Alcohol Use and Risky Behaviour: Evidence of Anxiolysis-Disinhibition from a Naturalistic Drinking Study

Charlotte Gayson, Lucy Moss and Mark Moss

International Journal of Psychological Studies, 2015, vol. 7, issue 2, 129

Abstract: Aims- Alcohol use and intoxication have been widely linked with the incidence of crime and antisocial behaviour. Reduced risk perception following alcohol consumption has been proposed as a possible reason for why people take part in such activities. This study aimed to identify if “intention to act†and “perception of risk†were similarly or differentially affected by alcohol consumed in a natural environment. Furthermore the relationship between amount consumed and degree of impact was investigated. Design- A single factor independent groups design was employed. Participants- 60 participants aged 18-23 were recruited. Measures- Participants indicated their likelihood of engagement in a range of acts, and stated how risky they thought each behaviour was via a questionnaire. Findings- Data analysis revealed a significant effect of alcohol group on reported likelihood of engagement such that likelihood increased with alcohol consumption. However, perceived risk was not subject to any effect, and increased intention to engage in a risky behaviour was not associated with a decreased perception of risk. Conclusions- These results may provide support for an anxiolysis-disinhibition model of alcohol induced risky behaviour. Certainly the data indicate that cognitive appraisal of the behaviours is not impaired or related to increased engagement.

Date: 2015
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://ccsenet.org/journal/index.php/ijps/article/download/41925/26634 (application/pdf)
https://ccsenet.org/journal/index.php/ijps/article/view/41925 (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ibn:ijpsjl:v:7:y:2015:i:2:p:129

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in International Journal of Psychological Studies from Canadian Center of Science and Education Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Canadian Center of Science and Education ().