Impact of experimentally induced positive and anxious mood on alcohol expectancy strength in internally motivated drinkers.

The effects of musically-induced positive and anxious mood on explicit alcohol-related cognitions (alcohol expectancy strength) in 47 undergraduate students who consume alcohol either to enhance positive mood states (for enhancement motives) or to cope with anxiety (for anxiety-related coping motives) were investigated. Pre- and post-mood induction, participants completed the emotional reward and emotional relief subscales of the Alcohol Craving Questionnaire - Now. The hypothesis that anxiety-related coping motivated drinkers in the anxious mood condition (but not those in the positive mood condition) would exhibit increases in strength of explicit emotional relief alcohol expectancies after the mood induction was supported. An additional, unanticipated finding was that enhancement-motivated drinkers in the anxious condition also showed significant increases in strength of explicit emotional relief (but not emotional reward) alcohol expectancies. The hypothesis that enhancement-motivated (but not anxiety-related coping motivated) participants would exhibit increases in explicit emotional reward expectancies following exposure to the positive mood induction procedure was not supported. Taken together with past research findings, the current results highlight the importance of distinguishing between subtypes of negative affect (i.e., anxious and depressed affect) in exploring the affective antecedents of explicit alcohol outcome expectancies.