Comparing Positive and Negative Alcohol Expectancies in Male and Female Social Drinkers

Abstract

Negative alcohol expectancy has been poorly represented in empirical studies of alcohol consumption because (i) conceptions of negative expectancy have been limited and, as a result, (ii) tools to measure it have been crude. In developing the Negative Alcohol Expectancy Questionnaire (NAEQ), McMahon and Jones have addressed this neglect. This paper demonstrates that when measured appropriately, negative expectancy rather than positive expectancy (as measured by the Alcohol Expectancy Questionnaire, AEQ) appears to be associated with consumption in social drinkers. Multiple stepwise regression analyses showed that for 163 subjects (81 males, 82 females): gender and proximal negative expectancies (those surrounding consumption) were associated with the consumption measure, units/session; gender and distal negative expectancies (those relating to the 'next day') were associated with sessions/week; gender and both proximal and distal negative expectancies were associated with units/week. For males: associations with units/session and sessions/week remained but only distal expectancies were associated with units/week. For females: distal negative expectancies and positive expectancies (sexual enhancement) were associated with units/session; age with sessions/week; age, proximal negative expectancies and positive expectancies (physical and social pleasure) with units/week. Although the results are discussed in terms of different drinking patterns and gender in a cultural context, the main goal of the paper is to report the largely unrecognised role that negative expectancy appears to have in social drinking when it is measured more extensively than has been the normal practice.