Effects Of Alcohol Expectancies Research Articles

The effects of alcohol expectancies on drinking behaviour in peer groups: observations in a naturalistic setting

To study the functionality of alcohol expectancies in predicting drinking behaviour in existing peer groups of young adults in a 'naturalistic' setting. Young adults were invited to join an experiment with their peer group in a bar annex laboratory. During a 'break' of 50 minutes in this experiment, their activities, social behaviour and drinking behaviour were observed with digital video and audio equipment. Twenty-eight peer groups were involved in this study. A peer group consisted of seven to nine people, with relationships ranging from intimate relations and close friendships to being acquaintances. A total of 238 participants were involved. Measurements Information of the drinking behaviour from observations and questionnaire data on alcohol expectancies provide the opportunity to look at how and which expectancies are related to actual drinking patterns. Multiple regression and multi-level analyses were applied. Expectancies on the positive and arousing effects of alcohol consumption were related to alcohol consumption in a naturalistic, social drinking situation, in addition to group effects of drinking. Expectancies on the negative and sedative effects of drinking, however, were not related to drinking. The findings indicate that among young adults observed in a peer group and naturalistic drinking setting, positive expectancies about the effects of alcohol and expectancies about the effects of alcohol on arousal are related positively to drinking level.

Reactivity to conspicuousness and alcohol use among college students: The moderating effect of alcohol expectancies

The analysis of self-report data from 147 college undergraduates suggested that alcohol expectancies moderate the effect of a dispositional susceptibility to embarrassment elicited by undesired conspicuousness [center-of-attention-induced embarrassability (CAE)] on drinking behavior. Individuals unlikely to experience embarrassment when they engage in behaviors that make them stand out in a crowd, a common occurrence when one drinks to excess, drank heavily if they expected alcohol to make them more assertive socially. Students with similar beliefs about the effects of alcohol on social interaction who were high in CAE consumed substantially less alcohol than the latter individuals. Their overall levels of drinking were more comparable to those of the low-expectancy participants, suggesting that the disdain for conspicuousness characteristic of people with a susceptibility to CAE may counteract the desire for social disinhibition that often motivates alcohol consumption.

The Importance of Peers in Alcohol Use Among Latino Adolescents: The Role of Alcohol Expectancies and Acculturation

The present study examined the potentially mediating effect of alcohol expectancies and moderating effect of acculturation on the relationship between peer alcohol use and Latino adolescent alcohol use. Participants were 115 adolescents recruited through alternative schools, community events, a community psychologist, and Latino groups at a midwestern university. Questionnaires in this study assessed adolescents' perceptions about both their own and their peers' alcohol use in addition to their expectancies about the effects of alcohol, and their level of acculturation. Demographic characteristics of the sample were also assessed in order to control for their possible effects (e.g., age, gender). Results from the present study indicated that a higher level of peer alcohol use was associated with a higher level of adolescent alcohol use. Additionally, adolescents' expectancies about the effect of alcohol on their social behavior mediated the relationship between peer alcohol use and adolescent alcohol use. Results support previous research suggesting the importance of peers as role models for Latino adolescent alcohol use. Acculturation did not moderate the relationship between peer and adolescent alcohol use. The present study adds understanding as to how Latino adolescents' beliefs regarding alcohol use may influence the relationship between peer alcohol use and adolescent alcohol use.

Social anxiety and alcohol use: evaluation of the moderating and mediating effects of alcohol expectancies

Previous work suggests that social anxiety is inconsistently related to alcohol use. To further explore this relationship, alcohol outcome expectancies were evaluated as potential moderator and mediators in a large sample ( N=284) of college undergraduates. The expectancy variables included positive and negative alcohol outcome expectancies as well as expectancies specific to social facilitation. Consistent with a self-presentation model of shyness, social anxiety was related to decreased drinking. Interestingly, social anxiety was associated with increased positive as well as increased negative expectancies. There was not support for moderator or mediator effects. Consistent with prior work, social facilitation expectancies appear to operate as a suppressor variable in the relationship between social anxiety and alcohol use.

Effects of Alcohol on Anxiety-Relevant Cognitions in Individuals with Social Phobia

There is substantial evidence that alcohol can attenuate anxiety responding under some circumstances; however, the mechanisms supporting this effect remain a matter of speculation. One possibility involves the effect of alcohol on the salience of cognitions that either promote or inhibit anxiety in response to anxiety-related cues. We tested this view from a phenomenological perspective by asking individuals with social phobia to record up to 6 thoughts they experienced during 2 public speaking challenges, 1 before and 1 after consuming either an alcoholic, placebo or control beverage. After assigning the thoughts listed by participants to rationally based categories, we found that the pharmacological and expectancy effects of alcohol, in combination, were associated with an increase in positive thoughts and a decrease in negative thoughts experienced while speaking. Subsequent analyses showed that the impact of alcohol on subjective anxiety was substantially mediated by these changes in cognitions. These findings shed light on why social phobia and alcoholism frequently co-occur.

The pharmacologic and expectancy effects of alcohol on social anxiety in individuals with social phobia

Individuals with social phobia are at an increased risk for alcohol problems. Individuals with social phobia could increase their risk for pathological alcohol use if they drink as a means of coping with anxiety-provoking social situations. Providing a circumscribed test of this view, we evaluate the effect of alcohol on the intensity of social phobia anxiety responses. Sixty-one individuals with social phobia gave two speech challenges in front of a group (‘social anxiety challenge’), one occurring before and one after they consumed either: (a) an alcoholic drink they were told contained alcohol (‘alcohol group’), (b) a non-alcoholic drink they were told contained alcohol (‘placebo group’), or, (c) a non-alcoholic drink they were told contained no alcohol (‘control group’). Both the alcohol group and the placebo group showed greater reduction in performance anxiety from the first to the second speech challenge than did the control group. Further, there was a strong trend in the data for the alcohol group to show greater reduction in performance anxiety from the first to the second speech challenge than did the placebo group. We concluded from these findings that the pharmacologic effects of alcohol and the belief that one consumed alcohol decrease social performance anxiety in an additive fashion. These results provide direct support for the negatively reinforcing properties of alcohol and are consistent with the view that symptom reduction may motivate alcohol use among socially phobic individuals.

Gender and Context Differences in Alcohol Expectancies

In 2 studies, the authors investigated gender and context effects of alcohol expectancies among U.S. college students. In Study 1, they examined the responses of 771 women and 493 men to the Sexual Enhancement (SE) subscale and the Relaxation and Tension Reduction (TR) subscale of the Alcohol Expectancy Questionnaire (S. A. Brown, B. A. Christiansen, & M. S. Goldman, 1987). They found no gender differences when they controlled for drinking quantity. When they controlled for drinking frequency, the men scored significantly higher on the TR subscale than the women did. In Study 2, also among U.S. college students, 41 women and 21 men first imagined that they were on blind dates or in long-term relationships and then completed the SE and TR subscales. On the SE subscale, the women scored higher in the relationship context than in the blind-date context, whereas the men did not vary between contexts. All the participants also reported more tension-reduction expectancies in the relationship context than in the blind-date context.

Changes over one semester in drinking game playing and alcohol use and problems in a college student sample

One‐hundred ninety‐five alcohol‐using college students completed a questionnaire in early September, at the beginning of the fall semester, then completed a follow‐up questionnaire in mid‐November, near the end of the semester. The questionnaires included items on levels of alcohol use, the Eysenck I.7 measure of impulsiveness and venturesomeness, alcohol expectancies, perceived norms for alcohol use, reasons for drinking, and aspects of drinking game playing. As predicted, those students who were 18 years of age and younger, nearly all of them 1st‐year students, significantly increased their levels of alcohol use during their first semester in college. While increases in reasons for drinking were significantly predictive of increased alcohol use and problems in first‐year and older students, increases in expectancies of alcohol effects and in frequencies of drinking game playing were significantly predictive of increases in alcohol use and problems only for first‐year students. The present results provide further evidence of the importance of drinking games in the socialization of college students into problematic alcohol use.

Change in alcohol effect and self‐efficacy expectancies during addiction treatment

Alcohol effect expectancies and situational self‐efficacy are important factors in addiction relapse. The extent to which these cognitive factors change during alcohol treatment and the relations between change in these two domains may facilitate our understanding of the transition out of addictive lifestyles. To evaluate such change, 101 male and female participants in an abstinence focused inpatient alcohol and drug treatment program completed measures of alcohol effect expectancies (AEQ) and self‐efficacy (SCQ) during the first and fourth (final) week of inpatient treatment. Analyses confirmed our predictions that alcohol effect expectancies and self‐efficacy were inversely correlated at the beginning of treatment, and that both alcohol expectancies and self‐efficacy changed significantly during the four‐week treatment program. Larger decreases in alcohol effect expectancies were evident for individuals who entered treatment with less confidence in their ability to resist drinking compared to those with more confidence in potential drinking situations. Results suggest that both expectancies and self‐efficacy are useful factors to target in alcohol treatment.

Effect of religion and religiosity on alcohol use in a college student sample

Two hundred and sixty-three alcohol using college students completed a questionnaire on their levels of alcohol use, problems with alcohol use, reasons for drinking, perceptions of control over drinking, impulsivity, venturesomeness, irrational beliefs, neuroticism, expectations of alcohol effects, depression, social norms, religious affiliation and intrinsic and extrinsic religiosity. Analyses of variance revealed that students with no religious affiliation reported significantly higher levels of drinking frequency and quantity, getting drunk, celebratory reasons for drinking and perceived drinking norms than those of either Catholic or Protestant religious affiliation, while no significant differences across groups were found for alcohol use problems. Protestants reported significantly higher levels of perceived drinking control than Catholics. Intrinsic religiosity, reflecting one's ego involvement with the tenets of one's religion, appeared to play a more important positive role over drinking behavior for Protestants than for Catholics.

Adolescence and the expectations of alcohol effects

Trata-se dois estudos interdependentes. No Estudo 1, 188 estudantes secundaristas de uma escola publica de Porto Alegre - RS responderam a um protocolo sobre tipos de bebida, locais de consumo, idades de experimentacao, uso mais comuns e efeitos esperados em relacao a informacao de consumo de alcool no mes anterior. Os resultados permitiram a classificacao dos adolescentes em tres padroes de consumo (abstinencia, moderado e elevado) e mostraram que expectativas agradaveis dos efeitos do alcool estavam associadas ao consumo elevado. No Estudo 2, entrevistou nove sujeitos que haviam participado do Estudo 1, com o objetivo de conhecer os conteudos das expectativas no contexto da historia pessoal e familiar de consumo de alcool. A escolha dos sujeitos foi intencional, de acordo com idade (14 a 16 anos), frequencia do uso de alcool no ultimo mes e tipos de expectativas, ou seja tres representantes de cada perfil. As descricoes das entrevistas foram classificadas em unidades de sentido e a seguir agrupados em categorias tematicas. As interpretacoes destacaram o uso do alcool como parte do desenvolvimento psicologico do adolescente em nossa sociedade e o impacto da orientacao e modelo familiar nos habitos de consumo e nas escolhas da bebida dos filhos adolescentes.

A comparison of factor structures of adolescent and adult alcohol effect expectancies

A comparison of the factor structures of alcohol effect expectancies of adults (aged 18 and older) and adolescents (aged 12–17) was conducted. Data were from a nationally representative sample of United States residents. Two factors were extracted for the adults, and three for the adolescents. General positive and negative factors were common to each solution. In addition, the adolescent solution contained a factor related to alcohol-induced sexual enhancement. The pattern and magnitude of the loadings for the adult and adolescent negative factor were nearly identical, and the positive factors were very similar. Results are consistent with a two-factor model of alcohol expectancies among adults, with slightly more differentiated expectancies among adolescents.

The effects of alcohol, expectancy, and alcohol beliefs on anxiety and self-disclosure in women: Do beliefs moderate alcohol effects?

This study investigates the effects of alcohol, expectancy, and alcohol-related beliefs on self-reported anxiety and self-disclosure behavior in a social interaction situation. Seventy-two female social drinkers were assigned to eight conditions in a 2 × 2 × 2 factorial balanced-placebo design, controlling for drink content, expectancy, and beliefs. Results show that alcohol expectancy resulted in an anxiety reduction in subjects who believed that alcohol has a positive influence on social behavior, whereas expectancy had no effect in subjects with negative alcohol beliefs. Furthermore, subjects who expected alcohol were less anxious when they had positive alcohol beliefs than when they had negative beliefs, the effect of alcohol expectancy on social anxiety in women in moderated by differences in the effect of alcohol expectancy on social anxiety in women is moderated by differences in the content of their alcohol-related beliefs. We conclude that the inconsistency in previous results about the effect of alcohol expectancy on social behavior might be explained by differences in subjects' alcohol beliefs. Finally, as neither of the three factors had any effect on self-disclosure behavior, we suggest that this behavioral measure is unrelated to self-reported anxiety.

Alcohol Expectancies and Behavioral and Emotional Responses to Placebo Versus Alcohol Administration

Forty normal drinking males were recruited for a study of "responses to alcohol." Following the completion of an alcohol use questionnaire that included measures of expectancies of alcohol effects, subjects were randomly assigned to either receive the actual 0.6 g/kg dose of ethanol to bring their peak blood alcohol concentration (BAC) to near 0.075 g/dl or to receive a placebo dose. Neither the subject nor the tester was aware of the condition to which the subject has been assigned. Prior to dosing and at repeated 1/2-hr intervals following dosing, subjects were tested on a battery of motor coordination, perceptual speed, reaction time, and mood measures. Significant alcohol effects were found for several measures, but the only significant interaction of individual differences in expectancies of alcohol effects with alcohol dosing occurred for self-perceived intoxication. Subjects who expected more disinhibition after alcohol dosing and who were administered alcohol reported more intoxication than those expecting less disinhibition, while no expectancy effect was found for subjects administered the placebo.

Alcohol norms and expectations as predictors of alcohol use and problems in a college student sample.

Two-hundred thirty-one alcohol-using college students completed a questionnaire on their levels of alcohol use, moderate to severe problems with alcohol use, expectations of the effects of alcohol on their own and others' moods and behaviors, the desirability of these effects, norms of significant others for levels of alcohol use and the subject's desire to comply with these norms, reasons for drinking and not drinking alcohol, and a personality measure. Expectations of alcohol effects, norms of significant others, and reasons for drinking and not drinking alcohol were all significant independent predictors of alcohol use and problems with alcohol use. Expectation x desirability of effects formulations and norms x desire to comply with norms formulations did not improve the predictive power of the expectations and norms scales.

Psychosocial and cultural factors in alcohol and drug abuse: An analysis of a homosexual community

Homosexual men and women may be at risk for alcohol and drug abuse due to psychosocial variables such as drinking styles, stress, or the cultural importance of bars. The study of psychosocial variables in homosexual culture may help us understand how they operate generally. This paper describes the findings of a large ( n=3400) survey of homosexual population. The core hypothesis was that stress and other psychosocial variables have their primary effects among people made vulnerable to substance abuse by individual expectancies and/or cultural values. Tension reduction expectancies of alcohol effects had substantial effects on alcohol and drug abuse, as did the use of bars as a social resource, a vulnerability variable more specific to urban homosexual culture. Further, stress affected alcohol-drug problems only among people who were “vulnerable” via expectancies and values, and both high risk styles of substance use and simple consumption levels had much stronger effects on problems among vulnerable respondents, thus supporting the stress-vulnerability perspective. Individual differences in social role status was related to alcohol and drug problems, and may explain differences between homosexual and general populations.

Extroversion, anxiety and the perceived effects of alcohol.

To test the hypothesis that personality characteristics are related to alcohol-effect expectancies, 256 (115 men) college students were divided into groups on the basis of self-reported alcohol consumption and anxiety and introversion scores on the Sixteen Personality Factor Questionnaire. Three-way multivariate analyses of variance were conducted to determine expectancy differences by drinking behavior, personality characteristics and sex. Alcohol expectancy scores were found to vary with drinking behavior and personality measures. Elevated expectancy scores were associated with higher quantity-frequency measures of drinking; however, no significant sex differences were obtained. Extroverted students expected more social and physical pleasure, more relaxation and less arousal with drinking. Students with higher levels of trait anxiety expected more global positive changes, sexual enhancement, social assertion and arousal. The association of drinking behavior and personality with expectancies appears to be independent and additive.

Alcohol and drug use among “street” adolescents

Studies of adolescent alcohol use typically sample intact high school populations. This study assessed “street” adolescents alienated from the mainstream educational system. Despite recent optimism regarding adolescent substance use, these respondents showed considerable alcohol consumption, drinking to get drunk, and problems. The major correlates of substance abuse were “personal” drinking motives, expectancies of alcohol effects and peer behavior. Thus, adolescents who would not appear in typical studies showed much stronger alcohol involvement than the general population, with individual differences best accounted for by attitude variables relevant to a “stress-vulnerability” approach to substance abuse.