Control and Effort Attributions: Towards an Understanding of Alcohol Use and Binge Drinking Behaviour

Abstract

Using two self-report questionnaires, research was undertaken to find out what psychological factors predict binge drinking for two different groups of first year students residing in colleges at the University of New England. Before any statistical analyses were applied, validity was established for a new binge drinking measure in Study 1 ('N'= 149) and validity was replicated for this measure in Study 2 ('N' = 153). Individual differences in the way the students attribute cause for achieving lower marks in their first semester at university, compared to their previous high school achievements, revealed that dispositional and external control mechanisms were both related to binge drinking behaviour. Based on cognitive dissonance theory (Festinger, 1957), Study 1 showed that achieving marks that conflict negatively with prior experience at high school, coupled with very low perceived control over those marks, was associated with students more frequently claiming that they drink alcohol to relieve stress. Stress explanations for drinking were made by students who showed marked deviations in internal and external perceptions of control, supporting the postulation by Donovan and O'Leary (1983) that these control beliefs may be related to drinking problems.