Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: The purpose of this paper was to assess the impact of public self-consciousness and a cross-situational reactivity to embarrassing encounters on alcohol consumption among college students. Extending prior analyses of the relationship between public self-awareness and alcohol use, we examined the role of perceived peer drinking as a potential conditioning variable. Drawing on the central tenets of tension-reduction and self-presentational models, we tested competing sets of hypotheses concerning the relationship between beliefs about normative drinking practices, public self-consciousness, embarrassability, and drinking behavior. The analysis of self-report data from two undergraduate samples (n=276 and n=149) suggested that public self-consciousness and embarrassability affect alcohol use primarily among students with friends who drink heavily. Among these individuals, embarrassability moderated the public self-consciousness-alcohol use relationship in a manner consistent with the predictions of self-presentational theories. While individuals high in public self-consciousness who exhibited little reactivity to embarrassing situations were heavy drinkers, public self-consciousness was associated with low levels of alcohol consumption among students high in embarrassability. Neither set of analyses supported the tension-reduction hypothesis.