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Aversive Conditioning and Cognitive Mediators with Alcoholic Respondents *
Author(s) -
Rice David P.,
Schoenfeld Lawrence S.
Publication year - 1975
Publication title -
british journal of addiction to alcohol and other drugs
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.424
H-Index - 193
eISSN - 1360-0443
pISSN - 0007-0890
DOI - 10.1111/j.1360-0443.1975.tb00022.x
Subject(s) - psychology , systematic desensitization , anxiety , cognition , developmental psychology , psychological intervention , personality , punishment (psychology) , test anxiety , conditioning , clinical psychology , cognitive psychology , social psychology , psychiatry , statistics , mathematics
Some theoretical explanations of aversive conditioning posit specific emotional states or “cognitive mediators” to account for behavior suppression. Although “anxiety” is widely recognised as much a cognitive mediator, few studies have attempted to obtain measures of “state anxiety” or of alternative competing hypotheses to test the model. This study probed the effects of two aversive conditioning paradigms on subjective response to both alcohol‐related and non‐alcohol related stimuli to test the anxiety model against other competing alternatives. A strong social desirability response bias obscured measurement on three outcome dimensions; adjective ratings of (1) General Evaluation, (2) Dangerousness, and (3) Appetitiveness. Both paradigms (i.e. Punishment and Mixed) appeared capable of producing increased “Aversiveness” for alcohol‐related stimuli; “Mixed” paradigm in which CS‐UCS contingencies were unpredictable was capable of increasing state anxiety displayed toward both test stimuli. Due to differential subject attrition, a quasi‐experimental design was imposed which complicated application of statistical tests. A point prevalence follow‐up at 90 days suggested that the experimental groups were slightly more successful at avoiding alcohol. An observation wax made about a personality dynamic of alcoholics which is thought to engender psychological reactance toward treatment interventions which do not allow opportunity for internal control.