Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Comparison Of A Quick Drinking Screen With The Timeline Followback For Individuals With Alcohol Problems, Linda C. Sobell, Sangeeta Agrawal, Mark B. Sobell, Gloria I. Leo, Lisa J. Young, John A. Cunningham, Edward R. Simco

Faculty Articles

Objective: Two major strategies have typically been used to assess recent drinking: (1) Daily Estimation (DE) measures such as the Timeline Followback (TLFB) and (2) Quantity-Frequency (QF) summary measures. Although QF measures provide a quick and easy measure of consumption, they have been criticized as not being able to capture sporadic and unpatterned drinking (e.g., days that reflect important social and/or health risks). The TLFB, a psychometrically sound drinking assessment method, is able to capture all drinking, including sporadic heavy days and unpatterned drinking. In some situations, however, recall of daily drinking may not be possible or practical (e.g., limited …

Factors Affecting Agreement Between Alcohol Abusers' And Their Collaterals' Reports, Linda C. Sobell, Sangeeta Agrawal, Mark B. Sobell

Faculty Articles

Objective: Because of their low cost and ease of use, collaterals' reports are the most frequent source of independent corroboration with alcohol abusers' self-reports of drinking and related events. Although several reviews have shown that we can have confidence in the accuracy of alcohol abusers' reports of their drinking and in the use of collateral reports as an independent validity criterion, neither data source is error free. This study examined factors that influence the level of agreement between collaterals' and alcohol abusers' reports.

Method: Using data from a study of natural recoveries from alcohol-related problems, this study examined how …

What's In A Label? The Effects Of Substance Types And Labels On Treatment Considerations And Stigma, John A. Cunningham, Linda C. Sobell, Virginia M. Chow

Faculty Articles

Visitors (N = 579) to a science center read selected scenarios and evaluated the most likely outcome for a hypothetical substance abuser. Respondents were randomly assigned to one of six scenario conditions: a person with one of three different substance abuse problems (alcohol, tobacco, or cocaine) was crossed with two labels reflecting high or low substance dependence. Results indicated that: (1) cigarettes were viewed as a less serious substance abuse problem than were alcohol or cocaine (a person who smoked cigarettes was rated as more likely to recover from his problem, self-change was regarded as more appropriate and less stigma …

Severely Dependent Alcohol Abusers May Be Vulnerable To Alcohol Cues In Television Programs, Linda C. Sobell, Mark B. Sobell, Anthony Toneatto, Gloria I. Leo

Faculty Articles

The self-reported ability of 96 alcohol abusers to resist the urge to drink heavily was assessed after they viewed a videotape of a popular prime time television program complete with advertisements. Different versions of the videotape were used to evaluate the effects of a television program with and without alcohol scenes as crossed with the effects of three different types of commercials (i.e., beer, nonalcoholic beverages, food). Before and after viewing the videotape, subjects, who were led to believe that they were participating in two separate and unrelated sets of experimental procedures, completed several drinking questionnaires. Responses to one of …

Moratorium On Maltzman: An Appeal To Reason, Mark B. Sobell, Linda C. Sobell

Faculty Articles

Maltzman's comment on Cook (1985), which appears elsewhere in this issue, is an unveiled attempt to resurrect the same allegations about our research that he made 7 years ago. None of the allegations are new! Over the past 7 years, those allegations have been the topic of 5 separate inquiries, in each of which we were vindicated. In this response, we review the multiple inquiries and we show how Maltzman continues to (1) cite our work out of context, (2) make false assumptions about the inquiries and our procedures and (3) disregard evidence contradicting his assertions. He relies on data …

The Reliability Of Alcohol Abusers’ Self-Reports Of Drinking And Life Events That Occurred In The Distant Past, Linda C. Sobell, Mark B. Sobell, Diane M. Riley, Reinhard Schuller, D. Sigfrido Pavan, Anthony Cancilla, Felix Klajner, Gloria I. Leo

Faculty Articles

This study investigated the test-retest reliability of 69 alcohol abusers' current reports about their past (approximately 8 years prior to interview) drinking behavior and life events. Drinking behavior was assessed by the Lifetime Drinking History (LDH) questionnaire and life events were assessed using the Recent Life Changes Questionnaire (RLCQ). Reliability coefficients for LDH variables were generally moderate to high (r = .52 to .81). Using empirical criteria, the diagnostic power of the two LDH interviews to classify correctly subjects as either having had or not having had a drinking problem was quite high. The reliability coefficient for the RLCQ was …

Criterion Intervals For Pretreatment Drinking Measures In Treatment Evaluation, A. Mitch Cooper, Mark B. Sobell, Stephen A. Maisto, Linda C. Sobell

Faculty Articles

Drinking during a 30-day pretreatment period was found not to be representative of longer pretreatment intervals, especially in a population of seriously impaired inpatient alcoholics

Comments On “Patterns Of Alcoholism Over Four Years”; And A Response, Dan E. Beauchamp, Raymon M. Costello, Rudolf H. Moos, John W. Finney, Peter E. Nathan, William M. Hay, Alan C. Ogborne, E. Mansell Pattison, Mark B. Sobell, Linda C. Sobell, Martin D. Topper, J. Michael Polich, David J. Armor, Harriet B. Braiker

Faculty Articles

No abstract provided.

Comments On The Article By R. E. Tournier “Alcoholics Anonymous As Treatment And As Ideology”, Donald W. Goodwin, Mark B. Sobell, Linda C. Sobell, William Madsen, Robert A. Moore, Chaim M. Rosenberg, Harold W. Demone Jr., Gerald D. Shulman

Faculty Articles

No abstract provided.