Graduation Year

2020

Document Type

Thesis

Degree

M.A.

Degree Name

Master of Arts (M.A.)

Degree Granting Department

Psychology

Major Professor

Mark Goldman, Ph.D.

Committee Member

Jack Darkes, Ph.D.

Committee Member

Robert Schlauch, Ph.D.

Committee Member

Chad Dubé, Ph.D.

Keywords

ecological momentary assessment, EMA, expectancies, motivation

Abstract

Consistent with theory, within-person alcohol expectancies monitored across a day predicted alcohol consumption levels later that day. These correlational findings could have been a function of any number of "third variables" including social influences or temporal cycles in affective state. To strengthen the inference that changes in expectancies validly reflect changes in the motivation to drink, we experimentally manipulated expectancy activation and measured subsequent changes in expectancy reports. The evening before expectancy monitoring, participants were informed that later the next day—a Monday, Tuesday, or Wednesday—they would be participating in a solitary taste-test of either alcohol or soft drinks. Alcohol expectancies were then measured across four timepoints in the day that culminated in an in-laboratory taste-test. Alcohol expectancies in the alcohol condition were hypothesized to increase across the day as participants anticipated drinking alcohol, in contrast to the soft drink condition, in which expectancies were predicted to stay relatively unchanged. Unfortunately, data collection was prematurely concluded once COVID-19 social distancing guidelines were issued. As a consequence, multilevel modeling results could not be considered statistically reliable due to an underpowered dataset. Graphical representations of the data suggested that alcohol expectancies from the alcohol condition were more positive than those from the soft drinks condition, although some anomalies also appeared. Alcohol expectancies were not related to alcohol consumption quantities during the taste-test. Between group differences in alcohol expectancies provided some mixed evidence—although not statistically reliable—that alcohol expectancy associates were affected by the experimental manipulation of the anticipated drinking event.

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