The roles of historical experience and construct accessibility in judgments about alcoholism

A preliminary survey study (1) screened potential subjects and (2) identified characteristics associated with alcoholic and social drinker labels. Subjects at three experience levels (parent alcoholic, friend alcoholic, and no experience) then participated in a perception experiment in which a construct (alcoholic/social drinker) was experimentally primed, followed by an interpersonal understanding experiment in which subjects rated the drinking habits either of hypothetical others or of the self in hypothetical situations. Results indicated that primes significantly interacted with level of prior experience (only subjects with no historical experience tended to make drinking judgments that were more in the direction of alcoholism following an alcoholic prime). Results are discussed in terms of the notion that increased historical exposure to a construct may lead to the development of clearer construct boundaries, thereby reducing the tendency toward indiscriminate construct use under conditions of heightened accessibility.The present research was supported in part by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism Research Grant No. AA-06319 to the first author. Parts of this study were presented at the annual meeting of the American Psychological Association, Anaheim, California, August 1983.