Essay, Research Paper: Expectancies As A Predictor Of Adolescent Alcohol Use

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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