Aims

To support the free and open dissemination of research findings and information on alcoholism and alcohol-related problems. To encourage open access to peer-reviewed articles free for all to view.

For full versions of posted research articles readers are encouraged to email requests for "electronic reprints" (text file, PDF files, FAX copies) to the corresponding or lead author, who is highlighted in the posting.

___________________________________________

Thursday, December 13, 2007

Alcohol and Aggression: Perspectives on Controlled and Uncontrolled Social Information Processing
Social and Personality Psychology Compass (OnlineEarly Articles) 28 Nov 2007

This paper reviews the main current social cognitive explanations of the effects of acute alcohol consumption on aggression: the cognitive disruption model, the attributional model, and model of automaticity.

The cognitive disruption model posits that intoxication affects controlled processing arising from the impairment of executive cognitive functions by alcohol's pharmacological properties. The individual consequently focuses on the most salient and proximal situational factors, thereby spoiling self-regulatory processes.

According to the attributional model, drinkers expect alcohol to mitigate social sanctions following aggression by shifting blame to alcohol. These explicit expectations represent an extrapharmacological cause of the alcohol–aggression link.

Finally, the model of automaticity implies that alcohol meanings stored in long-term memory and activated in drinking contexts automatically trigger aggressive thoughts and behavior without the individual's awareness.

The explanation of intoxicated aggression should integrate these co-etiological social cognitive models that take into account pharmacological as well as extrapharmacological consequences of alcohol consumption.

Read Full Abstract

Request Reprint E-Mail: laurent.begue@upmf-grenoble.fr
_____________________________________________________________
at