Chronic Pursuit of Instant Gratification
First, CPIG (as opposed to delayed gratification) can have adverse psychological implications, especially concerning self-control (Galatians 5:22-23, Proverbs 25:28). Habits related to CPIG are driven by dopamine responses, which influence how irascible a task may feel to complete. Dopamine is a critical factor in motivation and arousal.[3] “Midbrain dopamine neurons are well known for their strong responses to rewards and their critical role in positive motivation. It has become increasingly clear, however, that dopamine neurons also transmit signals related to salient but non-rewarding experiences such as aversive and alerting events.”[4] Consequently, as the brain adapts to the growing awareness and responsibility proper to adolescence, it is no mystery how consistent adverse and anomalous situations can create developmental concerns. Abuse of adolescents or chronic unpredicted stress in adolescents can inspire addictive patterns (CPIG seeks to answer a desire it cannot answer) by altering “brain serotonin (5HT) and dopamine (DA) function”.[5] This can affect and even regress natural (and therefore healthy) brain development. Addictions are extreme but principal cases of CPIG applied to a particular good at the expense of delayed, or perhaps better yet, properly ordered and moderate gratification.[6] CPIG is not a pathology in itself but rather a behavior that leads to pathological conditions. It is characterized by habitual, maladaptive, and narrow-minded decision-making, similar to the patterns seen in behavioral disorders like pathological overeating.[7] As with murder, rape, intemperate drug use, etc., we must recognize some behavior's most significant consequences can be objectively negative according to most anthropological frameworks, including natural law. For CPIG, negative trends persist independent of commonality in society or cultural context, and in this case, is a consistent course of action that often leads to or is itself a determining factor in conditions as mentioned above. Notably, chemical addictions alter brain architecture (structure and circuitry).[8] As with any change, positivity (adaptive) or negativity (maladaptive) is determined by comparison to a standard, if not only the goodness of the pre-altered state. Behavioral and chemical addictions have similar effects to the point similar phenomena are observable concerning said neurological circuitry.[9] Therefore, CPIG (which is a key component in behavioral addiction) has powerful potential to alter brain architecture (structure and circuitry). Adolescents are especially susceptible to changes in brain structure due to the significant, lasting developmental transformations occurring during this critical stage of their lives.[10] There is a trend of declining marginal utility of dopamine response due to successive surge-crash episodes.[11] It is widely recognized that mental health is facing historically negative trends, with various environmental and genetic influences, however, these surge-crash episodes followed by withdrawal can be a significant component of these trends. As evident from the effects of surge-crash dopaminergic tendency and the dopaminergic system’s role in positive action, CPIG can make a person pusillanimous (“very small-minded”). This can reduce one’s sense of purpose to the pursuit of dopamine release, rather than suspending dopamine release for activities that may not initially seem rewarding, only to later discover their value (1 Kings 10:26-11:13, cf. Deuteronomy 17:14-20). If a person is prevented from feeling pleasure or satisfaction, part of their positive mood is put on hold until the next opportunity to trigger dopamine release.[12] This leads to viewing true virtue as, at best, unrewarding rather than as an opportunity to express love, share joy, and strive for greatness. Addiction, as described by addicts, creates a recurring cycle of regret due to its costs—financial, physical, and relational—which could be alleviated by delayed gratification. Instead, CPIG fuels a negative feedback loop of seeking pleasure, feeling guilt, escaping, experiencing desensitization or anhedonia, and then repeating the cycle.[13] Depression and anxiety are natural emotional responses to this seemingly unbreakable pattern. Adolescents are particularly vulnerable to both CPIG and its negative mental health effects on three accounts: they are susceptible to mental illness, the dopaminergic circuitry is in a plastic state, and they are not independent (where long-term behavioral effects are not in their foresight).[14] Irascible processes constitute at least a delayed gratification if not also an obstacle or trial constituting difficulty in the willing of good and avoidance of evil.[15] Failure to perceive meaning in tasks due to CPIG can deregulate the direction of attention and even emotional regulation.[16] Modern technology is designed to be addictive, i.e. utilize our CPIG, this is especially true concerning social media platforms of growing popularity.[17] When a person exhibits CPIG, the management and direction of willpower can become increasingly difficult and work against self-control, especially in adolescents.[18] This is true to the point that the brain can redefine what is and is not a threat to survival (and what constitutes life and what constitutes death by association), and it associates CPIG with survival.[19] Concluding from prior statements and research cited above, addictive behavior is particularly strong if formed during adolescence, after which the dopamine and serotonin systems become less plastic.
Second, having affected our decision-making psychology, CPIG also has negative effects on the formation of our moral philosophy. As we grow, we are expected to be equipped with both long and short-term decision-making skills.[20] As we gain more freedom, the trajectory of our lives increasingly hinges on our own decision-making abilities.[21] Therefore, the most critical growth in decision-making skills should occur during our adolescence, when we are developing this newfound freedom. Educating individuals to engage in careful consideration, cultivate virtue, and prioritize the greater good over mere feelings of immediate contentment is essential for both personal development and the well-being of society.[22] A healthy dopaminergic system would make this process less uncomfortable. This approach fosters a more reflective and responsible mindset, steering away from impulsive habits.[23] The greatest two commandments, although assisted by feelings of affection and desire for unity, are not only defined by affection and desire for unity. Rather, the two greatest commandments are defined by the act of choosing (taking action) towards the good of others in a fashion before oneself (John 15:13). In intimate, heart-to-heart relationships with God and neighbor, we are called to give ourselves totally, and when breach of communion is felt, agony and heartbreak take the place of affection and desire for unity (Ephesians 4:29; Mark 15:34; John 17:11; John 13:34-35; Galatians 6:2; Ephesians 5:21; 1 Peter 1:22-23; Proverbs 18:21; John 15:13).[24] Empathy plays a crucial role in compassion, as it calls us to set aside our own needs or happiness to bring comfort to those who are suffering and love to those who feel unloved. This self-sacrifice is most challenging when it comes to forgiveness and is a constant requirement in our vocational, spiritual, and moral lives.[25] Commitment to love, regardless of circumstance as required by intimate heart-to-heart relationships like marriage and discipleship, requires that one “takes up [their] cross daily” (Matthew 16:24-26). It is well known that marriage rates have descended, even in the Catholic Church.[26] CPIG could play a significant role, though often latent or elusive, in undermining relationships. In this case, the perceived worth of others, or even a commitment to them, would be subordinated to self-interest and is reduced to the same level as other personal goods. This dynamic is particularly evident in the context of divorce, even when the breakdown of the marriage cannot be traced to a single cause.[27] I hypothesize that narcissism (including narcissistic personality disorder) and other personality distortions largely stem from an unhealthy avoidance of difficulty and pain, whether anticipated or previously experienced. Addressing this avoidance is key to restoring the proper functioning of the dopaminergic system, and more broadly, the entire endocrine system.[28] Theologically, the aforementioned pain is understood as love withheld, withdrawn, or maligned, all of which present a dissociative, survivalist narrative to our unconscious. The reduction of persons to things both results from and further spreads the tendency to choose what is gratifying over what is truly good, and therefore undermines healthy moral reasoning.[29] Lacking ambition or the habit of pursuing long-term goals, a person with CPIG develops a pattern of shortsightedness, disregarding the relevance of consequences and implications in their decision-making and thought process respectively, even to the point of acedia.[30] The contemporary culture struggles with this in three principal ways: abortion, pornography, and tribalism. Emergency or emotionally-based decisions are themselves a sort of instant gratification whether good or not, here an important consideration is that the presence of trauma or grief can alter the goodness of long-term decisions even for oneself.[31] The challenges of CPIG can be particularly disadvantageous in these situations, inclining a person to act selfishly by choosing apparent goods that may not be actual options—such as seeking to “undo” a pregnancy—or pursuing unrealistic solutions, like turning to alcohol (a depressant) to cope with emotional issues. To carry out genuinely good moral acts, a certain level of detachment from either choice is necessary, as it ensures a proper hierarchy of values, guiding us to prioritize higher goods—such as choosing life and a relationship with God—over lesser goods like pleasure, thereby preventing moral disorder.[32] The need to make a decision should be anticipated, and if there is uncertainty about the nature of the choices, it is important to find ways to develop a deeper understanding of the options. Seeking professional guidance or an alternative perspective can be particularly helpful in clarifying the options and ensuring the decision is morally sound (Romans 5:3-5, Proverbs 16:32).[33] Ultimately, this point can be understood in terms of the cardinal virtues of fortitude (especially in the form of diligence), prudence, justice, and temperance. Each of prudence, justice, and temperance have an irascible quality, and fortitude is defined by the choice of the irascible (and not always personal) good (Hebrews 12:11)[34] Although CPIG is certainly a cultural trend, the Church and the Bible denounce CPIG for interdependent and mutually inclusive reasons concerning our moral formation and spiritual health.
In conclusion, CPIG, being itself a predisposition (partial efficient cause) to addiction and the formal cause of addiction, can lead to pathology. Adolescents, in first-world countries today, are forming their neurological and psychological systems of discipline in a society that functions as if CPIG is an expected motivator, even to the point that individuals are discouraged from reliably holding moral values. Instead of being enslaved by one’s fickle, fleeting, and under-informed momentary desires, the Catholic Church teaches its faithful to be guided by love, comparably simple to CPIG, sometimes demanding, always fulfilling, and never myopic. Educating our youth in moral theology can help their dopaminergic systems to assist them in forming virtue and pursuing objective truth, strengthening the bond between people and their pursuit of excellence. Every task we choose is influenced by the dopaminergic system, and if one is properly formed in virtue, then irascible goods become more easily chosen. In contrast, CPIG causes a person to prioritize irrational drives over rational thought. First-world countries’ rampant tribalism, the breakdown of families, widespread drug and alcohol abuse, the $97-billion-a-year-and-growing porn industry, and even the decline of logical reasoning could be profoundly mitigated if we were trained to pursue higher goods - effectively making us immune to CPIG- rather than chasing the next fleeting comfort or distraction. “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal; but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Matthew 6:19-21).
It remains for the holy people to struggle, with grace from on high, to obtain the good things God promises. In order to possess and contemplate God, Christ's faithful mortify their cravings and, with the grace of God, prevail over the seductions of pleasure and power.[35]
[1] Tony
Anatrella, “The world of youth today: who are they and what do they seek?”
World Youth Day: From Toronto to Cologne (Rome: 13 April 2003), 1.
[2] Courtney
E. Ackerman, “What Is Instant Gratification? (Definition & Examples),” at
Positive Psychology, at https://positivepsychology.com.
[3] William
R. Stauffer, Armin Lak, and Wolfram Schultz, "Dopamine Reward Prediction
Error Responses Reflect Marginal Utility," Current Biology 24, no.
21 (2014): 2491-2500.
[4] Ethan S.
Bromberg-Martin, Masayuki Matsumoto, and Okihide Hikosaka, "Dopamine in
Motivational Control: Rewarding, Aversive, and Alerting," Neuron
68, no. 5 (December 9, 2010): 815.
[5] Alison
G. P. Wakeford et al., "Alterations in Adolescent Brain Serotonin (5HT)1A,
5HT2A, and Dopamine (D)2 Receptor Systems in a Nonhuman Primate Model of Early
Life Adversity," Neuropsychopharmacology 49, no. 8 (2024): 1227-1235.;
Chao Wu et al., "Adolescent Chronic Unpredictable Stress Causes a Bias in
Goal-Directed Behavior and Distinctively Changes the Expression of NMDA and
Dopamine Receptors in the Dorsomedial and Dorsolateral Striatum in Male
Rats," Developmental Psychobiology 64, no. 2 (2022).
[6] Rashed
Harun, "A Framework for Characterizing Regional Alterations in Dopamine
Neurotransmission in the Context of Drugs and Disease Using Fast-Scan Cyclic
Voltammetry" (PhD diss., University of Pittsburgh, 2015), iv.
[7] Catherine
F. Moore, Valentina Sabino, George F. Koob, and Pietro Cottone,
"Pathological Overeating: Emerging Evidence for a Compulsivity
Construct," Neuropsychopharmacology 42, no. 6 (2017), 1375.; Trevor
W. Robbins, Paula Banca, and David Belin, "From Compulsivity to
Compulsion: The Neural Basis of Compulsive Disorders," Nature Reviews
Neuroscience 25, no. 5 (2024), 313.
[8] Tabitha
M. Powledge, "Addiction and the Brain: The Dopamine Pathway Is Helping
Researchers Find Their Way Through the Addiction Maze," BioScience
49, no. 7 (July 1999): 513.; Niklaus Denier et al., "Association of
Frontal Gray Matter Volume and Cerebral Perfusion in Heroin Addiction: A
Multimodal Neuroimaging Study," Frontiers in Psychiatry 4 (October
21, 2013): article 135.; Jie Zhu et al., "[Structural Plasticity
Associated with Drugs Addiction]," Sheng Li Ke Xue Jin Zhan [Progress in
Psychology] 42, no. 6 (December 2011): 413
[9] Rubén de
Alarcón et al., "Online Porn Addiction: What We Know and What We Don’t—A
Systematic Review," Journal of Clinical Medicine 8, no. 1 (January
2019): 91.; Carol Vidal and Dar Meshi, "Behavioral Addictive Disorders in
Children and Adolescents," Journal of the American Academy of Child and
Adolescent Psychiatry 62, no. 5 (May 2023): 512.; Karen M. von Deneen et
al., "Comparison of Frontostriatal Circuits in Adolescent Nicotine
Addiction and Internet Gaming Disorder," Journal of Behavioral
Addictions 11, no. 1 (January 19, 2022): 26.; Byeongsu Park, Doug Hyun Han,
and Sungwon Roh, "Neurobiological Findings Related to Internet Use
Disorders," Psychiatry and Clinical Neurosciences 71, no. 7 (July 2017):
467.
[10] Jessica
M. Black, Adolescent Brain Development (The
Campaign for Youth Justice, 2016).
[11] Stauffer,
Lak, and Schultz, "Dopamine Reward Prediction Error Responses," 2491-2500.;
Harun, "A Framework for Characterizing Regional Alterations in Dopamine
Neurotransmission in the Context of Drugs and Disease Using Fast-Scan Cyclic
Voltammetry", 111-113.
[12] Tanya
Sippy and Nicolas X. Tritsch, "Unraveling the Dynamics of Dopamine Release
and Its Actions on Target Cells," Trends in Neurosciences 46, no. 3
(March 2023), 228.
[13] Yue
Zhao et al., "Network Analysis of Internet Addiction and Depression Among
Chinese College Students During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Longitudinal
Study," Computers in Human Behavior 138 (January 2023): 107424.
[14] Pernille
Bülow, "The Vulnerability and Strength of the Adolescent Brain," Journal
of Science, Humanities and Arts 9, no. 5 (2022): 1-12.; Ashley M. Kopec et
al., "Microglial Dopamine Receptor Elimination Defines Sex-Specific
Nucleus Accumbens Development and Social Behavior in Adolescent Rats," Nature
Communications 9 (2018): 3769.; Menglu Yuan and Frances M. Leslie,
"Nicotine and Fluoxetine Alter Adolescent Dopamine-Mediated Behaviors via
5-HT1A Receptor Activation," Frontiers in Psychiatry 15 (2024):
1380123.; Kenneth Blum et al., "Exploration of Epigenetic State
Hyperdopaminergia (Surfeit) and Genetic Trait Hypodopaminergia (Deficit) During
Adolescent Brain Development," Current Psychopharmacology 10
(2021): 10.2174/2211556010666210215155509.
[15] Thomas
Aquinas, Summa theologiae, I, q. 81, at New Advent, www.newadvent.org.
[16] Daniel
Augusto Utsumi, Mônica Carolina Miranda, and Mauro Muszkat, "Temporal
Discounting and Emotional Self-Regulation in Children with
Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder," Psychiatry Research 246
(December 30, 2016): 730.
[17] Emmie
Hajat, "Impact of Social Media Usage on Body Image Perception among
Adolescents in Malawi," American Journal of Arts, Social and Humanity
Studies 4, no. 1 (2024): 11-14.; Jiaqi Liu et al., "Addictive Incentive
Mechanism in Crowdsensing From the Perspective of Behavioral Economics,"
IEEE Transactions on Parallel and Distributed Systems 33, no. 5 (May 2022):
1109.; Michael D. Slater, "Reinforcing Spirals: The Mutual Influence of
Media Selectivity and Media Effects and Their Impact on Individual Behavior and
Social Identity," Communication Theory 17, no. 3 (August 2007): 281.
[18] Black, Adolescent
Brain Development, 2.
[19] Bromberg-Martin,
Matsumoto, and Hikosaka, "Dopamine in Motivational Control: Rewarding,
Aversive, and Alerting," 815.
[20] Catechism
of the Catholic Church, 2nd ed. (Washington, DC: United States Catholic
Conference, 2000), 2217, 2221,2223.
[21] CCC,
2230, 2232.
[22] CCC,
1803-1876, 1905-1912.
[23] CCC,
2031.
[24] Second
Vatican Council, Dogmatic Constitution on the Church in the Modern World Gaudium
et spes (7 December 1965), §24.; John Paul II, Encyclical Letter on the
Jesus Christ the Redeemer of Man Redemptoris hominis (4 March 1979),
§10.
[25] John
Paul II, Apostolic Exhortation on the Role of the Christian Family Familiaris
consortio (22 November 1981), §34.; Qianbao Tan et al., "Warmer
Individuals Get More Help: The Influence of Stereotypes and Empathy on Moral
Decision-Making," Psychological Reports 0, no. 0 (2023), 1.
[26] Gabrielle
Juteau, Marriage Rate in the U.S.: Geographic Variation, 2021, Family
Profile No. 25, 2022 (Bowling Green, OH: National Center for Family &
Marriage Research, 2022),
[27] Shelby
B. Scott et al., "Reasons for Divorce and Recollections of Premarital
Intervention: Implications for Improving Relationship Education," Couple
and Family Psychology: Research and Practice 2, no. 2 (2013), 132.
[28] Arthur
Charles O'Neil, "Sin," in The Catholic Encyclopedia, vol. 14
(New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1912).
[29] CCC,
1803.
[30] CCC,1806,
1808, 2733, 2094.
[31] John
Paul II, Encyclical Letter on the Foundational Truths of Catholic Moral
Teaching Veritatis splendor (6 August 1993), §65.
[32] Cf. CCC,
1849.
[33] John
Paul II, Veritatis splendor, §65.
[34] CCC,
1800-1809.
[35] CCC,
2549.
