Executive cognitive functioning, alcohol, and aggression: comment on Giancola (2000)

P. R. Giancola (2000) postulated executive cognitive functioning (ECF) as a mechanism to explain the association between alcohol consumption and aggression. Alcohol intoxication disrupts ECF, which heightens the probability of aggression. This is most likely to occur in individuals with low ECF. These propositions are found lacking. The disruption in ECF by alcohol would be greatest among individuals with high ECF, and low-ECF individuals presumably would not experience much further disruption as result of low baseline functioning. These 2 premises appear to be inconsistent. The concept of ECF suffers from the problems associated with hypothetical constructs. Patterns of aggression emerge in young children before the development of cognitive skills associated with ECF, and the association of aggression and low ECF occur as results of environmental risk factors. ECF is neither a necessary nor a sufficient condition to explain aggression following alcohol drinking.