Graduation Year

2004

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree

Ph.D.

Degree Granting Department

Psychology

Major Professor

Mark Goldman, Ph.D.

Committee Member

Thomas Brandon, Ph.D.

Committee Member

Paul Jacobsen, Ph.D.

Committee Member

Douglas Rohrer, Ph.D.

Committee Member

Kristen Salomon, Ph.D.

Keywords

alcohol intervention, analysis of variance, college students, male drinkers, Timeline Follow-Back

Abstract

The purpose of the present study was to examine the effect of varying the amount of participant engagement on alcohol expectancy and drinking outcomes during a social/sexual expectancy challenge based on Darkes and Goldman's (1993, 1998) protocol. This study was also intended to provide a test of the efficacy of administering an alcohol/placebo expectancy challenge outside of a live drinking scenario through video presented as part of a computerized intervention.

One hundred fifty-eight male participants across three sites were randomized into a no-intervention control group that received non alcohol-related information in a minimally interactive computerized format, a low-level engagement experimental group that received minimally interactive computerized expectancy-related information, and a high-level engagement experimental group that received the same expectancy-related information presented in a more interactive computerized format that included games and audiovisual elements such as video clips, graphics, live narrations, and music. It was hypothesized that high-level engagement participants would report being more engaged in their computerized program and demonstrate greater decreases in social/sexual alcohol expectancies and drinking levels relative to control and low-level engagement participants. Results indicated that while high-level engagement participants reported being more engaged in their interventions, none of the groups exhibited changes in the alcohol expectancies measured. In addition, all three groups experienced significant but comparable decreases in drinking levels. Exploratory follow-up analyses were also conducted to provide suggestions for future directions.

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