Expectancies As A Predictor Of Adolescent Alcohol

Use Essay, Research Paper

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subject = Intro to Adolescent Psychology

title = Expectancies as a Predictor of Adolescent Alcohol Use

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Please put your paper here.Expectancies as a Predictor of Adolescent Alcohol Use

INTRODUCTION

This paper examines the use of an idea referred to as expectancy as a predictor of

teen alcohol use. Expectancies are concepts that a society reinforces which go on to

influence a person’s behavior. Current clinical and field studies show that alcohol e

HISTORY

Prior to the early 1960s, virtually no clinical studies were available on the topic of teen

drinking, as literature mostly focused on negative social and moral implications of the

activity (Maddox and McCall, 1964). Contrary to somewhat popular notion, h n

Once research findings established the basic foundations, further questions soon

arose on the psychological reasons behind the increase in consumption. Though the

answers are still not definitive by any means, a few commonly accepted theories

arose. Tee E

PROBLEM DRINKING

In the late 1970s and into the 1980s researchers begun to realize that they had not

designed their studies to examine this much more destructive phenomenon of

problem drinking. Differing definitions of problem drinking exist, but virtually all

contempora EXPECTANCIES

Researchers began a continuing effort piece together a single explanation for

problem drinking. Given the vast set of variables involved, this goal proved to be a

formidable task. They shifted focus to the emerging theory of expectancies as a

method of to the anticipation of a systematic relationship between events or objects in

some upcoming situation. The relationship is understood to be of an if-then variety: If

a certain event or object is registered then a certain event is expected to followE

Expectation can be inferred to have causal status in that an individual with his/her

own actions, may produce a certain consequence upon noting that an if condition is

fulfilled.

More simply stated, drinkers learn certain behavior about drinking from their society.

When exposed to alcohol, or alcohol-related cues, they accept and act upon these

understandings. Aas (1995) believes, “children learn what to expect of alcohol and th

A number of surveys can detect expectancies. The one most commonly used for

adolescents is the Alcohol Expectancy Questionnaire- Adolescent Form, (AEQ-A).

Other significant surveys include both the Alcohol Effects Scale (AES), and the

Effects of Drinkin Baker (1987) outlines the two basic constructs that psychologists

know as the Conditioned Withdrawal Model (CWM), and the Conditioned

Appetitive-Motivational Model (CAMM). The CWM can detect problem drinking based

on the notion that certain expectancies ”

However, several problems have developed in the process of using these constructs

as predictive models both in clinical studies and in individual cases. A person

develops expectancies in childhood and early adolescence, but they may not

influence actual o

CURRENT RESEARCH

Current research on expectancies is focusing on combining personal and social

statistics with current knowledge on the topic as a better indicator. For both

expectancy models, high-risk youngsters clearly hold higher than average

expectancies (Christians DISCUSSION

Though the literature and research to date have been very effective at showing the

accuracy of adolescent alcohol expectancies, I feel it is quite inadequate as to its

practical use in the classroom. A few authors make vague and general references to

pra If schools administered expectancy surveys over the span of an adolescent’s

academic career, then a much clearer picture of potential problem drinking would

develop. Tracking over a long period would overcome the methodological problems

encountered in so A number of problems could also arise if schools were to adopt this

theory. For example, surveys or constructs provide no definite answers. If the

educational system relies to heavily on this theory alone, it dooms the idea to be no

better than traditio The final complication of long term tracking would not be so simple

to solve; few in the educational profession are likely to lack training in expectancy

theory. It would be a costly effort to attempt to train counseling staffs to understand

and interpre FURTHER STUDY

Further study must begin to explore specifically the practical applications of

expectancies in the educational system such as I discuss. Prior research studies

have certainly laid the groundwork to show that expectancies can provide a

reasonably accurate CONCLUSIONS

No research has been conducted on the practical applications of what we know about

alcohol expectancies. This observation neither nor denies my thesis, but instead

merits further investigation. On the basis of on the accumulated knowledge of 30

years o