Alcohol PBS and Thinking About the Past

NCT05208593 NA COMPLETED

Individuals often think of how a situation or outcome could have turned out differently -- if only something was different or something had changed, then the outcome could have been better or worse. This is a common type of thinking, known as counterfactual thinking, that often takes the form of "if only" statements. These thoughts are frequent after negative events, but have also been found to occur after positive events and 'near misses'. Research has shown that their evaluative nature elicits a variety of consequences, such as biased decision making, changes in an event's meaningfulness, heightened positive or negative affect, and future behavioral changes (such as intentions, motivation, persistence/effort. Specifically, many areas of research involving counterfactuals have often looked into key elements that are often discussed in other health behavior literature, such as self-efficacy, motivation, and intentions. One such area that incorporates these elements is health promotion literature, such as Protective Behavioral Strategies (PBS) and alcohol consumption. The objectives of this study are laid out as such: First, to further explore the role counterfactuals play in increasing an individual's intentions toward behavioral change. Second, to further elucidate the inner and outer workings of Protective Behavioral Strategies for increasing positive health behaviors. Finally, to address the applicability of a counterfactual intervention on promoting intentions to use PBS.

Details

Lead sponsor	Texas A&M University
Phase	NA
Status	COMPLETED
Enrolment	413
Start date	Tue Feb 15 2022 00:00:00 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time)
Completion	Fri Dec 30 2022 00:00:00 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time)

Conditions

• Alcohol Drinking in College

Interventions

• Negative Event + Counterfactual Task
• Personalized Normative Feedback
• Negative Event + Factual Thinking Task
• Negative Event Only

Countries

United States