Individual differences in subjective response to alcohol have been implicated as a risk factor for the development of alcohol use disorders. There are, however, a variety of ethical, legal, and practical considerations surrounding alcohol administration studies which limit the extent to which this marker can be used to identify those believed to be at greater risk. The current research contains two related laboratory studies with the overall goal of identifying valid and reliable correlates of individual differences in subjective response to alcohol that can be used to discern emerging adults at greater risk for problematic drinking. Study 1 evaluated the associations between the actual subjective experience of a moderate dose of alcohol (BAC .08%) and three domains of potential correlates: anticipated subjective response based on a hypothetical drinking scenario (targeted .08% BAC); response to other physiological and perceptual challenges (e.g., CO₂ challenge, spinning challenge); and indices of cognitive impairment implicated as risk factors for the development of alcohol use disorders. Study 2 examined each of these domains in relation to transitions in heavy drinking from high school to college to determine whether they were associated with changes in relative risk during this developmental period. Overall, the results provide support for the utility of examining individual differences in subjective response to alcohol based on a hypothetical drinking scenario. The evidence suggests that experienced drinkers are capable of reliably and accurately estimating their subjective response to alcohol, that these anticipated effects are distinct from general beliefs about the effects of alcohol on behavior (i.e., alcohol expectancies), and that they are associated with patterns of drinking in emerging adults. There was little evidence to suggest that individual differences in subjective response to alcohol were associated with subjective response to other physiological or perceptual challenges, or patterns of cognitive impairment previously shown to be related to an increased risk for alcohol dependence. The results of the current study support the utility of using measures of anticipated subjective response as a proxy for individual differences in subjective response to alcohol when the administration of alcohol is either not appropriate or feasible. / text

by Li Hau-tak & Ng Man-hung. / Bibliography: leaf 48 / Thesis (M.B.A.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1985

Includes vita. / Title from PDF of title page. / Document formatted into pages; contains 97 pages. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of South Florida, 2003. / Includes bibliographical references. / Text (Electronic thesis) in PDF format. / ABSTRACT: Alcohol expectancy theory suggests that genetically influenced personality characteristics may lead to differential acquisition of expectancy information, and that this information then may serve as one mediational pathway for alcoholism risk. Research has already shown that expectancy information can predict and even mediate risk, but it has yet to be shown that personality traits can influence the acquisition of alcohol expectancy information. To that end, personality characteristics known to be risk factors for the development of excessive alcohol use were assessed in 83 male undergraduates. In addition, each participant studied, in a paired-associate learning/cued-recall test paradigm, a list of word pairs matching alcohol content words (keg, beer), positive/arousing alcohol expectancy words (happy, fun), and neutral words (backpack, desk). / ABSTRACT: Their rate of learning the second word from each pair after being cued with the first word was then assessed across three trials of this task, and overall learning of the pairs was then assessed using free-recall. To determine whether learning rates for each type of word pair was a function of participants' status on the personality risk measures, hierarchical regression analyses were conducted for cued- and free-recall data. Results indicated that higher sensation seeking, more drinking-related problems, and a lesser degree of a family history of alcohol problems were predictive of greater recall for word pairs containing alcohol and expectancy information. Consistent with predictions, these risk indicators were also associated with a higher rate of learning for the alcohol and expectancy pairs. / ABSTRACT: These findings suggest that significant differences exist in the ability to learn alcohol to expectancy word associations, and lend support to recent theories that implicate individual difference factors as a predisposition for the development of problematic alcohol to expectancy associations in memory. / System requirements: World Wide Web browser and PDF reader. / Mode of access: World Wide Web.

Researchers have argued that in times of need having supportive, caring people available can make all the difference between achieving optimum health and well-being or suffering from mental or physical illness (Cobb, 1976; Sarason & Sarason, 1985; Thoits, 1986). The direct-effect model of support postulates that having the knowledge of available relationship resources (i.e., perceived support) and receiving benefits from those relationships (i.e., received support) both have beneficial effects on health behaviors and well-being (Cohen & Wills, 1985). According to the stress-buffering model, when stressors are encountered, the certainty of having available resources, as well as having tangible support resources, is hypothesized to lessen the negative effects of stressors (Cohen, et al., 2000; Cohen &Wills, 1985, Cutrona, 1986; Thoits, 1986). Most of the research that has examined social support effects on drinking-related outcomes has focused on the association between support and alcohol problems, particularly among high risk populations (those who are alcohol dependent, alcohol abusers, or adolescents). Yet, it could be argued that when examining drinking levels, not all consumption is harmful. Of particular concern is drinking that is motivated to reduce negative or stressful experiences. Individuals who use drinking as a method of avoidant coping, or reducing tension drink significantly more alcohol and be at a greater risk for developing later drinking problems (Cooper, Russell, & George, 1988). Research employing daily process methodology has been able to resolve documented methodological inconsistencies (e.g., Greeley & Oei, 1999) by examining the within-person processes between negative experiences and alcohol consumption (Tennen & Affleck, 1996; Tennen, Affleck, Armeli, & Carney, 2000; Mohr et al., 2008). Similarly, these methodologies have been useful to social support researchers in helping to understand social support as a within-person process rather than just an interpersonal event between two individuals. This research was part of a larger study about the influence of alcohol use on daily emotion regulation among 47 moderate-to-heavy drinking adults in the local metropolitan area. Participants carried a personal data assistant (handheld interviewer) for 30 days, responding to surveys three times each day (late afternoon, evening). Each survey probed supportive and negative interpersonal exchanges and drinking behaviors. Prior to the daily diary portion of the study, participants completed the Interpersonal Support Evaluation List, a measure of perceived social support. For purposes of analyses, I examined the extent to which exchanges occurring in an earlier interview predicted subsequent solitary drinking at home using data from 2 of the three interviews (predicting evening and late evening drinking only). My analyses revealed that daily socially supportive exchanges had a significant direct effect on subsequent drinking at home alone. Interestingly, the daily supportive exchanges did not buffer the negative exchanges-later drinking relationship. However, my findings revealed that negative exchanges also resulted in a reduction in subsequent consumption, which contrasts previous studies that used similar methodologies but with heavier drinkers (e.g., Mohr et al., 2001). Further, perceived support was not related to solitary consumption. The results of this study indicate that in healthy adults, positively appraised received support directly reduces solitary consumption. This is an important finding given that received support is difficult to document. At the same time, my results showed that among these types of drinkers, negative exchanges may have a stronger direct effect than positive exchanges on solitary consumption. In non-clinical samples, such as this the relationship between social support and drinking is not straightforward. Thus, using a sophisticated methodology (i.e., daily process methods), this study was able to examine the relationship of drinking and social support on a daily basis; thus, further bridging the gap between social support and the drinking literature.

No description available.

The proposed study examined whether negative urgency and positive urgency are dynamic traits that hold bi-directional relationships with binge and prolonged alcohol use across time. Individuals between the ages of 18-30 were recruited from Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk; n = 179) and university student (n = 66) pools. Participants completed three batteries of self-report assessments approximately 30 days apart, each containing measures assessing negative and positive urgency, as well as drinking frequency and binge behavior during the prior month. Latent variable cross-lagged panel models examined the effects of alcohol use from the previous month on negative and positive urgency while controlling for concurrent and autoregressive effects. Results of the current study indicated that for the full sample, there was not an effect for the influence of binge/prolonged drinking on either negative or positive urgency during the subsequent month. However, when examined separately by sample (Turkers vs. university) and gender (male vs. female), significant effects were found more for individuals who were Turkers, male, and/or heavy drinkers, suggesting that increases in positive and negative urgency at Time 2 could be partially explained by variance in drinking patterns at Time 1 for these individuals. However, these relationships were not replicated again between Time 2 and Time 3 due to a decrease in all drinking behaviors during these times. Lastly, the study found that while urgency scores were related to psychosocial problems and dependence symptoms associated with drinking, there was no evidence to support that urgency scores had substantial relationships to specific frequency and/or bingeing behavior across the overall sample, although positive urgency had support for a relationship with bingeing, particularly among heavily drinking men. Thus, while the primary findings did not indicate any effects for a general sample of young adults, the effects observed among heavy male drinkers in the present study add to a growing body of literature indicating potential for interactive effects among personality, environmental, and sociobiological factors across the trajectory of the human lifespan. Future research that continues to examine urgency and how it relates to alcohol use in longitudinal contexts, utilizing diverse samples, is warranted.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / In order to elucidate the role of classical conditioning in food and alcohol co-consumption, the present study examined: (1) the effects of alcohol odor cues on alcohol and food cravings and attentional bias (bias in selective attention toward either food or alcohol pictures relative to neutral pictures); and (2) the role of alcohol odor cue elicited cravings and attentional biases on subsequent consumption. Participants (n = 77; mean age = 30.84, SD = 9.46; 51.9% female, 83.1% Caucasian) first completed the lab portion of the study. In this portion, they were exposed to alcohol and neutral odorants, after which their food and alcohol cravings and attentional bias were assessed. Participants then received an online survey the next day, on which they reported their level of food and alcohol consumption following the lab portion of the study. Using repeated measures analysis of covariance, alcohol odor cues were differentially effective in increasing food and alcohol attentional bias and cravings (Fs= 0.06 to 2.72, ps= 0.03 to 0.81). Using logistic and multiple regressions, alcohol odor cue elicited alcohol attentional bias, food attentional bias, and food cravings were associated with later alcohol consumption, but not with later food consumption or concurrent consumption (βs = -0.28 to 0.48, ps = 0.02 to 0.99; Exp(B)s = 0.95 to 1.83, ps = 0.33 to 0.91). Overall, alcohol odor cues can become conditioned stimuli that elicit conditioned food-related and alcohol-related responses, both of which persist long enough to motivate later alcohol consumption; however, these conditioned responses might not persist long enough to motivate later food or concurrent consumption. These findings serve as a first step in clarifying the role of classical conditioning in concurrent consumption. In particular, they suggest that additional empirical investigations are needed to: (1) clarify the classical conditioning mechanisms underlying concurrent consumption; and (2) examine whether interventions targeting classical conditioning mechanisms are effective for reducing alcohol use.