The present studies attempted to clarify the constructs of self-efficacy and outcome expectancies in relation to college student drinking. In study 1, heavy-drinking college students were asked for efficacy judgments for limiting their heavy-drinking for increasing periods of time (e.g. 1 day, 1 week, 1 month, etc.). Students were also asked for efficacy judgments for throwing a basketball into a hoop from increasing distances (e.g. 5 feet, 10 feet, 15 feet). Hypothetical incentives were offered to change efficacy ratings for the first tasks on each hierarchy (limiting drinking and basketball) to which the participant had responded with a negative efficacy judgments. Hypothetical incentives were also offered for the most difficult task on each hierarchy. As predicted, students changed efficacy ratings for limiting drinking much more frequently. Additionally, heavy-drinking college students indicated that money persuaded them to alter their efficacy judgments for limiting drinking, but lack of ability predominated as the reason for not altering basketball task efficacy. In study 2, the relationship between ability judgments, willingness, and outcome expectancies was explored by manipulating the wording of questionnaires presented to heavy-drinking college students. Results indicated that ability judgments were higher than willingness judgments for limiting drinking. Willingness appeared to be related to expected positive and negative effects of consuming alcohol. Principle components analysis indicated that ability and willingness were distinct constructs. Results of both studies are discussed in terms of the ongoing debate between Albert Bandura and Irving Kirsch and the need for a more clarity regarding efficacy and its measurement. / Master of Science

Objectives:The objective of the present study was to evaluate the reliability and validity of the Psychache Scale in college students considered to be problematic drinkers. Methods:Cross-sectional self-report data from 463 undergraduate students who were likely to be hazardous or harmful drinkers were used to study the internal factor structure, internal consistency, and concurrent validity of the scale. Results:A series of factor analyses revealed that the scale appears to consist of 2 factors, in contrast to the hypothesized unidimensional structure. These 2 factors appear to capture the frequency and severity of the respondents' levels of psychache. Moreover, these 2 factors appear to be a result of the test's construction in that item stems with identical response options loaded on the same factor. The scale was also significantly correlated with other measures of psychological distress including depression, hopelessness, and substance use. Conclusion:The clinical implications of these findings are briefly discussed, with further research being needed to better understand the Psychache Scale's characteristics in substance use and other populations likely to experience psychological pain, and therefore at risk for suicidal behavior.

Personalized normative feedback (PNF) has shown promise as a stand-alone intervention for reducing alcohol use among college students. PNF uses norms clarification to correct drinking norms misperceptions by highlighting discrepancies between personal alcohol use, perceived peer alcohol use, and actual peer alcohol use. Previous reviews of personalized feedback interventions have identified norms clarification as key a component, prompting researchers to study PNF as a single-component intervention for college drinking. As the number of publications focused on PNF effectiveness has increased in recent years, an empirical review of these studies is warranted to assess the potential impact of PNF as a stand-alone program. The purpose of the present study was to summarize available research and to perform a meta-analytic review of personalized normative feedback as a stand-alone intervention for college student drinking. Studies were included if they examined a stand-alone PNF drinking intervention, used a college student sample, reported alcohol use outcomes, and used a pre-post experimental design with follow-up at least 28 days post-intervention. Eight studies (13 interventions) completed between 2004 and 2014 were included. Effect size estimates (ESs) were calculated as the standardized mean difference in change scores between treatment and control groups. Compared to control participants, students who received PNF reported a greater reduction in drinking and harms from baseline to follow-up. Results were similar for both gender-neutral and gender-specific PNF. Overall, intervention effects for drinking were small but reliable. This study offers an empirical summary of stand-alone PNF for reducing college student drinking and provides a foundation for future research.

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The purpose of the current study was to systematically evaluate the effect of individualized, normative feedback on college students' self-reported alcohol consumption and estimated peers' consumption using an ABC multiple baseline across participants design. Due to significant attrition, only four college students completed the study. These students self-reported their alcohol consumption and their peers' estimated alcohol consumption twice per week for an average of 14 weeks using Google Form ® . Participants were sent two feedback emails throughout the study: a control statement praising them for their efforts in the study, and an intervention statement containing normative, albeit arbitrary, feedback. Two participants lowered their estimates of peers' consumption, and to a lesser extent their own consumption, after receiving the control statement, suggesting that any type of feedback, regardless of content, has the potential to influence self-report. However, these conclusions are limited by a small sample size and the lack of control participants.

There has been substantial scientific debate about the impact of alcohol marketing on consumption. Relying mainly on econometric studies, the alcohol industry has traditionally maintained that alcohol marketing does not influence consumption, but is merely limited to brand level effects. Public health advocates, on the other hand, point to consumer-level research that shows a relationship between exposure to marketing and alcohol consumption, especially amongst the young. Recent longitudinal research has firmly established a causal relationship between alcohol marketing and alcohol consumption, giving the upper hand to the public health critics of alcohol marketing. The new consensus forged by these recent cohort studies has led to two separate, but related, debates. In the first instance, having answered the question of whether marketing influences drinking behaviour, there is a need to establish how and when such effects occur. Secondly, in the face of the mounting longitudinal evidence on the effects of marketing, representatives of the alcohol industry have sought to move the debate away from marketing by explicitly highlighting peer influence as a more significant causal factor in problematic youth alcohol consumption. This thesis tackles both of these new questions simultaneously by harnessing insights developed from social norms theory. An online survey (N = 1,071) was administered to undergraduates of the Dublin Institute of Technology in Ireland, and mediation relationships were tested with logistic and multiple linear regression methods as appropriate. Amongst other findings, the main contributions of this thesis are: (1) that marketing may play a key role in establishing perceived social norms around alcohol consumption, and that these perceived norms may act as an indirect pathway for the influence of marketing on behaviour and (2) that the association between alcohol marketing and consumption may increase as levels of engagement with marketing increase; this engagement appears to be at its most potent when marketing facilitates simultaneous interaction between the consumer, the brand and the consumer’s peers in an online social media environment. This thesis helps to move the field of alcohol marketing scholarship beyond questions of whether marketing influences alcohol consumption to how and when that influence occurs. By showing how peers may act as perpetuators and magnifiers of marketing influence it also undermines the argument that peers matter more than marketing, and suggests that peer norms can act as a powerful marketing tool.