Self-regulation in alcohol addiction

Abstract

Through the dual-process model (Hofmann et al., 2009) and the incentive-sensitization theory (Robinson & Berridge, 2008), it is argued that self-regulatory and impulsive processes are complementary and that there are important changes in both processes during the addiction development. Our goal was to test the dual-process model to show how alcohol addiction leads to a worsened self-regulation capacity. Hence, we wanted to test if the reflective precursors and the impulsive precursors predict the self-control outcome. The reflective precursors were tested through explicit measures, namely self-regulation questionnaires. The impulsive precursors through an implicit measure, the Implicit Association Test (IAT) assessing the strength of associations between alcohol and their predicted outcome. The self-control outcome was measured by a math exercise, where 3-digit x 3-digit multiplications had to be done. The same experiment was conducted in an at-risk-drinking, a heavy-drinking, as well as a control population. Thus, we wanted to compare the three populations' results and show how restrain standards as well as impulsive processes change during addiction development. Significant IAT effects could be found for the implicit expectancies of relaxation and excitation as well as for positive explicit expectancies through alcohol consumption. This shows that young adults generally manifest more positive implicit associations with alcohol. Regarding group differences in expectancies, no significant difference could be found for self-regulatory capacities, nor for implicit measures, but for explicit measures, with more positive explicit expectancies in the heavy drinkers group. These findings might indicate that implicit and explicit expectancies play different and relevant roles in alcohol use among young adults. In contrast with our initial hypotheses, a higher alcohol consumption, self-regulation and implicit associations could not predict a reduced self-control outcome in our specific population. This research presented several limitations: non-clinical population, specific age, as well as the validity of the self-control measure. Future studies should extend the present results to a clinical population, particularly in longitudinal designs exploring the changes in expectancies and self-control outcomes during the successive addiction stages.