The accessibility of motivational tendencies toward alcohol: approach, avoidance, and disinhibited drinking

Problematic drinking has been proposed to result from an overactivation of approach motivation toward the beneficial effects of alcohol and an underactivation of avoidance motivation away from aversive consequences of heavy alcohol use. The authors of the present study used a sequential priming task (R. H. Fazio, J. R. Jackson, B. C. Dunton, & C. J. Williams, 1995) to examine the extent to which alcohol cues automatically activate approach and avoidance motivational tendencies in college drinkers. Hierarchical regression analyses indicate that number of binge episodes and alcohol problems are correlated with weak associations between alcohol cues and avoidance motivation but not with strong associations between alcohol cues and approach motivation. Implications for understanding the self-regulation of alcohol use in college drinkers are discussed.