Faculty Articles
Differential Discriminative Stimulus Control of Nonalcoholic Beverage Consumption in Alcoholics and In Normal Drinkers
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
4-1979
Publication Title
Journal of Abnormal Psychology
Volume
88
Issue/Number
2
First Page
145
ISSN
0021-843X
Last Page
152
Abstract/Excerpt
Investigated the validity of applying the internality–externality model of obesity to conceptualize the determinants of drinking behavior. 30 alcoholics and 30 normal drinkers (male prison inmates) consumed either a liquid, a food, or nothing (no preload) and then received free access to preferred and nonpreferred nonalcoholic beverages under the guise of a taste-rating task. Alcoholics were predicted to consume proportionally more of their preferred beverage (external cue hypothesis) and to be less affected by the liquid preload manipulation (internal cue hypothesis) than normal drinkers. Both alcoholics and normal drinkers also were expected to consume less beverage after a food preload than after no preload. Results support the external and internal cue hypotheses but not the food preload prediction. Although differences apparently exist between the way internal and external discriminative stimuli govern eating behavior and drinking behavior, these results generally attest to the viability of applying such a model to conceptualize the determinants of nonalcoholic beverage consumption. This conceptualization has implications for the development of treatments that address the alcoholic's demonstrated vulnerability to external drink-related stimuli and lack of responsivity to internal stimuli.
DOI
10.1037//0021-843X.88.2.145
NSUWorks Citation
Tucker, J. A.,
Vuchinich, R. E.,
Sobell, M. B.
(1979). Differential Discriminative Stimulus Control of Nonalcoholic Beverage Consumption in Alcoholics and In Normal Drinkers. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 88(2), 145-152.
Available at: https://nsuworks.nova.edu/cps_facarticles/351
