The relationship between alcohol consumption and tobacco smoking : an examination of the role played by social context , social interaction and individual differences.

Existing research into the relationship between alcohol consumption and smoking is confounded by many methodological limitations. Experimental research has often been conducted with all male samples, suffering from alcoholism or drug abuse, and is often conducted in the laboratory or on medical research wards. It frequently fails to account for confounding factors such as the presence of other people who may also be drinking and smoking. This research aims to overcome some of these limitations, and to extend understanding of the drinking-smoking relationship by examining the influence of social context and social interaction. Moderating effects of personality, alcohol expectancies, and smoking motivations on these relationships are also explored. Effects of alcohol consumption, social interaction and social context on mood are examined and relationships between personality, alcohol expectancies and smoking motivations are explored. The thesis is comprised of five studies, the first of which describes the development of a modified measure of sensation seeking. This was followed by an experiment that examined the effects of social context and social interaction on the alcohol-smoking relationship. The two subsequent experiments examined effects of social context and Social interaction separately. The final questionnaire study focussed on relationships between self-reported drinking and smoking, and relationships with personality, alcohol expectancies and smoking motivations. Support was found for the alcohol-smoking relationship, providing evidence for the following theories: conditioning, where alcohol may act as a conditioned stimulus and initiate smoking; cue exposure where smoking related cues such as alcohol, social context or the presence of others may initiate smoking; and pharmacological where the pharmacological effects of alcohol and nicotine may interact. Social context also had an effect on the subjective experience of alcohol consumption, providing support for a drug compensatory response as greater feelings of intoxication were experienced in the laboratory than the bar. Evidence for an interaction effect between social Context and alcohol consumption on mood was observed where more positive mood Was observed in the bar when alcohol had been consumed. Social interaction exerted an effect on smoking where evidence for modelling was observed. The smoking motivation restful and relaxing situations and the personality trait intensity also appeared to moderate the relationship between social context and smoking. The final questionnaire study confirmed that smokers consumed more alcohol than non-smokers, and displayed higher levels of extraversion, psychoticism, novelty and intensity. Extraversion, psychoticism, novelty and intensity were positively related to alcohol consumption, and social desirability was negatively related to consumption. This study also identified the smoking motivations and alcohol expectancies most strongly related to smoking and drinking respectively. Evidence for under-reporting alcohol consumption was established in the final study, and highlights improvements to be gained through using a seven day diary recall method for recording self-reported weekly alcohol consumption. Further research could explore the effects of stronger doses of alcohol on smoking across more diverse contexts and social situations. Further research could also focus on the effects of more specific cues on smoking, and explore modelling effects on smoking following alcohol consumption in greater depth.