A real-time examination of context effects on alcohol cognitions

BACKGROUND: This research used context aware experiential sampling to investigate the effect of contexts on in vivo alcohol-related outcome expectancies. METHODS: A time-stratified random sampling strategy was adopted to assess 72 students and young professionals at 5 daily intervals over the course of a week using a specifically designed smartphone application. This application recorded respondents' present situational and social contexts, alcohol consumption, and alcohol-related cognitions in real-time. RESULTS: In vivo social and environmental contexts and current alcohol consumption accounted for a significant proportion of variance in outcome expectancies. For instance, prompts which occurred while participants were situated in a pub, bar, or club and in a social group of friends were associated with heightened outcome expectancies in comparison with other settings. CONCLUSIONS: Alcohol-related expectancies do not appear to be static but instead demonstrate variation across social and environmental contexts. Modern technology can be usefully employed to provide a more ecologically valid means of measuring such beliefs.