambling Anonymous and Gam-Anon Family Groups

“…), the different theoretical models seem to share two kinds of assumptions (Venuleo, Salvatore, & Mossi, 2015):…”

“…Broader contextual dimensions-cultural models, ideologies, shifting frameworks of knowledge, structures of power (Ratner, 2008;Venuleo et al, 2015)-are just as constitutive of the dialogical nature of the way people think and communicate about problem gambling and the gambler's identity as the here and now of the systems of activities where people experience their life. Social and political processes (e.g., the media, scientists, health and economic policies, social stigma) influence how people make sense of their outer and inner realities and how people come to describe, explain, or otherwise account for the world (including themselves and their behaviours; Muehlenhard & Kimes, 1999).…”