Graduation Year
2012
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree
Ph.D.
Degree Granting Department
Psychology
Major Professor
Mark Goldman, Ph.D.
Committee Member
Thomas Brandon, Ph.D.
Committee Member
Cynthia Cimino, Ph.D.
Committee Member
Tiina Ojanen, Ph.D.
Committee Member
Joseph Vandello, Ph.D.
Keywords
Alcohol Drinking Patterns, Emerging Adulthood, Risk-Taking, Social Environment, Social Facilitation
Abstract
Emerging adults- youth between the ages of 18-25- experience high rates of alcohol use and drinking-related consequences, yet risky drinking in this group seems to occur in the context of adaptive developmental processes. Such risk-taking behavior is thought to result from neurobehavioral changes impacting personality, cognitive development, and social functioning beginning in early adolescence. Youth seek out stimulation that, while objectively dangerous, may provide opportunity for evolutionary pay-offs. Social environmental cues signaling such pay-offs may facilitate risky behavior. This study aimed to manipulate social context, subsequent drinking-related behavior, and related shifts in risk and reward evaluation. Participants participated in a "focus group" and taste test of placebo beer (ad libitum drinking session) alone (Solo; SF condition) or in groups that either interacted in the focus group session (Social Facilitation; SF condition) or did not (Mere Presence; MP condition). Participants in the MP and SF conditions reported greater desire to drink and poured and drank more during the taste test than those in the S condition. SF participants reported the highest levels of post-manipulation affect valence, arousal, and positive group experience. Expected differences between conditions in risk/reward evaluation were not observed. Results indicate that despite differences in affective and social experiences between the group conditions, the simple presence of others had as strong an impact on drinking behavior as the social facilitation manipulation. Results underscore the complexity of social influences on human behavior.
Scholar Commons Citation
Below, Maureen Caroline, "Groupdrink: An Examination of the Social Facilitation of Reward Evaluation and Alcohol-Related Behavior" (2012). USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations.
https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/etd/3974
