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Aims Despite the existence of effective cessation methods, the vast majority of smokers attempt to quit on their own. To date, there is little evidence to explain the low adoption rates for effective forms of cessation assistance, including pharmaceutical aids. This study sought to assess smokers’ awareness and perceived effectiveness of cessation methods and to examine the relationship of this knowledge to cessation behaviour. Design A random-digit-dial telephone survey (response rate = 76%) with 3month follow-up was conducted with 616 adult daily smokers in SouthWestern Ontario, Canada. Measurements A baseline survey assessed smoking behaviour, as well as smokers’ awareness and perceived effectiveness of cessation assistance. A follow-up survey measured changes in smoking behaviour and adoption of cessation assistance at 3 months. Findings Participants demonstrated a poor recall of cessation methods: 45% of participants did not recall nicotine gum, 33% did not recall the nicotine patch and 57% did not recall bupropion. Also, many participants did not believe that the following cessation methods would increase their likelihood of quitting: nicotine replacement therapies (36%), bupropion (35%), counselling from a health professional (66%) and group counselling/quit programmes (50%). In addition, 78% of smokers indicated that they were just as likely to quit on their own as they were with assistance. Most important, participants who perceived cessation methods to be effective at baseline, were more likely to intend to quit (OR = 1.80, 95% CI: 1.12‐2.90), make a quit attempt at follow-up (OR = 1.80, 95% CI: 1.03‐3.16) and to adopt cessation assistance when doing so (OR = 3.62, 95% CI: 1.04‐12.58). Conclusions This research suggests that many smokers may be unaware of effective cessation methods and most underestimate their benefit. Further, this lack of knowledge may represent a significant barrier to treatment adoption.

To test the theory of planned behavior as a model for predicting and understanding behavioral intentions for fighting among inner-city adolescents and to determine whether its predictive power differs as a function of ethnicity (African American versus Latino).Participants were 956 (511 females, 445 males) African American (n = 702) and Latino (n = 254) adolescents (mean age = 12.72 years; SD = 1.12) recruited from sixth, seventh, and eighth grade classes in public middle schools serving two inner-city communities in New Jersey who completed self-administered, confidential questionnaires.Consistent with the theory of planned behavior, hierarchical multiple regression analyses revealed that attitudes, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control predicted intentions for fighting. Although the theory of planned behavior accounted for substantial variance in intentions to fight in both ethnic groups, it accounted for greater variance among Latinos than among African Americans. The strength of the relations of subjective norms and perceived behavioral control to intentions was similar in the two groups. but the relation of attitudes to intentions to fight was significantly stronger among Latinos.The findings strongly suggest that the theory of planned behavior provides a potentially useful conceptual framework for guiding the creation of interventions for African American and Latino adolescents that are designed to reduce violent behavior and the tragedies that such behavior leaves in its wake.

Data from 7 studies were aggregated to examine how reported sexual arousal and alcohol intoxication interact to affect attitudes and intentions toward engaging in unprotected sexual intercourse in college-age men (N = 358). When participants were in a sober or placebo condition, their self-reports of sexual arousal had no effect on their responses. When participants were intoxicated, however, those who felt sexually aroused reported more favorable attitudes, thoughts, and intentions toward having unprotected sex than did those who did not feel aroused. These findings support alcohol myopia theory (C. M. SteeleR. A. Josephs, 1990), which states that alcohol intoxication restricts attentional capacity so that people are highly influenced by the most salient cues in their environment. It is suggested that sexual arousal is a powerful internal cue that interacts with alcohol intoxication to enhance attitudes and intentions toward risky sexual behaviors.

A laboratory experiment and 2 field studies tested the hypothesis that alcohol affects attitudes and intentions toward drinking and driving. Sober and intoxicated participants completed a questionnaire assessing their attitudes and intentions to drink and drive in a number of situations. Results indicated that when asked general or noncontingent questions, sober and intoxicated participants were equally negative about this behavior. However, when a contingency was embedded in the question (e.g., "would you drink and drive only a short distance?"), intoxicated participants were significantly less negative about drinking and driving. These results are consistent with alcohol myopia (C. M. SteeleR. A. Josephs, 1990)--the notion that alcohol intoxication decreases cognitive capacity so that people are more likely to attend to only the most salient cues.

Ss were trained on the law of large numbers in a given domain through the use of example problems. They were then tested either on that domain or on another domain either immediately or after a 2-week delay. Strong domain independence was found when testing was immediate. This transfer of training was not due simply to Ss' ability to draw direct analogies between problems in the trained domain and in the untrained domain. After the 2-week delay, it was found that (a) there was no decline in performance in the trained domain and (b) although there was a significant decline in performance in the untrained domain, performance was still better than for control Ss. Memory measures suggest that the retention of training effects is due to memory for the rule system rather than to memory for the specific details of the example problems, contrary to what would be expected if Ss were using direct analogies to solve the test problems.