Coping Motives Essay

Drinking motives are defined as the reasons or final pathway to the consumption of alcohol (Kuntsche, Knibbe, Gmel, & Engels, 2006). Cooper (1994) had proposed four types of drinking motives; (1) Enhancement motives involve drinking to increase positive affect states or positive moods, such as sensation seeking and pleasurable moments (Ham & Hope, 2003). Alcohol is widely used to fulfil needs for novelty and stimulation to create the thrills or sensation over the social situations. Reports suggested that individuals who are internally generated are more consistent across a drinking situation in how they drink than those of with external motives, resulting in higher levels of alcohol consumption (Ham & Hope, 2003; Loxton, Bunker, Dingle, & Wong,

"Men pray to the gods for health and they ignore that it is in their power to have it."

“80 percent of teen-agers have tried alcohol, and that alcohol was a contributing factor in the top three causes of death among teens: accidents, homicide and suicide” (Underage, CNN.com pg 3). Students may use drinking as a form of socializing, but is it really as good as it seems? The tradition of drinking has developed into a kind of “culture” fixed in every level of the college student environment. Customs handed down through generations of college drinkers reinforce students' expectation that alcohol is a necessary ingredient for social success. These perceptions of drinking are the going to ruin the lives of the students because it will lead to the development alcoholism. College students who drink a lot, while in a college

Risk factors such as sex, race, and grades are also discussed and linked with increased drinking. The social aspects of drinking, such as peer pressure and ones perceived image of themselves are discussed as well, along with student opinions on why they think other students drink.

For many, the college years are not only to pursue education in your chosen field but also a time to gain independence and practice the decision making process. For some, that decision includes moderate to heavy alcohol consumption. Some students can easily handle the amount of time spent socializing and taking time away from their studies; however, the majority of students’ academic performance suffers greatly from alcohol consumption.

Today, one out of every thirteen adults abuse alcohol or are alcoholics. That means nearly thirteen million Americans have a drinking problem. (www.niaaa.nih.gov) This topic offers a broad range of ideas to be researched within the psychological field. For this particular project, the topic of alcoholism and the psychological effects on people best fit the criteria. Alcoholism is defined as a disorder characterized by the excessive consumption of and dependence on alcoholic beverages, leading to physical and psychological harm and impaired social and vocational functioning. (www.dictionary.com) Through this project, the most important information regarding personal experiences

Motivation and emotion are closely linked concepts that affect behaviour. Motives affect emotion and emotion has related motivational properties. Motivation is defined as a reason or reasons for acting or behaving in a certain manner as it gives directions to our emotions, feelings and actions. Similar to motivation, emotions also activate and affect behaviourisms but emotion is rather a more subjective, complex experience resulting in behavioural changes. (Quizlet.com, 2016) (Alleydog.com, 2016) (En.m.wikiversity.org, 2016)

Relaxation, celebrating, and socializing are often reasons people engage in alcohol. However, the enjoyment of alcohol in moderation may become difficult for some individuals to manage when using alcohol as coping mechanisms or scapegoat, for other underlining issues: personal, social and work-related concerns. Unfortunately, lack of proper management may or can result into alcoholism. According to the DSM-V alcoholism is diagnosed as alcohol use disorder or alcohol addiction, in which a person becomes physically and psychologically dependent on alcohol to the point that he or she cannot function without it (American Psychiatric Association,2013).

People who drink are more than likely to have poor Academics. There is a clear relationship between alcohol use and academic performance among college students (Pediatrics 1). Students with grades of D or F drink 3 times as much as those who earn A’s …the effects on less mature individuals may be even more significant (Pediatrics 2). Poor academics can lend to students dropping out of school . Heavy drinking in high school also is associated with multiple interpersonal , academic, legal and neurocognitive consequences (Doumas 1). Poor academics can cause changes in behavior

Hasking and Oei (2008) suggest that when alcohol dependents face any situation, they will attempt to appraise the situation (cognition). In the First Phase, negative appraisals such as low self-esteem, low motivation and poor self- perceptions may be instrumental in the person adopting avoidant coping strategies, rather than approaching the situation. In the Second Phase, the coping strategies, alcohol expectancies, drink refusal skills and self-efficacy competencies will determine the interaction between appraisal of the situation and use of adaptive or maladaptive strategies. The person has learnt to avoid the stress by using alcohol, thereby enhancing the association between avoidant coping and alcohol drinking. As the avoidance of stressful situations continue, the person may experience low/ depressed mood which is likely to predict the belief that they are unable to refuse alcohol in problem - situations.

Also for many people, alcohol provides a wonderful function, people drink alcohol to temporarily relieve stress.(Lin, 2013).”

Additionally, like many other drug abusers, alcoholics often drink hoping to "drown' anxious or depressed feelings. Some alcoholics drink to reduce strong inhibitions or guilt about expressing negative feelings.

Coping strategies refer to the specific efforts, both behavioral and psychological, that people employ to master, tolerate, reduce or minimize stressful events. There are two general coping strategies which have been distinguished. Problem-focused strategies are efforts to do something active to alleviate stressful circumstances, where as emotion-focused coping strategies involve efforts to regulate the emotional consequences of stressful or potentially stressful events. Typically, people use both problem-focused and emotion-focused coping in their stressful episodes, which suggests that both types of coping are useful for most stressful events (Folkman & Lazarus, 1980).

Psychological stress is a result of many factors and should be dealt with very carefully. Stress can be defined as “An excess of demand made upon the adaptive capabilities of the mind and body”.(Joseph 1). Another way of putting it, is that there are some things that put certain demands on us. The effects of stress should not be limited to unpleasant emotional states. Many studies have concluded that the effects on our physical health from stress can be extremely detrimental. These adverse physical effects include heart disease and formations of cancer. There are also some societal issues that psychological stress can hamper.

Stress is part of our lives. We live with it, deal with it, and above all worry about it. Our way of life, the area in which we live, the economy, and our jobs can cause a great deal of stress. Not everyone deals with the same level of stress and there are several factors that can impact our lives and cause us to have higher or lower stress levels. We can have stress caused by Cataclysmic events which according to Feldman (2009) are events that can affect many people at the same time and are “disasters such as tornado and plane crashes, as well as terrorist attacks”. (p418). Other factors are personal stressors and can be caused by events such as a divorce, death or a loved one or the loss of a job. (Feldman, 2009). The