The Palgrave Handbook of Psychological Perspectives on Alcohol Consumption

This Handbook provides a broad and comprehensive overview of psychological research on alcohol consumption. It explores the psychological theories underpinning alcohol use and misuse, discusses the interventions that can be designed around these theories, and offers key insight into future developments within the field.

A range of international experts assess the unique factors that contribute to alcohol-related behaviour as differentiated from other health-related behaviours. They cover the theory and context of alcohol consumption, including possible implications of personality type, motivation and self-regulation, and cultural and demographic factors. After reviewing the evidence for psychological theories and predictors as accounts for alcohol consumption, the book goes on to focus on external influences on consumption and interventions for reducing alcohol consumption, including those based on purchasing and consumption behaviour, technologies such as personalised feedback apps, and social and media phenomena such as “Dry January” and “Hello Sunday Morning”. It brings together cutting-edge contemporary research on alcohol consumption in childhood and adolescence, including topics such as managing offers or drinks, “pre-drinking”, online identities, how children develop their beliefs about alcohol and how adolescents discuss alcohol with their parents. The book also offers a rounded presentation of the tensions involved in debates around the psychological impacts of alcohol use, discussing its role in helping people to socialise and unwind; as well as recognising the possible negative impacts on health, education and relationships. 

This book will be of interest to academics, policymakers, public health officials, practitioners, charities and other stakeholders interested in understanding how alcohol affects people psychologically. This book will also be a key resource for students and researchers from across the social sciences.

• alcohol consumption
• health psychology
• substances abuse
• health-related behaviours
• social drinking
• responsible drinking
• irresponsible drinking
• abstinence
• drinking games
• teenage drinking
• social policy
• childhood drinking
• adolescent drinking
• Theory of Planned Behaviour
• alcohol-related behaviour
• behaviour change techniques

• Department of Psychology, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, UK

  Richard Cooke

• Liverpool Centre for Alcohol Research, Liverpool, UK

  Richard Cooke

• School of Psychology, University of East London, London, UK

  Dominic Conroy

• Department of Psychology, Health and Professional Development, Oxford Brookes University, Oxford, UK

  Emma Louise Davies

• Department of Psychological Sciences, University of California, Merced, Merced, USA

  Martin S. Hagger

• Faculty of Sport and Health Sciences, University of Jyväskylä, Jyväskylä, Finland

  Martin S. Hagger

• Brighton and Sussex Medical School, University of Sussex, Falmer, UK

  Richard O. de Visser

Richard Cooke is Senior Lecturer in Psychology in the Institute for Population Health and the Liverpool Centre for Alcohol Research at the University of Liverpool, UK. 

Dominic Conroy is Lecturer in Psychology in the Department of Psychological Science at the University of East London, UK.

Emma Louise Davies is Senior Lecturer in Psychology at Oxford Brookes University, UK.

Martin S. Hagger is Professor of Health Psychology in the Department of Psychological Sciences at the University of California, Merced, USA.

Richard O. de Visser is a Reader in Psychology in the School of Psychology at the University of Sussex, UK and at the Brighton & Sussex Medical School, Department of Primary Care and Public Health.

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