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Alcohol outcome expectancies and alcohol use and problems
M D Wood1, K J Sher, A Strathman
1Department of Psychology, University of Missouri-Columbia 65211, USA.
Journal of Studies on Alcohol
|May 1, 1996
Summary
The number of alcohol expectancies an individual can generate may predict alcohol dependence, regardless of their subjective evaluations. This suggests a novel approach to understanding alcohol use patterns.
Area of Science:
- Psychology
- Addiction Research
- Attitude Theory
Background:
- Alcohol outcome expectancies are linked to alcohol use.
- Forced-choice methods may not capture salient alcohol effects, potentially leading to superficial responses.
- Attitude theory suggests elicitation methods influence cognitive vs. affective responses.
Purpose of the Study:
- To examine if attitude theory principles apply to alcohol outcome expectancies.
- To assess the utility of self-generated expectancies and subjective evaluations in predicting alcohol use and problems.
Main Methods:
- College students (N=165) generated alcohol expectancies using sentence stems.
- Expectancies were elicited to be "affectively" and "cognitively" based.
- Subjective evaluations (SE) ratings (positivity, likelihood, immediacy) were collected.
Main Results:
- SE ratings correlated with alcohol use and problems, comparable to standardized expectancy measures for alcohol use.
- The number of generated expectancies uniquely predicted alcohol dependence symptoms beyond SE ratings.
- No support found for a specific aspect of attitude theory's generalizability in this context.
Conclusions:
- The quantity of accessible alcohol expectancies may be an independent correlate of alcohol dependence.
- This highlights the potential importance of the breadth of an individual's alcohol-related cognitions.