PubMed:24751369 JSONTXT 4 Projects

Information-enhancement and goal setting techniques for increasing adaptive motivation and decreasing urges to drink alcohol. OBJECTIVE: The aim of the study was to determine whether experimental manipulation of sense of control would change moderate drinkers' (N=106) task-specific motivational structure and explicit and implicit determinants of their urge to drink alcohol. METHOD: The effects of various levels of information-enhancement and goal-setting on participants' performance on experimental tasks were assessed. Participants were randomly assigned to a high-sense-of-control, low-sense-of-control, or no-intervention group. Dependent measures were indices derived from a task-specific version of the Personal Concerns Inventory and the Shapiro Control Inventory, Alcohol Urge Questionnaire, and alcohol Stroop test. RESULTS: At baseline, there were no differences among the groups on any of the measures; however, post-experimentally, induced sense of control had led to increases in adaptive motivation and decreases in explicit and implicit measures of the urge to drink. CONCLUSIONS: The results show that sense of control can be experimentally induced. This finding has important clinical implications.