Tuesday, April 3, 2012

Book Review

Personality and Situational Factors as Predictors of Alcohol Use by College Students
 
Clara Gruen & Karen Hooker
Doug Davis, Advisor
Haverford College
Department of Psychology
May 2000
 

According to the college alcohol study conducted by Haverford College, the role of personality plays a huge part in the behaviors exhibited while individuals become intoxicated.  Studies found that different types of personalities correlate either positively or negatively with the drinking patterns of students.  The study broke down the personalities into "neuroticism, extraversion, openness/intellect, agreeableness, and concientiousness" and based on these groupings scientists could determine the likelihood and frequency of alcohol use among students.  

Neuroticism, or emotional stability. It includes the traits of anxiety, anger and hostility, depression, self-consciousness, impulsiveness, and vulnerability
 
Extraversion includes traits such as warmth, gregariousness, assertiveness, activity, excitement seeking, and positive emotions
 
Openness to Experience includes the facets fantasy, aesthetics, feelings, actions, ideas, and values

Agreeableness includes the traits trust, straightforwardness, altruism, compliance, modesty, and tender mindedness
 
Conscientiousness includes the personality traits of confidence, order, dutifulness, achievement striving, self-discipline, and deliberation

The researchers also examined the scenarios in which students commonly used alcohol. "Drinking Situations: The top six reported situations for drinking were small party (3-10 people), room with friends, pre-party, campus party, bar or club, and restaurant."  Based on these situations, the researchers created data that represented the behaviors exhibited in a variety of possible environments.
 The results: "Main effects for personality were found. The dimensions of Extraversion, Agreeableness and Openness were found to both correlate with and predict alcohol use." The other personality traits showed a negative correlation with drinking alcohol so the researchers concluded that there is strong evidence supporting the role of personality when it comes to drinking. 

Conclusions
This research found main effects for personality and situational factors as predictors of alcohol use by college students. This study is particularly valuable with its addition of a complete personality measure to the study of alcohol use by college students. It also used a more in depth look at situations than some previous studies. Its significant findings for the different personality scales and for situations and reasons is an important addition to the previous research on this topic. Future research should be done to explore some of the factors not concentrated on in this study, such as gender, to find a better measure of situations and reasons to predict alcohol use, and to compare this sample to other samples in terms of personality and alcohol use.

Davis, Doug. "Personality and Situational Factors as Predictors of Alcohol Use by College Students." Haverford.edu. Haverford College Department of Psychology, May 2000. Web. 3 Apr. 2012. <http://www.haverford.edu/psych/alcohol%20study/alcoholstudy.00.summary.html>.


below is a brief resume of Douglas A. Davis: the administrator who supervised the experiment
     1981 - 1983: Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Anthropology, Harvard University: Harvard Adolescence Project
·         1974 Ph.D., University of Michigan, Ann Arbor: Personality Psychology
·         1966 B.A., University of Minnesota, Minneapolis: Psychology
Occupational History
·         2006-present Emeritus Professor of Psychology, Haverford College
·         1972-2006 Department of Psychology, Haverford College
Courses taught:
·         Foundations of Personality
·         Adolescence
·         Adolescence lab
·         Theories of Personality
·         1972 Trainee Development Officer, U.S. Peace Corps Training (India)
·         1971 Cross-Cultural Coordinator, U.S. Peace Corps Training (Morocco)
·         1967-1970 Teaching Fellow, University of Michigan  
(http://www.haverford.edu/psych/ddavis/d2vita.html)






 

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