Attributions for smoking behavior: Comparing smokers with nonsmokers and predicting smokers' cigarette consumption

Abstract

A revised version of J. H. Coan's ( Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 1973 , 26, 86–104) Smoking Survey was completed by smokers and nonsmokers in two studies. The Revised Smoking Survey was factor analyzed and discriminant function analysis was used to compare smokers and nonsmokers on the resulting nine smoking motives. Nonsmokers gave significantly more agreement to items on the Revised Smoking Survey comprising the following smoking motives: Sophistication, Health-Nuisance, Addiction, Stimulation, Sensorimotor Pleasure. Smokers gave significantly more agreement than nonsmokers to only one smoking motive: Relaxation. Multiple correlations between smoking motives and selfreported cigarette consumption were .754 (Study 1) and .670 (Study 2). The most important motives predicting cigarette consumption were Addiction and Affective Smoking. Results were related to attributional theories of arousal and to research measuring people's (in)ability to accurately explain their behaviors. It was recommended that cigarette smoking cessation programs should provide smokers with skills for relaxation and for coping with withdrawal.