Abstract
In a recent edition of the journal Addiction, Kardefelt-Winther et al. [1] drew attention to the conceptualization and assessment of behavioural addiction and argued that it may lead to pathologizing of common activities. One such example provided by the authors was work addiction. Consequently, readers might have been left with the impression that work addiction is a newly developed concept. However, this is not the case.
Highlights
In a recent edition of the journal Addiction, Kardefelt-Winther et al [1] drew attention to the conceptualization and assessment of behavioural addiction and argued that it may lead to pathologizing of common activities
There has been a relatively long period of a personcentred approach to research, from the initial recognition of a potential disorder comprising case studies and qualitative studies. These studies explored the phenomenology of the work addiction, identifying its aetiology and course [3,5] and proposed theories based on family dysfunction and personality predispositions, as well as models based on learning theory, cognitive theories, and addiction theory [5,6,7]
Assessment instruments have been developed and evaluated in terms of their psychometric properties [4,5,6,7,8]. This has led to scales [9] being developed based on common addiction components [10] resulting in a slowly emerging consensus defining work addiction as a behavioural addiction rather than a form of positive high engagement [4,5,6,7,11,12]
Summary
In a recent edition of the journal Addiction, Kardefelt-Winther et al [1] drew attention to the conceptualization and assessment of behavioural addiction and argued that it may lead to pathologizing of common activities. *Corresponding author: Mark D Griffiths, Distinguished Professor of Behavioural Addiction, Psychology Department, Nottingham Trent University, 50 Shakespeare Street, Nottingham, NG1 4FQ, UK, Email: Opinion Work addiction is not a recently identified problem.
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