Subjektive Rusopplevelser Blant Cafégjester i Oslo

Abstract

The purpose of the article is to explore how a group of Oslo's café customers characterize their experiences with intoxication and other factors that are associated with being intoxicated. Data was collected from self-administered questionnaires filled out by 1 053 customers in 41 public cafés serving alcoholic beverages. The customers were asked in the questionnaire to choose among 38 given words and expressions that would describe their experiences being intoxicated. The most frequently chosen words or expressions were “pleasant” (66 percent), “nice” (66 percent), “fun” (60 percent), and “initiates contact” (42 percent). Female and male customers' choices of words or expressions were similar more often than different. A higher percentage of the younger customers than the older ones described their intoxication experiences in positive terms. A factor analysis showed that the customers' word and expression choices to describe their intoxication experiences could be organized according to 4 separate categories: “psychological distaste”, “moral aversion”, “psychological delight” and “social facilitation”. The older the customers the more negatively they tended to express themselves about their intoxication experiences. A customer's drinking pattern seemed more significant in negative responses than in positive responses. This might indicate that those who tended to describe their intoxication experiences negatively might have a different and heavier drinking pattern than those who described their experiences positively.