Positive affective states and alcohol consumption: The moderating role of trait positive urgency

Abstract

Trait positive urgency is characterised by risky and maladaptive actions in response to extreme positive affective states. Positive urgency has previously been shown to be a risk factor for alcohol consumption and alcohol-related problems, however, there has been limited experimental research examining how positive urgency may moderate relations between affective states and alcohol consumption. In the current study, a sample of 106 participants completed a trait measure of positive urgency and were then randomly assigned to one of three mood induction conditions: a high activation positive, a low-activation positive or a neutral mood condition. Subsequently, participants took part in a bogus beer taste test, where their alcohol consumption was subsequently measured. The results revealed that positive urgency significantly predicted increased beer consumption, but only for those participants in the high-activation positive mood induction group. The findings from this study provide support for positive urgency as a risk factor for alcohol use, and suggest that it may be of particular relevance in social situations where individuals experience highly activated positive affective states.

Facets of impulsivity and alcohol use: What role do emotions play?

“…For example, positive urgency predicted increased alcohol consumption on the bogus beer taste test following experimental induction of positive mood (Cyders et al, 2010). These findings were recently further expanded by Dinc and Cooper (2015) who revealed that this was true only for participants in a high arousal positive mood state. These results indicate that positive urgency might be a risk factor for increased alcohol use especially while individuals experience high arousal and high positive mood state.…”

“…The authors claim that alexithymia, which results from impaired processing of bodily sensations (including physiological arousal), underpins the urge to consume alcohol. Above (section 3 and 4), we described that not merely emotional state as such, but an emotional state with high arousal is associated with increased alcohol drinking particularly in highly impulsive individuals (for example Dinc and Cooper, 2015;Peacock et al, 2015).…”

Daily associations between emotional functioning and alcohol involvement: Moderating effects of response inhibition and gender

“…Additionally, there is considerable research linking positive mood based rash action to alcohol-related consequences (Arbeau et al, 2011; Cyders et al, 2009; Dinc and Cooper, 2015). The current study supports these findings, and suggests that indices of behavioral control may be particularly important when it comes to regulating positive-mood induced rash action.…”

Recommendations for applying a multi-dimensional model of impulsive personality to diagnosis and treatment

“…Even though they are highly inter-correlated, differences in prediction between positive and negative urgency exist. For example, previous cross-sectional, longitudinal, and experimental emotion induction studies have demonstrated the distinctiveness of negative and positive urgency in risk-taking, such that negative urgency predicts negative emotion-based risk-taking while positive urgency predicts positive emotion-based risk-taking [ 7 , 35 , 54 , 71 , 72 ]. Additionally, only negative urgency is associated with binge eating [ 8 , 69 ] and positive urgency is significantly greater among individuals with high risk for mania compared to those with low risk (negative urgency did not differ between groups) [ 63 ].…”