This
3-year program of research is funded by the National Institute
on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (R21AA30043) and is designed
to examine fundamental associations among gender, affect,
cognition, and drinking. This research consists of three
studies. The long-term objectives of this program of research
are to: 1) examine gender differences in alcohol expectancies
among college students at different alcohol doses, 2) provide
necessary laboratory studies explicating affective and cognitive
processes underlying college drinking, and 3) examine the
impact of gender on these processes.
Study
#1: This study will use multidimensional scaling
techniques (MDS) to replicate previous findings (Rather
et al., 1992) regarding alcohol expectancies among heavy
and light drinking male and female college students and
extends these findings by examining gender differences in
expectancies at varying doses of consumption. These expectancies
will be modeled separately for heavy, moderate, and light
drinking men and women at high and low alcohol doses. Participants
in this study are more than 300 male and female undergraduate
student drinkers between the ages of 18-24 recruited through
university introductory psychology classes. Data collection
for this study is now complete and data analysis is currently
in progress.
Study
#2: This study is designed to evaluate the association
between affective and cognitive factors which may contribute
to heavy drinking among college students. This study involves
the presentation of a series of slides of a variety of people
and objects, followed by a computerized task. Participants
are students at the University at Buffalo who are recruited
through a local newspaper ad as well as through introductory
psychology classes at the university. Participants are asked
to fill out several self-report questionnaires about their
health behaviors throughout the study. Students are compensated
with cash or with academic credit.
Study
#3: This study is about etiological factors which
may contribute to drinking behaviors in college students.
As with the study described above, this study involves the
presentation of a series of slides of a variety of people
and objects, followed by a computerized task, and then in-lab
alcohol consumption. During this study participants complete
several self-report questionnaires about their health behavior
history and beliefs about alcohol. Participants for this
study are 21-24 year old students recruited from the Buffalo
community via newspaper advertisements. For their time and
for completion of the study participants are compensated
with cash.
