Alcoholism and memory: Broadening the scope of alcohol-expectancy research.

Abstract

Current biopsychosocial research on the etiology of alcoholism has begun to focus on memory processes as a possible common pathway for drinking decisions. The alcohol-expectancy construct is rooted both in cognitive psychology and alcohol research and can serve as a vehicle for this study. Reexamination of one recent review of issues in alcohol-expectancy research provides an opportunity to broaden the scope of this research with theoretical and methodological alternatives to those suggested in that review. Most importantly, this article shows that expectancy findings, discussed by Leigh (1989a) as reflecting "psychometric" limitations, are instead quite consistent with recent network models of memory structure. Such models can provide an informative guide to future research activities. It is also recommended that alcohol-expectancy research remain open to inputs from expectancy theories already developed in several psychological domains, as well as to theories of social cognition and attitude structure in addition to those advanced by Leigh.

Factores que influyen en el consumo de alcohol de adolescentes argentinos: un path análisis prospectivo

“…Al respecto, numerosos estudios apoyan la relación entre el consumo de alcohol y los rasgos de personalidad, especialmente aquellos que refieren al control de impulsos, como extroversión (George, Connor, Gullo y Young, 2010), desinhibición (McCarthy, Kroll y Smith, 2001), agresividad (Barnow et al, 2004) e impulsividad (George et al, 2010). Las EA son las creencias acerca de los efectos del alcohol sobre el comportamiento, el estado de ánimo y las emociones (Goldman, Brown, Christiansen y Smith, 1991). Las EA positivas se relacionan con el inicio y el mantenimiento de la conducta del beber (Mackintosh, Earleywine y Dunn, 2006) y las EA negativas con la decisión de evitar, retrasar o detener el consumo (Urbán, Kökönyei y Demetrovics, 2008).…”

Attention, learning, and memory in posttraumatic stress disorder

“…Comorbid alcohol and substance abuse affect performance on neurocognitive testing (Goldman, Brown, Christiansen, & Smith, 1991), are associated with lower hippocampal volume (Laakso et al, 2000), and may therefore confound studies of these functional and structural domains in PTSD. Our previous study utilized the most stringent criteria for excluding comorbid conditions of any study examining hippocampal volume in PTSD.…”

Expectativas de resultados frente ao uso de álcool, maconha e tabaco

“…The opinion about the effects of alcohol on behavior, modes and emotions correlated with drinking in adolescents and adults has grown stronger. 15 Consistency of such relationship in all surveys carried out shows that these expectancies play a role in starting and maintaining an alcohol addictive behavior. 12,[16][17][18] Decision about drinking is partly influenced by the expectancy that alcohol will result in certain desirable consequences, such as reduction of tension, social and sexual 6 facilitation.…”