Binge drinking

When People Drink Themselves Silly, and Why

One social phenomenon that interests psychologists is known as binge drinking.
This is when a male will have over 8 units of alcohol in one sitting - or women
5 units. A unit of alcohol is equal to a third of a pint of beer or half a standard
glass of wine. People who binge drink are not necessarily regular drinkers;
however, when they do drink they tend to drink too much, too fast and end up
getting drunk.

In a series of studies in the 1980's, psychologists at the University of

Washington put more than 300 students into a room made to look like a bar
with mirrors, music and a wooden bar completely stocked with alcohol. The
researchers served alcoholic drinks, most often icy vodka tonics, to some of the
students and non-alcoholic ones, usually icy tonic water, to others. The drinks
looked and tasted the same, and the students typically drank five in an hour or
two.

The studies found that people who thought they were drinking alcohol behaved
exactly as aggressively, or as affectionately, or as happily as they expected to
when drunk. There was no significant difference between those who got alcohol
and those who did not. Their behaviour was totally determined by their
expectations of how they would behave.

Please answer all of the following questions, based on the study above. Use
complete sentences and write you answers as though the person reading it has
never taken psychology.

1. One of the problems with this study is its construct validity. Please explain
this term with reference to the study.

2. What would be the null hypothesis of this study?

3. What is one thing that the researcher must do before he begins the study in
order to meet ethical standards?
4. What was the independent variable in this study?
The independent variable in this study would be the difference that whether
there would be alcohol served or not.

5. What was the dependent variable in this study?

The behaviours like aggression, happiness and affection.

6. Which design did the researchers use – independent samples or repeated

measures? What is one strength of this design? What is one limitation?

7. Briefly summarize the findings of the study.

8. Do you think that this study has ecological validity? Why or why not?

9. What is one advantage and one disadvantage of using students for this study?

10. Based on your knowledge of psychology so far, why do you think that the
researchers