Anticipatory Motivation for Drinking Alcohol: An In-Vivo Study (original) (raw)

Mood and Implicit Alcohol Expectancy Processes: Predicting Alcohol Consumption in the Laboratory

Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research, 2012

Background: Implicit positive alcohol expectancy (PAE) processes are thought to respond phasically to external and internal stimuli-including mood states-and so they may exert powerful proximal influences over drinking behavior. Although social learning theory contends that mood states activate mood-congruent implicit PAEs, which in turn lead to alcohol use, there is a dearth of experimental research examining this mediation model relative to observable drinking. Moreover, an expectancy theory perspective might suggest that, rather than influencing PAEs directly, mood may moderate the association between PAEs and drinking. To test these models, this study examined the role of mood in the association between implicitly measured PAE processes (i.e., latency to endorse PAEs) and immediate alcohol consumption in the laboratory. Gender differences in these processes also were examined.

Contextual influences on alcohol expectancy processes

Journal of studies on alcohol and drugs, 2007

Objective: Context may differentially influence expectancy dimensions, in turn affecting drinking behavior. The present study examined alcohol cue and mood contextual influences on expectancy activation, controlling for more stable self-reported expectancy endorsement. We were particularly interested in the specific effects of negative mood on affect-relevant (tension reduction) expectancies. Method: Regularly drinking undergraduates (N = 140; 64 female) underwent a mood (stress or neutral) induction procedure and then were presented with alcohol or nonalcohol beverage cues. Participants next completed a computerized expectancy response time task (ETASK), and self-report measures of drinking variables. Results: Individual difference analyses generally replicated previous reports on the inverse relationship between alcohol involvement and ETASK response time. However, examination of contextual effects revealed a different pattern of ETASK

Short‐term changes in plans to drink and importance of positive and negative alcohol consequences

Journal of Adolescence, 2008

Clinicians and prevention scientists who implement indicated interventions seek to intervene in the midst of an ongoing process (Weissberg, Kumpfer, & Seligman, 2003). For example, those working with high risk drinkers encounter individuals who have initiated the behavior (i.e., heavy alcohol use) and who therefore already hold specific motivations and attitudes regarding their behavior and its consequences (Dunn & Goldman, 1998; Schulenberg & Maggs, 2002). These past experiences and present beliefs about alcohol may perpetuate and sustain emerging trajectories of use (Greenbaum, Del Boca, Darkes, Wang, & Goldman, 2005), which in turn have significant implications for adolescent health and development (Hawkins, Catalano, & Miller, 1992). The reciprocal relations between anticipatory cognitions and behavior should be recognized and articulated to fully capture the dynamic feedback of these constructs (Cooper, Frone, Russell, & Mudar, 1995), and their effects on adolescent risk behaviors. Intervention programs that are designed to reduce alcohol use hypothesize about specific mediating constructs, such as alcohol expectancies, but these are often left unmeasured or empirically untested (

Associations between affect and alcohol consumption in adults: an ecological momentary assessment study

The American Journal of Drug and Alcohol Abuse

Background: Consuming alcohol for coping with negative affect (NA) or enhancing positive affect (PA) may lead to risky drinking patterns. Previous research has yielded mixed findings regarding these affective drinking associations. Objectives: To examine support for the self-medication and expectancy models of alcohol use in an adult community sample, by examining reciprocal associations between alcohol consumption and NA and PA within and between persons. Methods: During seven consecutive days, 162 adults from the community (109 female) reported their affective experiences and alcohol consumption, following a signal contingent ecological momentary assessment protocol on their smartphones. Results: Within-person daily NA preceding the first drinking event was associated with increased likelihood of same-day alcohol consumption. Within-person momentary NA was associated with a decrease in the amount of next-moment alcohol consumption. Within-person momentary PA was positively associated with likelihood of next-moment alcohol consumption. Between persons, levels of daily and momentary NA and PA were not associated with any index of alcohol consumption. The intercepts and slopes of NA were not significantly different before and after alcohol consumption. The intercept of PA was higher after alcohol consumption, whereas the slope of PA decreased after alcohol consumption. Conclusion: In the current sample affective drinking was a within-person process (i.e. persons were sensitive to their varying levels of affect). Some support was found for the self-medication and expectancy models. People may drink for coping with NA, but may also be at risk for developing affective drinking patterns in response to PA.

Interactive effects of contextual cues and acute alcohol intoxication on the associations between alcohol expectancy activation and urge to drink

This study examined the joint effects of contextual cues and alcohol intoxication on the associations between activation of positive and negative alcohol expectancies in memory and self-reported urges to drink alcohol after a laboratory alcohol administration. Young adult heavy drinkers were randomly assigned to drink a moderate dose of alcohol or a placebo (alcohol manipulation), and then listened to positive or negative drinking scenarios (cue manipulation). Before and after these manipulations, participants completed an alcohol expectancy Stroop task assessing positive and negative expectancy activation, as well as self-report measures of urges to drink. Regression analyses revealed that the alcohol and cue manipulations had a joint, moderating impact on the associations between expectancy activation and postcue changes in urge to drink. Specifically, both increased activation of negative expectancies and decreased activation of positive expectancies predicted decreases in urges to drink, but only for intoxicated participants in the negative cue condition. There were no associations between expectancy activation and urges to drink for those in the positive cue condition regardless of beverage condition. Results suggest that whether memory activation of alcohol expectancies has an impact on urge to drink after alcohol is on board may depend on the relevance of the activated expectancies to the current drinking context. This process appears to be influenced by a complex interaction between contextual cues in the environment and the pharmacological effects of alcohol.

Habit predicts in-the-moment alcohol consumption

Addictive behaviors, 2015

The objective of this study was to examine whether habit predicts in-the-moment behavioural intention (amount of alcohol poured) and behavioural enactment (amount and proportion of alcohol consumed) controlling for craving and positive alcohol expectancies. Forty-six college students, who defined themselves as social drinkers, were tested individually in a laboratory setting. After completing a measure of craving they were given a bottle of non-alcoholic beer and a cup, asked to pour a drink, and then drink as much as they liked. They were not informed that the beer was non-alcoholic. They were subsequently asked to complete measures of alcohol use and misuse, positive alcohol expectancies and habit. Positive alcohol expectancies were positively and significantly associated with the amount of alcohol poured and the amount and proportion of alcohol consumed. Habit was positively and significantly associated with the amount and proportion of alcohol consumed but not with the amount of...

Ecological momentary assessment of acute alcohol use disorder symptoms: associations with mood, motives, and use on planned drinking days

Experimental and clinical psychopharmacology, 2014

Several theories posit that alcohol is consumed both in relation to one's mood and in relation to different motives for drinking. However, there are mixed findings regarding the role of mood and motives in predicting drinking. Ecological momentary assessment (EMA) methods provide an opportunity to evaluate near real-time changes in mood and motives within individuals to predict alcohol use. In addition, endorsement of criteria of an alcohol use disorder (AUD) may also be sensitive to changes within subjects. The current study used EMA with 74 moderate drinkers who responded to fixed and random mood, motive, alcohol use, and AUD criteria prompts over a 21-day assessment period. A temporal pattern of daytime mood, evening drinking motivation, and nighttime alcohol use and acute AUD symptoms on planned drinking days was modeled to examine how these associations unfold throughout the day. The results suggest considerable heterogeneity in drinking motivation across drinking days. Add...

Dispositional Drinking Motives: Associations With Appraised Alcohol Effects and Alcohol Consumption in an Ecological Momentary Assessment Investigation

Psychological Assessment, 2013

Alcohol use can be understood as a strategic behavior, such that people choose to drink based on the anticipated affective changes produced by drinking relative to those produced by alternative behaviors. This study investigated whether people who report drinking for specific reasons via the Drinking Motives Questionnaire-Revised (DMQ-R; Cooper, 1994) actually experience the alcohol effects they purportedly seek. As a secondary goal, we examined relations between drinking motives and indices of the amount of alcohol consumed. Data were drawn from 3,272 drinking episodes logged by 393 community-recruited drinkers during a 21-day Ecological Momentary Assessment investigation. After accounting for selected covariates, DMQ-R enhancement motives uniquely predicted real-time reports of enhanced drinking pleasure. DMQ-R coping motives were associated with reports of increased drinking-contingent relief and punishment. Enhancement motives uniquely predicted consuming more drinks per episode and higher peak intra-episode estimated blood alcohol concentration. The findings extend the evidence for the validity of the DMQ-R motive scores by demonstrating that internal drinking motives (enhancement and coping) are related to the experienced outcomes of drinking in the manner anticipated by theory.

Regret is What You Get: The Effects of Manipulating Anticipated Affect and Time Perspective on Risky Single-Occasion Drinking

Alcohol and Alcoholism, 1999

This study tested anticipated affect as a potential strategy for reducing risky single-occasion drinking (RSOD). The hypothesis was that asking respondents to focus on their anticipated affect following RSOD would lead to higher ratings of negative affect than those obtained when asking respondents to focus on their feelings towards RSOD. In turn, these negative affect ratings were hypothesized as leading to safer behavioural estimates and reductions in RSOD. The study is based on a self-report questionnaire administered at two time points. At Time 1, measures of past drinking and demographic information were collected, along with affect ratings of drinking within safer single-occasion limits and affect ratings of RSOD (within-subjects condition). Time perspective was manipulated whereby the experimental group was asked to focus on affective reactions after RSOD and the control group to focus on affective reactions towards RSOD (between-subjects condition). Two weeks later, drinking behaviour was measured. The findings showed that the time perspective manipulation resulted in significantly higher negative affect ratings in the feeling after condition than in the feeling towards condition. Further, females reported lower negative affect than males. No other main or interaction effects were found. The time perspective manipulation, however, failed to produce safer behavioural estimates and RSOD reduction at follow-up. No significant differences were found between ratings of negative affect when drinking within safe limits as compared with ratings of affect when drinking above such limits. Despite greater negative affect 'after' rather than 'toward' the target behaviour, anticipated affect following RSOD did not yield safer behavioural estimates and subsequent drinking reduction at follow-up. These findings are interpreted in the context of risk perception associated with RSOD. The implications of this study for design of interventions aimed at reducing RSOD are discussed. In particular, ways of intensifying negative affect for RSOD are considered.