M104 Alcohol Psychology symposia

Question 1

What is an example of different wet cultures and dry cultures?

Answer 1

in places like France, Italy and Spain, people may drink more frequently, drink alcohol with lunch or dinner, but drinking to to excess drinking for drunkenness and public drunkenness is rare
whereas in many Anglo cultures (UK, USA, Canada, Australia, NZ) drinking is part of this dry pattern where we don’t drink very frequently (every day), but when we do, we tend to drink to kind of to excess, often to get drunk as well

Question 2

What are examples of wet and dry cultures?

Answer 2

wet - Europe, Russia, Australia, Greenland

dry - middle East, most of Africa and South Asia

Question 3

What are examples of enhancement reasons to drink?

Answer 3

to feel better, to do things that would otherwise be impossible, to lower inhibitions to have more fun

Question 4

What are examples of social reasons to drink?

Answer 4

to celebrate with other people

Question 5

What are examples of conformity reasons to drink?

Answer 5

peer pressure, feeling like they have to drink to fit in

Question 6

What are examples of coping reasons to drink?

Answer 6

to feel the psychoactive effects of alcohol that can help people forget about their problems

Question 7

What is the least common reason to drink?

Answer 7

conformity

Question 8

What is the most common reason to drink?

Answer 8

enhancement

Question 9

What are the reasons to drink, ranked most to least common?

Answer 9

enhancement
social
coping
conformity

Question 10

Why do we not drink?

Answer 10

short-term harm		
long-term harm		
hangovers
aldehyde dehydrogenase 2 (ALDH-2) deficiency
religion / culture

Question 11

What are examples of short-term harm that could be caused by drinking alcohol?

Answer 11

alcohol poisoning
accidents/injury
violence
antisocial behaviour

Question 12

What are examples of long-term harm that could be caused by drinking alcohol?

Answer 12

cirrhosis
cancers
stroke
premature death + suicide

Question 13

What causes alcohol poisoning?

Answer 13

drinking large quantities in short periods of time

Question 14

What is the effect of having an aldehyde dehydrogenase 2 (ALDH-2) deficiency on drinking?

Answer 14

these people’s metabolism of alcohol is a different experience - not pleasant, e.g. skin flushing

Question 15

What might explain why there are low levels of alcohol consumption in East Asian culture?

Answer 15

if they have ALDH-2 deficiencies, not pleasant

Question 16

Can we change how people drink?

Answer 16

efforts must focus on motives for drinking and not drinking

messages may be gain-framed or loss-framed

Question 17

What are the short-term effects of Dry January?

Answer 17

save money, sleep better and better concentration

Question 18

What happens in Dry January?

Answer 18

people are encouraged to quit drinking for the month to see if they need alcohol to have a good time, to be sociable, etc

Question 19

What are the long term effects of Dry January six months later?

Answer 19

drink less (40% of participants)
go back to the previous levels of drinking (50%) but they feel more and more control over their drinking 
drinking more (10%) - heavy drinkers