Rape Myth Acceptance among Social Work Students

It is important to examine rape myth acceptance and the pertinent situational factors that affect attitudes and beliefs concerning the act of rape, perpetrators, and survivors. This study examines the influence of alcohol consumption and perceptions of alcohol use on levels of rape myth acceptance among social work students. Results showed differences in levels of rape myth acceptance based on race or ethnicity and gender. Results also showed that the version of the vignette read by the participant was a significant predictor of rape myth acceptance. Respondents’ perceptions of alcohol consumption were also a strong predictor of rape myth acceptance levels. These results demonstrate there are multiple factors that influence social work students’ rape myth acceptance levels that need further examination.     

Concurrent nonindependent fixed‐ratio schedules of alcohol self‐administration: Effects of schedule size on choice

Choice behavior was studied under concurrent nonindependent fixed‐ratio fixed‐ratio (nFR) schedules of reinforcement, as these schedules result in frequent changeover responses. With these schedules, responses on either operandum count toward the completion of the ratio requirements of both schedules. Five monkeys were subjects, and two pairs of liquid reinforcers were concurrently available: 16% (w/v) and 0% ethanol or 16% and 8% ethanol. For each pair of reinforcers, the nFR sizes were systematically altered across sessions while keeping the schedule size equal for both liquids. Responding varied as a function of reinforcer pair and nFR size. With the 16% and 0% pair, higher response rates were maintained by 16% and were an inverted U‐shape function of nFR size. With 16% and 8%, a greater number of responses initially occurred on the schedule that delivered 8% ethanol. However, as nFR size increased, preference reversed such that responses that delivered 16% ethanol were greater. When the nFR size was subsequently decreased, preference reverted back to 8%. Number of responses emitted per delivery was a dependent variable and, in behavioral economic terms, was the price paid for each liquid delivery. With 16% and 0%, changeover responses initially increased and then decreased as schedule size became larger. In contrast, with the 16% and 8% pair, changeover responses increased directly with schedule size. Responding under nFR schedules is sensitive to differences in reinforcer magnitude and demonstrates that relative reinforcing effects can change as a function of schedule size.     

Social anxiety and vulnerability for problematic drinking in college students: the moderating role of post-event processing

Socially anxious college students are at increased risk for engaging in problematic drinking (i.e. heavy or risky drinking) behaviors that are associated with the development of an alcohol use disorder. The present study examined whether post-event processing (PEP), repeatedly thinking about and evaluating one’s performance in a past social situation, strengthens the association between social anxiety and vulnerability to problematic drinking among college students. Eighty-three college drinkers with high or low social anxiety participated in a social interaction task and were exposed to a manipulation that either promoted or inhibited PEP about the social interaction. Among participants randomized to the PEP promotion condition, those with high social anxiety exhibited a greater urge to use alcohol after the social interaction and greater motivation to drink to cope with depressive symptoms over the week following the manipulation than did those with low social anxiety. These findings suggest that targeting PEP in college drinking intervention programs may improve the efficacy of such programs for socially anxious students.     

Social Anxiety and the Quality of Everyday Social Interactions: The Moderating Influence of Alcohol Consumption

Most research on the link between social anxiety and alcohol consumption has examined problematic outcomes without consideration of potential adaptive functions. Alcohol is an anxiolytic that has the short-term benefit of reducing anxiety; consumption may act as a social lubricant that facilitates higher quality social interactions. Using experience-sampling methodology, we examined how consuming alcohol attenuates the adverse effects of social anxiety in naturally occurring social interactions. Participants (N = 160) completed demographic and trait measures, then completed daily assessments for 14 consecutive days. Results from multilevel model analyses revealed that during face-to-face social interactions, state social anxiety was inversely related to 10 indicators of healthy social interactions (e.g., enjoyment, laughter, feelings of acceptance). Alcohol consumption moderated seven of these associations, such that when participants consumed alcohol in social situations, state social anxiety was no longer associated with social interaction quality. The quantity of alcoholic drinks consumed moderated two of these associations. Furthermore, we found evidence for directionality, such that social anxiety in a given social interaction predicted alcohol consumption in a subsequent social interaction, but not the reverse (i.e., alcohol consumption did not prospectively predict state social anxiety). In social situations that involved alcohol, experiences of social anxiety no longer thwarted one’s ability to derive social benefits. These results should be interpreted in the context of a participant sample with relatively low levels of trait social anxiety and frequency of alcohol use. Nonetheless, obtaining social rewards may be a reinforcement mechanism that maintains the link between social anxiety and alcohol consumption.     

Early antecedents of spouse abuse

Males taken into police custody for reported spouse abuse (n = 19) and a matched control group (n = 19) were asked to describe the drinking habits of their parents and the extent of intra-family violence witnessed by them as children. The retrospective data were compared to the participant's own present alcohol use and aggressiveness (CTS). Excessive paternal drinking and intra-family violence were recalled significantly more often by the spouse abusers than by the controls. A latent structure model suggested that the accumulated violence history was less well predicted by either paternal violence or present aggressiveness than by the direct and indirect effects related to drinking. Context-specific social learning could explain why the parental drunken violence behavior pattern witnessed by the child was repeated by the adult spouse abuser. Aggr. Behav. 23:239–243, 1997. © 1997 Wiley-Liss, Inc.     

Role of motivation to respond to provocation, the social environment, and trait aggression in alcohol-related aggression

Little attention has been paid to the motivation to respond to provocation and to the interaction between this motivation, alcohol, the drinking environment, and individual characteristics. Undergraduates at six Canadian universities (N = 1,232) read three vignettes describing conflict situations with social environmental manipulations while imagining themselves as either sober or intoxicated. Self-ratings assessed likelihood of assertive and aggressive responses and motivational indices of anger, offensiveness of the instigator's actions, and importance to respond to the provocation. Respondents also completed a measure of trait aggression. Multi-group structural equation models supported the hypothesis that perceived likelihood of reactive aggression is influenced by perceived alcohol intoxication, gender, trait aggression, social environmental factors, and motivation to respond to the provocation. In addition, a number of interactions were found among the predictors. These results provide insight into the types of factors that may influence aggression in drinking situations.