Mood-Induced Increases in Alcohol Expectancy Strength in Internally Motivated Drinkers.

Abstract

This study investigated whether exposure to musical mood induction procedures (MMIP) differentially increases the strength of specific alcohol expectancies for coping motivated (CM) versus enhancement motivated (EM) drinkers. Participants were 86 undergraduates who had elevated scores on either the CM or EM subscale of the Drinking Motives Questionnaire (M. L. Cooper, 1994). Participants were randomly assigned to either a positive or negative mood condition. The Alcohol Craving Questionnaire (E. G. Singleton, S. T. Tiffany, & J. E. Henningfield, 1994) was administered at baseline and after MMIP to assess phasic changes in alcohol expectancy strength. Consistent with hypotheses, only CM drinkers in the negative mood condition reported increased relief expectancies, and only EM drinkers in the positive mood condition reported increased reward expectancies. Theoretical and clinical implications are discussed.

Coping Motives for Drinking Affect Stress Reactivity but Not Alcohol Consumption in a Clinical Laboratory Setting

“…Ceiling effects were not problematic-only 12 of 82 participants (less than 15%) consumed all the beer available (only 2 of the 12 were high copingmotivated drinkers in the TSST group). Further, our sample size (n = 82) is comparable to or substantially larger than other clinical laboratory studies in which positive effects were observed (Birch et al, 2004;Field and Quigley, 2009;Rousseau et al, 2011;Stewart et al, 2002).…”

“…Both hypotheses were based on prior clinical laboratory studies showing that coping-motivated drinkers reported more affective distress to a stressor than individuals without coping motives (Field and Quigley, 2009;, and stress exposure produced greater activation of alcohol cognitions and increased the rewarding value of alcohol in coping-motivated drinkers (Birch et al, 2004;Rousseau et al, 2011;Stewart et al, 2002). Results from our study suggested that drinkers with high versus low coping motives may respond differently to a stress provoca-tion, although in the opposite direction predicted, where coping-motivated drinkers show a less robust stress response.…”

“…A similar result was found by other investigators using a musical mood induction technique to induce negative affect , whereby only coping-motivated (and not enhancement-motivated) drinkers reported the expected rise in anxiety. Regarding alcoholrelated outcomes, clinical laboratory studies have found that coping motives moderate the impact of stress induction on positive alcohol expectancies (Birch et al, 2004;, attentional bias for alcohol cues (Field and Powell, 2007;Field and Quigley, 2009;, the semantic activation of alcohol concepts in memory (Stewart et al, 2002), and the reinforcing value of alcohol versus money (Rousseau et al, 2011).…”

Alcohol expectancy responses from first year medical students: Are they prone to alcoholism?

“…Earlier reports suggested that heavy drinkers had more emphatic views on negative and positive expectancies. [10,11] Prior exposure to alcohol led to a definite response pattern, showing assertive positive and negative expectancy patterns. This is in agreement with our above observation in the present study.…”

“…[2,10] These studies revealed interesting results, because the responses depend on the perception of the respondent of either positive or negative reinforcement. [11] As India is an upcoming economy with a largely younger population, there is need for scientiÞ c evaluation of the expectancies from this group.…”