Cognitive Mediators of Intoxication: Self-Efficacy and Attribution in Marlatt's Abstinence Violation Effect.

Abstract

This study was designed to assess Marlatt's proposed abstinence violation effect, which states that alcohol users who fail to ingest in line with their subjective limits on consumption will attribute that failure to internal causes, decline in self-efficacy, and give up further regulation of consumption. Marlatt also proposed that drinkers high in self-efficacy may react differently to initial counternormative ingestion than drinkers low in self-efficacy. Forty-eight, male, non-alcoholic, heavy social drinkers recruited from the general population were asked to volunteer to consume their usual initial amount of fluid from a preliminary placebo beverage presented as vodka and tonic. Half the subjects were informed that they had consumed more than their limit. The subjects reported their attributions and self-efficacy, and performed a taste-rating task using placebo beverages. Differences in taste test consumption, in change of self-efficacy between preexperimental and experimental assessments, and in attributions for the initial ingestion were then assessed by two-way analyses of variance using a 2 x 2 (experimental/control versus high/low preexperimental self efficacy) between subjects design. Subjects were then restratified on the basis of taste test consumption. Change in self-efficacy and attribution for initial ingestion were then analyzed via two-way analyses of variance using a 2 x 2 (experimental/control versus low/high consumers) between subjects design. The results of the present study did not support Marlatt's entire abstinence violation effect but did indicate that both the drinker's sense of self-efficacy and his attributional processes can influence alcohol use. Instructed subjects did not differ from control subjects. Subjects low in preexperimental self-efficacy consumed more beverage than did high self-efficacy subjects. High consumers made different attributions than did low consumers.Ph.D.School counselingUniversity of Michiganhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/160062/1/8412275.pd