Look away now! Defensive processing and unrealistic optimism by level of alcohol consumption.

IF 1.9 3区心理学 Q2 PSYCHOLOGY, MULTIDISCIPLINARY

Psychology & Health Pub Date : 2025-08-01 Epub Date: 2024-02-20 DOI:10.1080/08870446.2024.2316681

J Morris, H Tattan-Birch, I P Albery, N Heather, A C Moss

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

Objective: Health risk information is insufficient as a means of reducing alcohol use, particularly when it evokes negative emotional states amongst those for whom it is most personally relevant. Appraisal biases, or 'defensive processing', may be employed to mitigate the psychological discomfort posed by such information. Few studies have evaluated the role of defensive processing in people with different levels of alcohol consumption.

Design: Online participants (n = 597) completed measures of defensive processing of a health risk infographic, perceived susceptibility and severity of alcohol use, efficacy for resisting alcohol use, unrealistic optimism, the Alcohol Use Disorder Identification Test - Consumption (AUDIT-C) and demographics.

Results: AUDIT-C scores were positively and linearly associated with all defensive processing measures (Pearson's correlation r from.16 to .36), threat and susceptibility (r = .16) and unrealistic optimism (r = .50). AUDIT-C scores were also negatively associated with efficacy for controlling alcohol use (r = -0.48).

Conclusion: People with alcohol use disorder (AUD) engaged in much more defensive processing of alcohol-related messages, offering an explanation for why such messages are limited at eliciting behaviour change. High levels of unrealistic optimism in people with alcohol use disorder may reflect low problem recognition in order to maintain a problem-free drinking identity.

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现在看开点！按饮酒量划分的防御性处理和不切实际的乐观主义。

目标：健康风险信息不足以作为减少饮酒的一种手段，尤其是当这些信息会唤起那些与之最密切相关的人的负面情绪状态时。评价偏差或 "防御性处理 "可用于减轻此类信息带来的心理不适。很少有研究评估防御性处理在不同饮酒量人群中的作用：设计：在线参与者（n = 597）完成了对健康风险信息图表的防御性处理、酒精使用的感知易感性和严重性、抵制酒精使用的效能、不切实际的乐观、酒精使用障碍识别测试--消费（AUDIT-C）和人口统计学的测量：AUDIT-C 分数与所有防御性处理措施（Pearson's correlation r 从 0.16 到 0.36）、威胁和易感性（r = 0.16）以及不切实际的乐观（r = 0.50）呈线性正相关。AUDIT-C得分还与控制饮酒的效能呈负相关（r = -0.48）：结论：酒精使用障碍（AUD）患者对酒精相关信息的防御性处理更强，这就解释了为什么这些信息在引起行为改变方面效果有限。酒精使用障碍患者不切实际的乐观情绪较高，这可能反映了他们对问题的认识不足，从而无法保持无问题饮酒的身份。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Psychology & Health Multiple-

CiteScore

7.30

自引率

3.00%

发文量

期刊介绍： Psychology & Health promotes the study and application of psychological approaches to health and illness. The contents include work on psychological aspects of physical illness, treatment processes and recovery; psychosocial factors in the aetiology of physical illnesses; health attitudes and behaviour, including prevention; the individual-health care system interface particularly communication and psychologically-based interventions. The journal publishes original research, and accepts not only papers describing rigorous empirical work, including meta-analyses, but also those outlining new psychological approaches and interventions in health-related fields.