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The adolescent drug problem in America places a huge toll on society and a heavy burden on the criminal justice system. Research regarding the benefits of communitybased therapeutic community treatment for drug-abusing adolescents has generally shown they are effective. Despite their ability to lower drug relapse and reduce criminality in individuals, a great deal remains unknown in terms of how the process of treatment actually works for this young age group. In this study, an attempt was made to apply concepts related to a criminological theory to predict differences in treatment retention and outcomes because empirical studies of drug treatment are mostly atheoretical, even though treatment programming is based on theory. Many of the traits associated with Gottfredson and Hirschi's theory of low self-control are exhibited in adolescent drug users and may present barriers (and/or targets) to effective treatment. Using data collected as part of the Drug Abuse Treatment Outcomes Studies - Adolescents (DATOS-A), a multi-site prospective study of adolescent drug abuse treatment effectiveness, this study examined how characteristics associated with low selfcontrol predict treatment retention and post-treatment crime and drug use. Despite empirical data suggesting that adolescent residential TCs help to reduce drug use, recidivism, and relapse, there is no research that examines whether characteristics associated with low self-control are predictive of positive or negative outcomes from this treatment modality. The primary findings were that motivation for treatment had a significant association with whether or not an adolescent completed treatment and that being male, having family problems and negative peer associations, and the opportunity to use drugs had a significant relationship with post-treatment property crime and post-treatment substance use. With the exception of post-treatment violent crimes, between-program variation influenced individual-level outcomes. Contrary to the hypotheses, pre-treatment levels of impulsivity, self-centeredness, preference for simple tasks, and temper (i.e., low self-control variables) had no relationship with whether or not an adolescent completed treatment, committed property or violent crime, or used alcohol, marijuana, or other drugs in the 12 month post-treatment period. Although these findings do not support the hypotheses, this study begins the process of linking criminological theory to adolescent drug abuse treatment research, addressing the paucity of theory in the empirical study of these programs. / Criminal Justice

Despite widespread alcohol use by college students, the majority of them appear capable of controlling their drinking. The present study sought to develop a measure assessing college students' use of self-regulatory strategies in an effort to control their drinking. Three hundred and ten undergraduates completed questionnaires assessing a variety of alcohol-related behaviors and beliefs, as well as academic performance and strategy use. A fifty-item Drinking Self-Regulation Questionnaire (DSRQ) was developed based on social-cognitive theory, pilot data, and principal components analysis. The measure was composed of three scales (cognitive, behavioral, and environmental strategies), each evidencing good reliability. The DSRQ was negatively correlated with quantity and frequency of drinking, indicating that the more self-regulatory strategies individuals used to control their drinking, the less they drank. The DSRQ also was negatively related to alcohol-related problems, indicating that the more strategies an individual used, the fewer alcohol-related problems he or she experienced. A positive relationship was found between the DSRQ and self-efficacy for avoiding drinking heavily, suggesting that higher self-efficacy was associated with greater strategy use. In multiple regression analyses the DSRQ was shown to contribute to the prediction of drinking beyond a measure of self-efficacy, indicating that it assessed a unique construct which may further our understanding of controlled versus excessive use of alcohol. The present study failed to find a relationship between alcohol use and academic performance. These results suggest that the present study was successful in constructing a questionnaire assessing college students' use of self-regulatory strategies to control their alcohol use. / Master of Science

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Florida State University, 2005. / Advisor: Dr. Roy F. Baumeister, Florida State University, College of Arts and Sciences, Dept. of Psychology. Title and description from dissertation home page (viewed Sept. 22, 2005). Document formatted into pages; contains vi, 44 pages. Includes bibliographical references.

In our everyday lives, we must often weigh the different attributes of items in order to select the item that best fits our current goals, allowing us to make optimal decisions. Construal Level Theory proposes a psychological mechanism for re-weighting attributes, utilizing selective attention as the process by which we implement self-control. It has been hypothesized that switching attention between attributes is facilitated by the suppression of cortical oscillations over posterior brain regions within the alpha (8-12 Hz) frequency range. To test this idea, we re-examined previously collected whole-brain electroencephalography (EEG) data from a dietary choice experiment in which participants made decisions naturally or with a weight loss incentive. Prior analysis found that although hungry subjects primarily relied on taste properties while responding naturally, they increased their behavioral and neural weighting of health when motivated to lose weight. Reanalyzing this data using time-frequency analyses, we compared alpha oscillations related to healthy versus unhealthy foods under natural and self-control conditions. We predicted that when participants exercised self-control we would see suppression of alpha oscillations over occipital sensors starting around 400 ms post-stimulus onset, for trials presenting healthy relative to unhealthy foods; no such suppression should appear during natural responding when ignoring health information. Consistent with our hypothesis, we found a significant decrease in alpha oscillations over occipital sensors between 440 and 800 ms post-stimulus onset for healthy compared to unhealthy items in the self-control condition. No such effect was seen for health information in natural choice, or for taste. Our findings extend previous research by linking alpha band suppression to the neural re-weighting of multiple attributes, suggesting a neuro-cognitive mechanism for self-control that uses selective attention to choose between multiple attributes.

published_or_final_version / abstract / Psychology / Master / Master of Philosophy