The purpose of this study was to test whether Schachter's theory of obesity, as modified by Herman and his colleagues, could be extended to understand the drinking behavior of alcoholics. Extrapolating from the model proposed by Herman and his colleagues, two propositions were put forth. First, it was predicted that people respond to external cues as a function of their level of arousal. They are predicted to be most external (i.e., hypersensitive to environmental cues, and undersensitive to physiological cues) under conditions of either low or high arousal. Second, it was predicted that restrained persons are consistently more aroused than unrestrained persons. The hypotheses were based upon the above propositions. This study was a 2 x 2 factorial design with arousal (threat of low or moderate shock--no shock was administered) and restraint in drinking (restrained vs. unrestrained drinkers as measured by a questionnaire) as the independent variables. The dependent variables were the scores on the externality tasks (Trailmaking test completed through a mirror and a task of distraction via a random numbers tape while proofreading) and pulse rate. Subjects were 60 male alcoholics currently in inpatient treatment. / The generalizability of the concept of restraint to drinking, in terms of its effects on externality, is tentatively supported by the results. Under conditions of low arousal, restrained drinkers were more external than unrestrained drinkers as predicted. But under conditions of moderate arousal, rather than restrained drinkers being less external than unrestrained drinkers as predicted, they evidenced equivalent degrees of externality. This finding may be due to the only moderate effectiveness of the arousal manipulation. In addition, there was not a significant positive correlation between restraint in drinking and pulse rate as predicted. Also, rather than the predicted curvilinear relationship between externality and pulse rate, the association appears to be linear. As arousal level increased, externality increased. Finally, while the data indicate that the questionnaire used in this study is a reliable and valid measure of restraint in drinking, the data do not support the use of the Reversed Trailmaking Test as a measure of externality. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 42-10, Section: B, page: 4206. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1981.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_74680 |
| Contributors | PHILLIPS, DAVID WAYNE J., Florida State University |
| Source Sets | Florida State University |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text |
| Format | 94 p. |
| Rights | On campus use only. |
| Relation | Dissertation Abstracts International |
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