Research Blog #10: Final Abstract, Bibliography, & Link

LINK:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1OfE8-1Kxk3SpyjcoYAE3AHuzJ5ZnSteMtUbZq5gGHRQ/edit

ABSTRACT:

        College alcohol abuse is an epidemic that isn’t showing signs of slowing down. Lack of results produced by government and academic policies shows that the problem may stem from culture rather than laws. One possible solution is to engage the problem through the lenses of social norms theory. Theoretically, social norms theory should effectively combat college alcohol abuse by changing student misperceptions of peer alcohol consumption to reflect reality. Social norms theory has been implemented in several government-run programs as an alternative to traditional forms of prevention. Ways that social norms theory have already been applied to college drinking include media campaigns and monitored responsible drinking sessions hosted by academic institutions.

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

"Alcohol Policy - Rutgers University Residence Life." Rutgers University Residence Life. Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, n.d. Web. 09 Dec. 2015. <http://ruoncampus.rutgers.edu/policies/residence-hall-policies/alcohol-policy/>.

Anonymous Rutgers Students. "Rutgers Responsible Drinking Happy Hour." Interview by Angelo D. Ragusa. 1 Dec. 2015.

Berkowitz, Alan D. "The Social Norms Approach: Theory, Research, and Annotated Bibliography." (n.d.): n. pag. AlanBerkowitz.com. Aug. 2004. Web. 9 Dec. 2015. <http://www.alanberkowitz.com/articles/social_norms.pdf>.

Champion, Denisha A., Todd F. Lewis, and Jane E. Myers. "College Student Alcohol Use And Abuse: Social Norms, Health Beliefs, And Selected Socio-Demographic Variables As Explanatory Factors."Journal Of Alcohol & Drug Education 59.1 (2015): 57-82 26p. CINAHL with Full Text. Web. 10 Dec. 2015. <http://eds.b.ebscohost.com.proxy.libraries.rutgers.edu/eds/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=0da553ee-518a-4eb9-bd30-a333ffb16d69%40sessionmgr198&vid=2&hid=122>

"College Drinking." College Drinking. National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, n.d. Web. 09 Dec. 2015. <http://www.niaaa.nih.gov/alcohol-health/special-populations-co-occurring-disorders/college-drinking>.

"Fact Sheets - Binge Drinking." Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 16 Oct. 2015. Web. 09 Dec. 2015. <http://www.cdc.gov/alcohol/fact-sheets/binge-drinking.htm>.

Gladwell, Malcolm. "Drinking Games." Malcolm Gladwell. N.p., 15 Feb. 2010. Web. 09 Dec. 2015. <http://gladwell.com/drinking-games/>.

Grube, Joel W. "Alcohol in the Media: Drinking Portrayals, Alcohol Advertising, and Alcohol Consumption Among Youth." The National Center for Biotechnology Information. U.S. National Library of Medicine, 2004. Web. 10 Dec. 2015. <http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK37586/>.

Rockefeller, John D., Jr. Letter to Nicholas Murray Butler. 6 June 1932. MS. 26 Broadway, New York City, New York. Web. 09 Dec. 2015. <http://www.drugpolicy.org/docUploads/RockefellerLetter1937.pdf>

"RU SURE." RU Sure - Center for Communication and Health Issues. Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, n.d. Web. 09 Dec. 2015. <http://commandhealthissues.rutgers.edu/ru-sure.html>.

Wagenaar, Alexander, and Traci Toomey. "Effects of Minimum Drinking Age Laws: Review and Analyses of the Literature from 1960 to 2000."Effects of Minimum Drinking Age Laws. 3 Sept. 2005. Web. 20 Oct. 2015. <http://www.collegedrinkingprevention.gov/supportingresearch/journal/wagenaar.aspx>.

Wechsler, Henry, George W. Dowdall, Gretchen Maenner, Jeana Gledhill-Hoyt, and Hang Lee. "Changes in Binge Drinking and Related Problems Among American College Students Between 1993 and 1997." Journal of American College Health 47.2 (1998): 66. The National Center for Biotechnology Information. Web. 10 Dec. 2015. <http://archive.sph.harvard.edu/cas/rpt1998/rpt1998.pdf>.

Research Blog #9: Argument and Counter-Argument

My research has led me to the conclusion that the culture surrounding college drinking is reinforcing dangerous drinking patterns among college students. Due to a wide variety of factors including heavy media influences, dangerous drinking behaviors such as binge drinking and alcohol crowdsourcing is abundant on college campuses. In order to change the culture of college drinking, one theory that I believe may be successful in practice is social norms theory.

Social norms theory makes two primary assumptions: people (college students in this case) tend to alter their behaviors based on their perceptions of their society’s norms and that frequently these perceptions are incorrect (Berkowitz, 5). When applied to the problem of college drinking, the theory suggests that college students overestimate the alcohol consumption of their peers and will in turn consume more to mirror their perceptions of the societal norm. In theory, changing the misperceptions that college students have about their peers should lead to a significant reduction in the amount of alcohol that college students consume. In practice, social norms theory is used in media campaigns all over college campuses that reinforce the notion that most college students are not heavy drinkers, such as in RU Sure's media campaign at Rutgers University.

While a social norms approach sounds good in theory, there does exist opposition to the theory. The first is that in order for the theory to work, a student must overestimate the alcohol use of his or her peers. Should this not be the case, the theory does not fit properly. Another concern with the use of social norms theory is that the students have to buy into the message that the academic institutions are sending. Some students may be untrustworthy of these types of tactics and think of them as ways that an authoritative body is trying to ruin their fun college experiences. 

Research Blog #8: Interview

I interviewed several Rutgers students to gather information as to why they did not attend the Rutgers Responsible Drinking Happy Hour. My original plan was to interview a student on their experiences with attending the event, but I was unable to find anyone who had actually gone. This program is Rutgers' attempt to engage the problem of underage college drinking with social norms theory.

The most prevalent reason as to why students told me that did not attend the responsible drinking event was that it is only open to students age 21 and older. This restriction, while necessary to stay within the bounds of federal law, restricts roughly 75% of the undergraduate student body. Without even being able to go to these events, the responsible drinking program has 0 effect on the younger college students who need them the most.

Another factor in why students over the age of 21 said that they were reluctant to attend was that the environment was uncomfortable. College students, especially younger undergraduates, flock to fraternity parties and house parties like seagulls to your sandwich on the beach. These parties are where these students feel most comfortable drinking, as it provides a space where everyone else around them is either an anonymous face or is participating in drinking in the same way as them. In contrast, the Rutgers Responsible Drinking Happy Hour is filled with professors and other faculty watching the students every move. On top of that, students felt that they were being "babied" by only being restricted to 1 drink per hour, regardless of the person's personal alcohol tolerance.

This interview showed me the full extent of the problems that the Rutgers program presents. To me, it seems as though the program, while well intentioned, serves basically no purpose. The main demographic that should be targeted, mainly freshman/sophomore students, are completely barred from partaking, leaving them to find alcohol elsewhere, mainly in unregulated environments like fraternity parties.

Research Blog #7: My Case

I chose not to use a specific court case in my research paper, as there were none related specifically to the theoretical framework that I chose to use in my paper. Instead, I chose to use Malcolm Gladwell's analysis of distinct groups of people and their drinking behaviors to illustrate how culture can be the underlying factor in alcohol use and behavioral patterns.

The first group of people that Gladwell talks about is the Camba of Bolivia. The Camba would go on “weekly benders (AKA: drinking parties) with [180-proof] alcohol”. Shockingly, Heath describes the Camba as having “no social pathology...no arguments, no disputes, no sexual aggression, no verbal aggression. There was pleasant conversation or silence” (Gladwell). This is an interesting discovery because it shows that despite near dangerous amounts of drinking, the Camba do not show any type of behavioral changes that are prevalent among American college students who drink. He contrasts the Camba to the students of Brown University, who, after consuming beer turn into a "hormonal frenzy on Friday nights" (Gladwell). 

Next, Gladwell compares the drinking habits of Italian immigrants and Irish immigrants in New Haven. The two groups, both of which were subjected to the same alcohol laws and had similar thirsts for alcoholic beverages, differed drastically in their rates of alcoholism. Despite being daily drinkers, the Italian immigrants showed much lower rates of alcoholism and behavioral changes than the Irish immigrants (Gladwell).

The common factor that ties the two groups together is that they both consume alcohol only in specific, structured contexts. The Camba, though excessive drinkers, only do so in the context of their village rituals. The Italians, though daily drinkers, only do so in moderation and once a day with a meal. This is a direct contrast to the Brown University students who drink in an unregulated and unstructured environment. As such, their behaviors shift in a manner that corresponds directly to the environment in which they drink. Drinking in dark, loud, wild, and unregulated environments brings out shifts in personality like increased aggression and increase in sexual promiscuity.

Literature Review #5: The social norms approach: Theory, research and annotated bibliography

Berkowitz, Alan D. "The social norms approach: Theory, research and annotated bibliography." Higher Education Center for Alcohol and Other Drug Abuse and Violence Prevention. US Department of Education (2004).

Alan Berkowitz provides an overview of the social norms approach that he developed and how it relates to college drinking. His findings showed that during his study, college students would regularly overestimate the alcohol consumption of their peers and the extent to which their peers were supportive of drinking behaviors. He found that the students estimations of their peers had a direct relationship to the amount that person drank. He also describes several key terms that are used to interpret social norms and the misconceptions behind them.

Berkowitz is the creator of the social norms approach, along with his partner H.W. Perkins. Berkowitz is the go-to source for all information pertaining to his social norms theory and any information from his resources are directly from the point of view of the man who invented it.

Key Terms-

Pluralistic Ignorance: "occurs when a majority of individuals falsely assume that most of their peers behave or think differently from them when in fact their attitudes and/or behavior are similar" (Berkowitz, 7)

False Consensus- "the incorrect belief that others are like one-self when in fact they are not" (Berkowitz, 7)

False Uniqueness- "occurs when individuals who are in the minority assume that the difference between themselves and others is greater than is actually the case" (Berkowitz, 8)

"When drug prevention emphasizes problem behavior without acknowledging the actual healthy norm, it may foster the erroneous belief that drinking problems are worse than is actually the case and inadvertently contribute to the problem it is trying to solve" (Berkowitz, 5). 

“...encourages individuals to suppress healthy attitudes and behaviors that are falsely thought to be non-conforming and to provide encouragement to engage in the unhealthy behaviors that are seen incorrectly as normative" (Berkowitz, 7)

This study provides the backbone and the theoretical framework to my entire argument. I will be engaging the problem of college drinking through the lenses of social norms theory and Berkowitz's study will prove to be invaluable in making my argument.