title: Reducing alcohol-related aggression: Effects of a self-awareness manipulation and locus of control in heavy drinking males.
abstract: Alcohol Myopia Theory (AMT; Steele & Josephs, 1990) purports that alcohol facilitates aggression by narrowing attentional focus onto salient and instigatory cues common to conflict situations. However, few tests of its counterintuitive prediction - that alcohol may decrease aggression when inhibitory cues are most salient - have been conducted. The present study examined whether an AMT-inspired self-awareness intervention manipulation would reduce heavy drinking men's intoxicated aggression toward women and also examined whether a relevant individual variable, locus of control, would moderate this effect. Participants were 102 intoxicated male heavy drinkers who completed a self-report measure of locus of control and completed the Taylor Aggression Paradigm (Taylor, 1967). In this task, participants administered electric shocks to, and received electric shocks from, a fictitious female opponent while exposed to an environment saturated with or devoid of self-awareness cues. Results indicated that the self-awareness manipulation was associated with less alcohol-related aggression toward the female confederate for men who reported an internal, but not an external, locus of control. Findings support AMT as a theoretical framework to inform preventative interventions for alcohol-related aggression and highlight the importance of individual differences in receptivity to such interventions.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Georgia State University, P.O. Box 5010, Atlanta, Georgia, 30302-5010, United States.
authors.forename: Danielle M
authors.initials: DM
authors.lastname: Purvis
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Georgia State University, P.O. Box 5010, Atlanta, Georgia, 30302-5010, United States.
authors.forename: Kathryn E
authors.initials: KE
authors.lastname: Gallagher
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Georgia State University, P.O. Box 5010, Atlanta, Georgia, 30302-5010, United States. Electronic address: parrott@gsu.edu.
authors.forename: Dominic J
authors.initials: DJ
authors.lastname: Parrott
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000374:Aggression / Q000523:psychology*; D000437:Alcoholism / Q000523:psychology*; D001288:Attention; D001364:Awareness; D003463:Cues; D006801:Humans; D007389:Internal-External Control; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011582:Psychological Theory; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Alcohol consumption; Attention-allocation model; Intervention; Physical aggression; Prevention