1. Framework for reducing alcohol-impaired driving
Shults et al. (2001)

2. Why does alcohol make social behaviors more extreme? Part I
Impairment of executive function
Planning, initiating, regulating behavior
Attention, sequencing, goal planning
Abstract reasoning, problem-solving
Mediates alcoholaggression
Moderates alcoholaggression
Alcohol intoxication increases aggression via executive function in 2 ways:
Exec functioning mediates alcohol-aggression relationship
Exec functioning moderate the relationship, in that intoxication promotes aggression especially among people with low (rather than high) exec. functioning

3. Why does alcohol make social behaviors more extreme? Part II
Alcohol myopia theory
Pharmacologically-based
Alcohol narrows perceptual field to here-and-now
Attention to salient instigating cues, to exclusion of distal considerations (e.g., long-term consequences)
Especially under conditions of inhibition conflict
Intoxication can  aggression, risky sexual behavior, tipping
Predicts both increases and decreases in negative affect/worry, depending on presence of distracting activity

4. Why does alcohol make social behaviors more extreme? Part III
Expectancy theory
Learned outcome expectancies: apriori beliefs that alcohol will have certain effects
Alcohol intoxication activates expectancies
Alcohol-sex expectancies (Dermen & Cooper, 1994):
Enhancement: I am less nervous about sex, I am more sexually responsive
Sex risk: I am less likely to use a condom, I am less likely to talk with a new partner about STD
Disinhibition: I have sex with people whom I wouldn’t have sex with if I were sober
Dual-process model (Moss & Albery, 2009)
Preconsumption phase: Expectancies => initiating drinking
Consumption phase: Alcohol myopia => intoxicated behavior

5. Alcohol and Aggression
In 2008, alcohol was a factor in 19% - 37% of violent crimes
Increases risk of injury
Typically on evenings and weekends
Communities that have more bars and liquor stores per capita experience more assault
The offender was drinking at the time of offense in:
86% of homicides
37% of assaults
60% of sexual assaults
57% of men and 27% of women in intimate partner violence
70% of cases of child abuse/neglect
AUDs increase risk for violent acts 10x; cf. major mental disorders increase by 3x.
Heavy drinkers are at greater risk of being a victim of violence/aggression than light/moderate drinkers
Bureau of Justice Statistics, Alcohol and Crime: Data from 2002 to 2008:

6. Studying alcohol + aggression
Taylor Aggression Paradigm
DVs = level and duration of shock/noise “administered” to opponent over trials
IV = provocation by “confederate” during game

7. Fig 1 
Aggressive behavior over the three blocks of the Taylor Aggression Paradigm in the provoked group and the non-provoked control group. Values are means ± SEM
Noise not shock used – blocks of 10 trials: react quickly to green square by pressing key, slower of the 2 would get blast from winner; winner-loser randomly determined
Not provoked = short, gentle noise
Provoked, Block 2 = 82 dB, 2-3 sec
Provoked, Block 3 = 99 dB, 4 sec
Bohnke et al. (2008)

8. Studying alcohol + aggression
Taylor Aggression Paradigm variations:
IV = gender
IV = alcohol vs. placebo before“game”
IV = self-reported typical aggressiveness

9. Giancola & Parrott (2008) Effects of gender and alcohol consumption,
given low vs high baseline levels of self- reported aggression

10. Pattern of findings from TAP:
Intoxication increases aggression
High or low provocation
Men and women
Dose-response relationship (inverted U)
Expectancies + pharmacology
Specific to alcohol and benzodiazepines
Dose-response relationship means that the higher the dose (BAC) the more acts of aggression
Expectancy alone doesn’t make people more aggressive
Pharmacology alone sometimes makes people more aggressive
The combination of expecting the effects of alcohol and the drug effect predict aggression
ONLY alcohol and benzos have been shown to increase aggression: NO OTHER DRUG TYPES
- mj and opiates DECREASE aggression

11. Alcohol-induced aggression
increases with:
trait aggressiveness
hostile attribution bias
executive functioning
biology: high testosterone, low serotonin
social pressure
in groups
People higher in trait aggressiveness increase more than people lower in trait aggressiveness
Intoxicated persons respond more to social pressure to increase aggression than do sober persons (Taylor, 1993)