title: Effects of dieting status and cigarette deprivation on progressive ratio responding for cigarette puffs by young women smokers.
abstract: There is evidence from self-report measures which suggests that young women dieters find cigarette smoking less rewarding than non-dieters. We aimed to further elucidate differences between dieters and non-dieters in their evaluation of smoking using a behavioural measure of drug reward. Thirty female undergraduates attended two sessions (cigarette deprived and non-deprived). A computer-based progressive ratio operant procedure was employed to assess the amount of effort that participants were willing to expend to gain a puff on a cigarette. The point at which responding ceased was taken as a measure of drug reward (breakpoint). Self-report measures of sensory/hedonic aspects of smoking were also completed. The breakpoints of both dieters and non-dieters were greater under deprived than non-deprived conditions but the breakpoints of dieters were significantly lower than those of the non-dieting smokers under both conditions. Self-reported enjoyment of smoking was lower for dieters than non-dieters and reports for non-dieters but not dieters were affected by deprivation level. Both behavioural and self-report measures of rewarding aspects of smoking suggest that young women dieters find smoking less rewarding than non-dieters, but self-report measures are more resistant to deprivation effects for dieters. This is consistent with the suggestion that subjective and behavioural measures assess different dimensions of the rewarding effects of smoking.
authors.affiliation: School of Psychology, University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham, UK. r.jenks@coventry.ac.uk
authors.forename: Rebecca A
authors.initials: RA
authors.lastname: Jenks
authors.forename: Suzanne
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Higgs
mesh_terms: D000339:Affect; D016739:Behavior, Addictive; D003201:Computers; D003216:Conditioning, Operant; D004032:Diet; D004038:Diet, Reducing; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D009042:Motivation; D011581:Psychological Tests; D012201:Reward; D012907:Smoking; D012984:Software; D013334:Students; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014495:Universities; D055815:Young Adult