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Over 700 college students were measured with the Jenkins Activity Survey (JAS) along with eleven other personality scales in an attempt to identify the personality correlates of this scale. These eleven personality variables were analyzed to determine their contribution to a discriminant solution between extreme high scores (supposedly true Type A's) and low scores (supposedly true Type B's) as measured by the JAS. The results revealed that relative to those subjects who were classified as Type B's, those classified as Type A's exhibited significantly greater status concern, less alexithymia, more misanthropy and greater life satisfaction. Self-esteem and related self-concepts did not differ significantly between these two groups. These findings challenge the validity of this instrument as a measure of Type A trait.

The effects of different types of risk information in a simulated decision-making task were investigated to test the predictions of protection motivation theory. In accordance with predictions, outcome severity, efficacy of protection, and access to protection were related to protective decisions. The results are discussed in terms of general utility of this model for a variety of decision-making situations. The aspect of manageability, which is seen as a combination of efficacy of protection and access to protection, was discussed as an essential component for risk decision making.

Two social psychological theories (the Fishbein Model and the Health Belief Model) were used to derive attitude and belief factors to predict intentions to drive while under the influence of alcohol and actual drinking-driving behavior in a college population. The results revealed strong support for the Fishbein theory; attitudes and normative beliefs predicted intentions, while intentions were the best predictor of subsequent behavior. From the Health Belief Model, specific beliefs regarding one's effectiveness at being able to avoid getting caught by the police and cause an accident while driving under the influence of alcohol were also significantly related to drinking-driving intentions and behavior. These findings indicate that decisions to drink and drive are the result of one's personal evaluation of this behavior and one's perceived ability to control the threatening consequences. Thus drinking and driving may continue to be so prevalent in a college population because they erroneously believe that they are still safe drivers and effective at controlling the attendant risks.

Over 2,000 high school students were surveyed with an anonymous questionnaire to determine their frequency of drunk driving, social context of alcohol consumption, beliefs about drunk driving, and quantity and frequency of alcohol consumed. About 10% of the sample was identified as drunk drivers and they were compared with non-drunk driving drinkers according to a number of measures of where and why they drank. The results revealed highly significant differences in the social context of alcohol consumption for beer, wine, and liquor consumption. Across all three beverage categories, the most important discriminating social context factors were drinking at a dormitory and drinking to get along better on dates. Beer and liquor consumption were more important than wine consumption for discriminating drunk drivers from the non-problem drinking high school population. Quantity and frequency measures of alcohol consumption along with belief measures about drinking and driving did not substantially increase the discrimination between the two groups, but significantly increased the predictive power in a multiple regression analysis including the social context of alcohol consumption items.

A replication of the original survey of police attitudes toward marijuana was conducted in an adjacent county. The survey dealt with three sets of beliefs: the effects of marijuana, the enforcement of marijuana laws, and the causes of marijuana use. The overall results were quite similar to the initial findings in that most officers felt that marijuana was harmful (physically and psychologically) but not more so than alcohol; almost 28% believed that the possession of an ounce or less should be decriminalized, while 75% felt that the laws for possession of this amount were not being actively enforced; most felt that peer pressure is the main reason why people start to use it, that youthful users are not well informed about its effects, and that parents are unaware of their children's usage or its effects.

A national survey of information seeking about work-related safety and health matters was conducted among 574 safety and health managers from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Science and Education Administration. Specific beliefs about the seriousness, likelihood, and effectiveness of present work hazards as well as the need for additional information were used to predict self-reported information-seeking activities. The results revealed that the beliefs of how well the managers protect themselves from hazards, the seriousness of needing information, the likelihood of needing additional information, and the usefulness of this information were significant predictors of safety and health information seeking. Manager beliefs of how well coworkers protect themselves from hazards and felt need for additional information were not related to information seeking. Manager perceptions of coworkers as less careful and informed concerning safety are discussed.

Summary The interaction hypothesis that higher levels of fear arousal will be relatively more effective in producing attitude change for topics of low importance and relatively less effective for topics of high importance was investigated. Undergraduate smokers and nonsmokers (N = 129 males and females) were exposed to one of three fear-arousing communications concerning smoking and cancer. High and low topic importance groups were created on the basis of (a) smoking behavior, (b) verbal reports of topic importance, and (c) interest in the topic. The latter two measures were moderately correlated with one another but neither correlated well with the behavioral measure. Posttest measures of fear level indicated that the messages induced fear but did not induce very high levels, even in the High Fear condition. The interaction hypothesis was not supported with any of the criteria of importance. Smokers evidenced more attitude change than nonsmokers. Higher levels of fear resulted in more attitude change tha...

In a survey of over 2300 high school students, an examination was made of their social context of alcohol consumption and their sources of information about alcohol and drugs. Students were classified as alcohol abusers by three different methods and were asked to indicate among a series of choices how often they consumed alcohol in various situations and for various motivations or reasons. These two sets of items comprised the measure of social context. The students were also asked to indicate their best source of information about alcohol and drugs, and to what source they would go first if they had a question about alcohol and drugs. A discriminant analysis of the social context items revealed that in contrast to non-problem drinkers, students classified as alcohol abusers consistently demonstrated a distinct social context pattern of alcohol consumption. They more frequently drink to get drunk, to get rid of depression, at a bar, to get along better on dates, etc. than their non-problem drinker counterparts. Abusers also consistently indicated that their own experience was their best source of information about alcohol and drugs, and if they had a question they would seek information first from their friends. Non-drinkers and non-problem drinkers both said that mass media (newspapers, books, T.V., and movies) was their best source of information and if they had a question they would go first to their family for information. These findings are consistent with previous research on social context of drinking which show that alcohol abusers, even in older age groups, possess different social patterns of drinking than non-abusers and suggest that different ways of communicating information about alcohol with this group be considered apart from traditional information dissemination strategies in school/community programs.

The attitudes of a major metropolitan police force were surveyed with regard to their beliefs about marijuana; especially, their beliefs about the effects of marijuana, the enforcement of laws for possession, and the causes for marijuana use. The results indicated that most officers felt marijuana was harmful (physically as well as psychologically) but not necessarily more so than alcohol; 31% believed that possession of small amounts (less than or equal to 1 oz) should be decriminalized, and 85% did not believe that current laws for possession of small amounts were being actively enforced; most officers felt that peer pressure is the main reason why people start to use it and that youthful users and their parents are not well informed about its effects. The officers' rank, educational level, and whether or not they had children were also significantly related to marijuana beliefs, suggesting important demographic factors which determine acceptance of current drug law changes.

The effects of health threat communications have generated considerable empirical and theoretical attention. Inconsistent findings in the "fear appeat' literature suggest that the effects of these types of messages are not completely understood. Previous theoretical approaches have tended to focus upon the emotional (fear) reaction produced by exposure to threatening health information. However, the weight of the experimental evidence indicates that certain cognitions about the threat are more directly related to acceptance of the recommendations than emotional arousal. An integration of the existing theoretical approaches is offered, which views acceptance of health threat recommendations to be mediated by perceptions of threat control. Two fundamental beliefs are seen as comprising perceived threat control: response efficacy, which is the perceived ability of the recommended coping action(s) to reduce or control the threat; and personal efficacy, which is the person's expectation of being able to perform the recommended threat-coping action(s) successfully. These two threat controlfactors are consistent with existing theories of health behavior (Health Belief Model) and fear appeals (Rogers, 1975) and may help to clarify Leventhals (1970) parallel response model. Empirical support for these factors is presented and indicates that beyond some adequate level of utility, personal efficacy is a more important determinant of protective health behavior than response efficacy. The implication for health practitioners is that communications can be very effective in producing acceptance of protective health behavior if a real, but controllable threat is depicted. Therefore, future research should focus upon the ways by which response efficacy and personal efficacy can be enhanced in a health threat communication.