| Course | PAC 110 Addiction Theories |
|---|---|
| Module | Module 5 |
| Paper type | Social theory application |
| Length | About 1,072 words, 6 pages |
| Format | APA 7 student paper |
| School | Aspen University |
| Program | Psychology and Addiction Studies |
| Updated | October 2026 |
Free sample paper for PAC 110 Module 5
Same Couch, Same Friends, Same Pills: Social and Environmental Theories of Addiction and a Client Going Home
Student Name
Psychology and Addiction Studies Program, Aspen University
PAC 110: Addiction Theories
Instructor Name
Month Day, Year
Same Couch, Same Friends, Same Pills: Social and Environmental Theories of Addiction and a Client Going Home
Kyle is twenty-seven, a former warehouse worker, and he will finish a twenty-eight-day residential program on Friday. He did well there. He attended every group, his cravings eased and he talks with real hope about staying clean. His discharge plan, as he describes it, is to go back to his apartment, his roommate and his job. His roommate still uses the pills Kyle used. His friends gather on the same couch every evening. His job ended when he entered treatment. Kyle's counselor at Millbrook, where he will continue care as an outpatient, worries that the plan returns him to the conditions that sustained his use. This paper examines those conditions through social and environmental theories of addiction. Kyle is a composite created for teaching; the studies are real.
What Happened When Soldiers Came Home
Robins (1993) reviewed the findings of a study she led of American soldiers returning from Vietnam in the early 1970s. Heroin was cheap, pure and widely available in Vietnam, and a substantial share of enlisted men used it; about one in five reported having been addicted while there. Experts expected that most of these men would remain addicted at home. Instead, when they were followed after their return, only a small minority of those who had been addicted in Vietnam became readdicted, about one in twenty in the first year and about one in eight over three years, even though many used heroin occasionally. Robins argued that the findings challenged the belief that heroin addiction is almost always chronic and relapsing. The change from a stressful war setting, where heroin was everywhere, to a home setting with different relationships, routines and availability appeared to make a decisive difference.
Rat Park
Alexander et al. (1981) asked whether laboratory findings that rats would readily consume morphine reflected the drug or the cage. They compared rats housed alone in small laboratory cages with rats living in a large, enriched colony with other rats, space and things to do, which became known as Rat Park. Rats housed alone consumed much more morphine solution than rats living in the colony. The authors argued that addiction in laboratory animals partly reflected isolation and deprivation, and by extension that human addiction might reflect impoverished and isolating environments. Rat Park has become famous, but its results have been difficult to replicate consistently, and later researchers have found more complex patterns. It is better treated as a provocative finding than as proof.
Drinking Spreads Through Networks
Rosenquist et al. (2010) used data from the Framingham Heart Study, which followed thousands of people in a Massachusetts town for decades and recorded their relationships with friends, family members, spouses and neighbors. They found that drinking behavior clustered in the social network: a person was more likely to drink heavily if friends and relatives drank heavily, and the association extended to friends of friends. Abstention spread in a similar way. Changes in a person's drinking followed changes in the drinking of people connected to them, consistent with social influence, though the authors acknowledged that shared environments and the tendency to choose similar friends could also contribute.
Mapping Kyle's Environment
| Area | Current situation | Risk or support | What could change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Home | Lives with a roommate who uses | High risk | Recovery residence for the first months |
| Friends | Evening gatherings where pills are shared | High risk | Introduce peers in recovery; mutual help meetings |
| Work | Job lost on entering treatment | Risk: idle time, low income | Vocational referral; temporary work |
| Family | Sister nearby who supports recovery | Support | Regular dinners; involve her in planning |
| Neighborhood | Easy access to pills nearby | Risk | Housing in another area if possible |
| Time and structure | Evenings and weekends unstructured | Risk | Scheduled groups, gym, volunteering |
A Discharge Plan Built on the Theories
The theories suggest that Kyle's best chance lies in changing his surroundings, not only his intentions. The first step is housing. A recovery residence, where residents support one another in staying sober, would remove him from daily exposure to pills and place him in a network where abstinence, not use, is the norm, the kind of network effect Rosenquist and colleagues describe. The second is relationships. Mutual help meetings and recovery peers would give him new connections, and his sister, his strongest support, should be part of planning. The third is work and structure. A vocational referral and a schedule for evenings and weekends address the idle time when use was most common.
What Environmental Theories Explain and Miss
Social and environmental theories explain why recovery often fails when people return to the same settings, why it sometimes succeeds when circumstances change and why addiction rates differ across communities. They point toward practical interventions in housing, work and relationships, where social workers are well placed to act. But they do not explain everything. Many people in high-risk environments never develop addiction, and many people recover without moving. Kyle's genetics, his history and his choices also matter. Environmental theories are best used alongside individual ones.
Kyle's Part in the Plan
A plan built only on environmental theory risks treating Kyle as someone to whom things are done. He is an adult who will decide where he lives and whom he sees, and he may resist leaving an apartment he has lived in for four years and a roommate he considers his closest friend. His counselor should present the evidence honestly, explain why the first months after residential treatment carry such high risk and then ask Kyle what he is willing to change. If he will not move, a middle path might be a written agreement with his roommate that no pills will be kept or used in the apartment, daily check-ins during the first month and a standing plan for where he will go if the agreement breaks down. People tend to keep plans they helped write, even imperfect ones, and to drop better plans that were handed to them.
Conclusion
Kyle's discharge plan would return him to the same couch, the same friends and the same pills. Robins shows that a changed environment can make recovery more likely, Alexander and colleagues suggest that isolation and deprivation drive use and Rosenquist and colleagues show that drinking and abstinence spread through relationships. Together these findings argue for a discharge plan that changes where Kyle lives, whom he spends time with and how he fills his days.
References
Alexander, B. K., Beyerstein, B. L., Hadaway, P. F., & Coambs, R. B. (1981). Effect of early and later colony housing on oral ingestion of morphine in rats. Pharmacology Biochemistry and Behavior, 15(4), 571-576. https://doi.org/10.1016/0091-3057(81)90211-2
Robins, L. N. (1993). Vietnam veterans' rapid recovery from heroin addiction: A fluke or normal expectation? Addiction, 88(8), 1041-1054. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1360-0443.1993.tb02123.x
Rosenquist, J. N., Murabito, J., Fowler, J. H., & Christakis, N. A. (2010). The spread of alcohol consumption behavior in a large social network. Annals of Internal Medicine, 152(7), 426-433. https://doi.org/10.7326/0003-4819-152-7-201004060-00007
What the PAC 110 Module 5 instructions ask for
Expect the fifth module of PAC 110 to move attention from the person to the setting: an assignment at this point typically asks how relationships, neighborhoods and conditions shape use and recovery, and what a practitioner can change. Your Module 5 instructions in the Aspen course come first; the client is invented. Present the key evidence for social and environmental theories accurately, including its limits. Apply the theories to a specific person's surroundings. Map the environment systematically. Turn the analysis into concrete steps a social worker could take, and show who else would need to be involved. Cite every study in APA 7, and note where a famous finding has been questioned. Keep the client's own goals in the plan, not only the worker's.
How this PAC 110 Module 5 example is built
Kyle has finished residential treatment and is about to move back in with his roommate, who still uses. Robins's Addiction article on Vietnam veterans shows how a change in environment can coincide with recovery. Alexander and colleagues' Pharmacology Biochemistry and Behavior report on colony housing suggests that isolation and impoverished surroundings drive use, though replications were mixed. Rosenquist and colleagues' Annals of Internal Medicine study shows drinking clustering and spreading in social networks. A six-row table maps Kyle's home, friends, work, family, neighborhood and time. The discharge plan addresses housing, peers, work and structure, and the final sections weigh what environmental theories explain and where they fall short, including Kyle's own part in what happens next.
Reading the PAC 110 Module 5 grading rubric
Application papers are marked on accurate presentation of evidence, on depth of application and on practical recommendations that follow from the theory. This example reports each study's design and finding precisely and notes the controversy around Rat Park rather than repeating it as settled. The environment table makes the application systematic, covering more than the obvious using friends. The discharge plan ties every step to a theory, which shows how theory guides social work practice. The section on limits keeps the analysis balanced by acknowledging that environment does not explain everything, and that Kyle's own choices and biology still matter in what happens next. It also notes who would carry out each step.
PAC 110 Module 5 help: mistakes that cost marks
Students often cite the Vietnam study or Rat Park as proof that environment alone causes addiction. Report what each study found and its limits, including the mixed replications of Rat Park and the special circumstances of soldiers in Vietnam. Another weakness is stopping at analysis without a plan. Map the client's environment in detail rather than mentioning only drug-using friends. Make recommendations specific: where the client will live, who he will see, what he will do with his evenings. Include resources such as recovery housing and mutual help groups. Finally, say what environmental theories cannot explain, and avoid blaming communities for individual outcomes. Ask the client which changes he is willing to make.
Write yours, or have the desk draft it
This paper is an original model document written by our desk, not a submitted student paper and not an official Aspen University document. Read it for the moves, then write your own to the instructions in your classroom. If you want one built to your exact prompt and rubric, the first custom sample is free and arrives in 24 to 48 hours.
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PAC 110 Module 5 questions, answered
What does PAC 110 Module 5 usually ask for?
Aspen's PAC 110 covers social and environmental theories in this module, so applying them to a client's surroundings and proposing changes is typical. Look at your Module 5 prompt.
What did the Vietnam heroin study find?
Robins found that most soldiers who had been addicted to heroin in Vietnam did not become readdicted after returning home, suggesting that environment strongly shapes addiction.
What was Rat Park?
An experiment by Alexander and colleagues in which rats housed in a large, social colony drank much less morphine solution than rats kept alone; later replications were mixed.
Where can I find a free PAC 110 Module 5 sample paper?
You can read it on this page: social and environmental theories applied to a client going home after residential treatment, with an environment map.
Does drinking spread through friendships?
Rosenquist and colleagues found that people were more likely to drink heavily when people connected to them did, with effects reaching friends of friends.