Article Review Sheet and Mystery of the WeekName _______________.docx

Article Review Sheet and Mystery of the Week
Name ____________________________
Date ________________
Article Title:
_____________________________________________________
__
Author:
_____________________________________________________
____
Source and Date:
________________________________________________
Article # ___________________
1. Briefly summarize the article in your own words. (No
quotes please!)
2. List three key points from the article:
a.
b.
c.
3. Do you agree or disagree with the premise and conclusions

in the article? Yes No
4. What were the weak parts of the argument or missing
information in the article that may lead
to a different conclusion?
‘Beauty is in the eye of the beer holder’: People
who think they are drunk also think
they are attractive
Laurent Bègue1∗ , Brad J. Bushman2,3, Oulmann Zerhouni1,
Baptiste Subra4 and Medhi Ourabah5
1University of Grenoble 2, France
2The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio, USA
3VU University, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
4University of Paris Descartes, France
5University of Paris 8, Saint-Denis, France
This research examines the role of alcohol consumption on self-
perceived attractiveness.
Study 1, carried out in a barroom (N = 19), showed that the
more alcoholic drinks
customers consumed, the more attractive they thought they
were. In Study 2, 94 non-
student participants in a bogus taste-test study were given either
an alcoholic beverage
(target BAL [blood alcohol level] = 0.10 g/100 ml) or a non-
alcoholic beverage, with
half of each group believing they had consumed alcohol and
half believing they had
not (balanced placebo design). After consuming beverages, they
delivered a speech and

rated how attractive, bright, original, and funny they thought
they were. The speeches
were videotaped and rated by 22 independent judges. Results
showed that participants
who thought they had consumed alcohol gave themselves more
positive self-evaluations.
However, ratings from independent judges showed that this
boost in self-evaluation was
unrelated to actual performance.
‘Beauty is in the eye of the beer holder’
—Kinky Friedman
Alcohol has many consequences on social perception and
relationships. After a drink,
intoxicated people see members of the opposite sex through
‘beer goggles’, which makes
them look especially attractive (Jones, Jones, Thomas, & Piper,
2003; Lyvers, Cholakians,
Puorro, & Sundram, 2011; Neave, Tsang, & Heather, 2008). But
alcohol can also influence
self-perceptions. Previous research on alcohol and self-
awareness has found that alcohol
reduces self-awareness by inhibiting self-relevant encoding
processes (Hull, Levenson,
Young, & Sher, 1983). The purpose of the present research is to
test the hypothesis
∗Correspondence should be addressed to Laurent Bègue,
University of Grenoble 2, LIP, 1251, Av. Centrale, BP47, 38040
Grenoble, France (e-mail: [email protected]).
DOI:10.1111/j.2044-8295.2012.02114.x
British Journal of Psychology (2013), 104, 225–234

© 201 The British Psychological Society
www.wileyonlinelibrary.com
225
2
that alcohol consumption increases self-perceived
attractiveness. Whereas meta-analytic
reviews indicate that alcohol consumption enhances mood and
sexual arousal (Hull &
Bond, 1986), the link between alcohol consumption and self-
perceived attractiveness
remains to be clarified and theoretically developed.
In order to understand the link between alcohol and self-
processes, we relied
on the dual-process model of alcohol-related behaviour (Moss &
Albery, 2009; see
also Moss & Albery, 2010; Wiers & Stacy, 2010). This model
suggests that although
alcohol consumption disrupts cognitive controlled processes,
the mind may still become
‘intoxicated’ even in the absence of alcohol consumption (Moss
& Albery, 2009). For
example, when people believe that they are intoxicated, they
behave more aggressively
(Bègue et al., 2009), and show more sexually disinhibited
behaviours (Crowe & Georges,
1989). Various studies indicate that the effects of alcohol on
human cognition and
behaviour should distinguish pharmacological and social
psychological consequences

of alcohol consumption. In the field of sexual arousal, for
example, a meta-analytic
review indicated that alcohol consumption had a non-significant
effect on sexual arousal,
whereas the mere expectation of drinking alcohol significantly
increased sexual arousal
(Hull & Bond, 1986). From this perspective, behaviours that are
disinhibited after
drinking a placebo can be understood as a consequence of the
activation of alcohol-
related concepts in memory. In one study, the mere subliminal
activation of alcohol-
related concepts caused men to rate the faces of women as more
sexually attractive
(Friedman, McCarty, Forster, & Denzler, 2005).
Drunkenness is thus not merely a physiological consequence of
alcohol, but involves
complex interactions of both limited processing capacities
(myopia theory, see below)
and chronically and temporarily activated mental
representations that make certain
patterns of responding more accessible (expectancy theory, see
below). According to the
dual-process model of the alcohol behaviour (Moss & Albery,
2009), a full understanding
of alcohol effects has to integrate both pharmacological and
extra-pharmacological
consequences of alcohol on human cognition and behaviour.
Expectancies are the first
component of the model. They are considered as the result of
learned associations
between alcohol-related representations in memory. The sources
of this associative
process could be referred to as conditioning (Hull & Bond,
1986) or vicarious learning

(Bandura, 1965). For example, content analyses show that
media characters who
drink alcohol are generally depicted as more attractive than
those who do not drink
alcohol (McIntosh, 1999). Hence, to the extent that people
strongly endorse alcohol-
self-enhancement expectancies, concepts of ‘alcohol’ and
‘attractiveness’ would be
linked together in memory. According to alcohol expectancy
theory, alcohol-related cues
could implicitly activate alcohol-related expectancies, which
could, in turn, affect social
judgements and behaviours that are in line with these alcohol-
related expectancies. The
concept of alcohol expectancy is based on a semantic network
model of memory (Collins
& Quillian, 1969), which posits that concepts that frequently
co-occur, or share a similar
meaning, are stored close together in memory. When one
concept is activated, other
related concepts also become more accessible through a
spreading activation process
(Collins & Loftus, 1975). For instance, social knowledge
regarding alcohol effects is
automatically activated in memory during the natural course of
perception, without
awareness or intention. Knowledge activation, in turn, shapes
and guides people’s
impressions, judgements, feelings, and intentions without
awareness that such influence
is occurring (see Bargh & Erin, 2006; Bargh & Ferguson, 2000;
Ferguson & Bargh, 2004).
Another aspect of the dual-process model is related to the
physiological consequences
of alcohol consumption. According to the attention allocation

model, alcohol has a
226 Laurent B�egue et al.
‘myopic’ or narrowing effect on attention (Giancola & Corman,
2007; Steele & Josephs,
1990), which causes people to focus attention on the most
salient cues and to not
pay attention to more subtle or distal cues. Alcohol myopia is
therefore defined as
a state of short-sightedness in which superficially understood,
immediate aspects of
experience have a disproportionate influence on behaviours and
emotions (Steele &
Josephs, 1990). Although a sober individual can consider a
range of information more
or less salient before responding to a social situation, an
intoxicated individual will be
less concerned with consideration distal in time and place
because he will be captive
of an impoverished version of reality in which the breadth,
depth, and timeline of his
understanding will be affected. Various studies show that
intoxicated people no longer
have the prerequisite processing skills to attend to all of the
multiple cues involved in
social behaviour (Streufert, Pogash, & Gingrich, 1993) and seek
cognitive closure (Lange,
2002).
In our study on perceived attractiveness, two hypotheses were
possible. First, alcohol
could lead to a general increase of perceived attractiveness,
because being attractive is a

salient feature of the self. Second, alcohol could produce more
polarized responses such
that attractive people would judge themselves even more
attractive, whereas unattractive
people would judge themselves as even less attractive.
Overview of present research
The present research investigates the effects of alcohol
consumption on self-perceived
attractiveness. In Study 1, carried out in a barroom, we analyse
the relationship between
an objective measure of intoxication (i.e., breathalyser reading)
and self-perceived
attractiveness. Study 2, an experimental study, clarifies the
causal link between alcohol
consumption and self-perceived attractiveness using a balanced
placebo design (Marlatt
& Rohsenow, 1980), which allows one to separate the
pharmacological effects of alcohol
from the psychological effects of alcohol. In Study 2, objective
measure of attractiveness
were also obtained by independent raters to determine whether
the effects of alcohol
consumption on self-perceived attractiveness are grounded in
reality, or whether they
are simply an illusion of the drinker.
STUDY 1
Study 1 provided an initial test of the hypothesis that
intoxicated people think they
are more attractive than sober people do. One major strength of
Study 1 is that it was
conducted in a naturalistic setting – a barroom.
Method
Participants

Participants were 19 customers (63% males; Mage = 22.5, SD =
5.0, range = 19–40)
in a barroom in Grenoble, France. They received a lottery ticket
in exchange for their
voluntary participation.
Procedure
Participants rated how attractive, bright, original, and funny
they felt at the moment
(1 = not at all to 7 = extremely; Cronbach’s � = .71; M = 4.27,
SD = 1.11). Next, we
Alcohol and perceived attractiveness 227
estimated blood alcohol level (BAL) using a breathalyser
(Draeger 5100S; M = 0.34%,
SD = 0.38). A debriefing followed.
Results and Discussion
Because they were not normally distributed, BAL values were
transformed using a natural
log function. As expected, the higher the BAL, the more
attractive participants thought
they were, r = .56, p = .012.
These results are consistent with the hypothesis that intoxicated
people think they
are more attractive than sober people do. Because of the
correlational nature of Study
1, however, we cannot rule out the possibility that individuals
who think they are
attractive tend to drink more in barrooms, or that some third
factor is related to perceived
attractiveness and alcohol consumption.

Study 1 also does not allow one to determine whether it is the
actual consumption
of alcohol or the mere belief that one has consumed alcohol that
relates to perceived
attractiveness. In the real world it is impossible to separate the
pharmacological and
expectancy effects of alcohol, but in the laboratory it is possible
to separate them using a
balanced placebo design (Marlatt & Rohsenow, 1980). Study 2
was therefore carried
out to disentangle both possible origins of the alcohol-self-
relationship.
Study 1 also did not allow us to test whether intoxicated
participants were, in fact,
more attractive. We wanted to conduct videotaped interviews
with barroom patrons,
and then show these interviews to independent judges, but this
was not possible. Study
2 also overcomes this weakness of Study 1.
STUDY 2
In Study 2, we experimentally tested the expectancy and
pharmacological effects of
alcohol consumption on self-evaluated attractiveness.
Participants drank a beverage that
contained or did not contain alcohol. Within each group, half
were told the beverage
contained alcohol and half were told it contained no alcohol.
Next, participants delivered
a message that was filmed, supposedly to be used in future
advertisements for the
beverage. After watching the filmed message, participants rated
how attractive, bright,

original, and funny they thought they were. We predicted that
alcohol consumption
would increase self-perceived attractiveness, as in Study 1.
However, we were unsure
whether this effect would be due to the pharmacological effects
of alcohol, the
expectancy effects of alcohol, or both.
As an objective measure of how attractive participants were,
independent judges,
blind to beverage conditions, also rated participants on the same
dimensions. Because
the judges were sober, we predicted that alcohol consumption
would be unrelated to
this objective measure of attractiveness.
Method
Participants
Participants were 94 French men. Three did not follow
instructions, and two in placebo
condition and three participants in anti-placebo condition
suspected a discrepancy
between what they were told concerning their beverage and
what they were actually
given. We therefore excluded them from the sample. Thus, the
final sample included
86 men (Mage = 27, SD = 7). Participants were recruited via
newspaper advertisements
for a taste-test study and were paid 14€ ($21) per hour. Men
who responded to the ads
were interviewed over the phone, ostensibly to determine if they

were allergic to any
foods, including alcohol. Potential at-risk drinkers were
identified by the CAGE screening
test for alcohol dependence (Beresford, Blow, Hill, Singer, &
Lucey, 1990), and were
excluded from the study.
Procedure
Participants were told the private research firm Stat-Food
(actually a bogus company)
was conducting a taste-test study at a community health centre.
Participants fasted from
food and drink (except water) for 3 hr prior to their scheduled
appointment (Millar,
Hammersley, & Finnigan, 1992). A physician verified that each
participant was healthy.
After informed consent was obtained, participants were
randomly assigned to
beverage conditions in a balanced placebo design. The balanced
placebo design is a
2 × 2 factorial design that crosses alcohol content (participants
drink a beverage that
contains either alcohol or no alcohol) with alcohol-related
expectancies (participants
are told that their beverage either contains or does not contain
alcohol). The major
strength of the balanced placebo design is that it allows
researchers to untangle the
pharmacological effects of alcohol from the expectancy effects
of alcohol.
Unfortunately, suspicion is often very high in the balanced
placebo design, as high
as 90% in some studies (Martin & Sayette, 1993). Three
different types of cues can make

participants suspicious: (1) internal cues (i.e., participants in
the placebo condition
do not feel intoxicated even though they are told their beverage
contains alcohol;
participants in the anti-placebo condition feel intoxicated even
though they are told
their beverage contains no alcohol); (2) gustative cues (i.e.,
participants in the placebo
condition expect to taste alcohol, but do not taste it;
participants in the anti-placebo
condition do not expect to taste alcohol, but they taste it), and
(3) instructional cues
(e.g., manipulation checks make participants question the actual
content of the beverage,
cover stories are not believable). In Study 2, as in our previous
research (e.g., Bègue
et al., 2009), we attempt to reduce suspicion by focusing on all
three cues. We handled
the issue of internal cues indirectly by using several distracting
tasks to divert participants’
attention away from their bodily sensations. Previous alcohol
research has shown that
distraction decreases the salience of interoceptive cues
(Rohsenow & Marlatt, 1981).
The issue of gustative cues was handled by a major change in
typical procedures used
in alcohol-related research. In the anti-placebo condition,
participants were told that
we were testing a new non-alcoholic beverage that tasted like
alcohol, for people who
appreciated the taste of alcohol but wished to avoid drinking
alcohol. In the placebo
group, we mixed a small quantity of alcohol in the beverage,
placed alcohol on the surface
of the beverage, and sprayed alcohol on the rim of the glass. We
handled the issue of

instructional cues by disguising the study as a taste-test study.
In addition to handling
these three cues, we also used people from the general
population as participants,
because they are far less suspicious about psychological studies
than college students
are.
Each participant was given three cold isovolemic glasses that
contained a cocktail of
grapefruit and grenadine cordial, mint, and lemon concentrate.
For half the participants,
the beverage contained 2.01 oz of pure alcohol to target a peak
BAL of 0.10 g/100 ml.
The dose was not adjusted, except when the participant’s weight
was more than 20 kg
under or over the median weight (75 kg). Within each group,
half the participants were
told that the beverage contained alcohol (the equivalent of five
to six shots of vodka),
whereas the remaining participants were told that the beverage
contained no alcohol.
In the expected alcohol conditions, the rims of the glasses were
sprayed with alcohol
immediately prior to serving. The drinks were mixed by a
research assistant, allowing
the experimenter to be blind to beverage condition.
Participants were given 10 min to consume their beverage.
Next, they were given
5 min to write an advertising message that would allegedly be

used by the (bogus)
company Stat-Food to promote their products. Participants then
evaluated their drinks,
which took 15 additional minutes (giving time for alcohol
absorption for participants
who consumed an alcoholic beverage and distracting
participants who consumed a
placebo beverage from focusing on internal cues). Next,
participants delivered their
advertising message on a stage while a female experimenter
filmed them. After the
recording, participants viewed their advertising message and, as
in Study 1, rated how
attractive, bright, original, and funny they thought they were (1
= not at all to 7 =
extremely; Cronbach’s � = .70).
Participants then left the main room, were offered some food
and drink, and were
kept busy with various tasks. When their BAL was theoretically
near to 0, an experimenter
posing as the person in charge of the food evaluation agency
took them to another room
and asked various questions about the agency’s hostess and the
tasting experience. By
that pre-debriefing procedure, we expected to hinder the
participants’ propensity to
answer consistently with what another experimenter had
previously told them (see
Knight, Barbaree, & Boland, 1986 for a description of this
debriefing procedure). The
experimenter doing the debriefing pretended not to be informed
of what they had drunk
and the participants had simply to inform him at the beginning
of the interview (see
Knight et al., 1986). If there was a discrepancy between the

quantity of alcohol said to
be in the drink and what the participant reported in the
debriefing, or if the participant
expressed doubts about the content of the drink, he was
considered suspicious and
was discarded from the sample. Five participants were
discarded, two in the placebo
condition and three in anti-placebo condition.
When the manipulation verification phase was complete, each
participant received
a thorough debriefing. All participants agreed that the collected
data could be used for
research purposes. We then estimated BAL with a breath
alcohol testing device (Draeger
5100S). Once BAL was equal to 0.00, participants were
thanked, paid, and released from
the lab.
Validation of self-evaluations of attractiveness by independent
judges
To obtain an objective measure of how attractive speakers were,
an independent group
also evaluated the filmed messages. Judges were 22 university
students (36% males;
Mage = 20, SD = 3). Each judge evaluated the filmed messages
from all 86 participants.
The judges were blind to any information about the alcohol
consumption/expectancy
status of the participant. They used the same rating dimensions
and rating scales as
participants did. Judges rated whether the person in the filmed
performance was
attractive, bright, original, and funny (1 = not at all to 7 =
extremely; Cronbach’s
� = .95).

Results and Discussion
Self-evaluations
Data were analysed using a 2 (given alcohol vs. given no
alcohol) × 2 (expected alcohol
vs. expected no alcohol) ANOVA. Results showed that
participants who thought they had
consumed alcohol expressed more positive self-evaluations than
did those who thought
they had not consumed alcohol, Ms = 3.91 and 3.42,
respectively, F(1,85) = 4.03, p =
.04, d = 0.44. The main effect of alcohol content was non-
significant, and the interaction
between alcohol content and alcohol expectancy, were both non-
significant, F(1,82) =
2.46, p = .12, and F(1,82) = 1.38, p = .24, respectively. A
Levene’s test showed that
alcohol and non-alcohol group variances did not differ (p =
.55), which suggested that no
polarization effect of alcohol of self-perceived attractiveness
was observed. Descriptive
statistics are in Table 1. These results suggest that alcohol
related expectancies, but not
actual alcohol content, influenced self-evaluations of
attractiveness.
Validation of self-evaluations by independent judges
Judges’ ratings of speeches were analysed using a 2 (given
alcohol vs. given no alcohol) ×
2 (expected alcohol vs. expected no alcohol) ANOVA. No
significant effects were found.
These findings indicate that the boost in self-perceived

attractiveness experienced by
people who thought they were drunk was unrelated to the way
they were perceived
by independent raters. Judges blind to beverage condition gave
similar attractiveness
ratings to people who thought they were drunk and to people
who thought they were
sober, Ms = 3.51 and 3.45, respectively, F(1,85) = 0.09, p > .80,
d = 0.065. Descriptive
statistics are in Table 2.
Table 1. Self-perceived attractiveness as a function of alcohol
consumption and alcohol expectancy
Expected
Alcohol No alcohol
M SD M SD
Alcohol 3.96 1.33 3.42 1.12
No alcohol 3.86 1.00 3.09 1.11
Table 2. Judges evaluations of attractiveness as a function of
target’s alcohol consumption and alcohol
expected
Expected
Alcohol No alcohol
M SD M SD
Alcohol 3.61 1.13 3.55 0.87
No alcohol 3.40 0.78 3.35 0.73

GENERAL DISCUSSION
Our results showed that when people drink alcohol, they
evaluate themselves as
more attractive (or at least, less unattractive), but this self-
perception appears to
be an illusion. When independent judges evaluate attractiveness,
the ratings are not
influenced by expected or actual alcohol consumption. Our use
of the balanced
placebo design in Study 2 showed that the boost in self-
can be interpreted as a consequence of the activation of mental
representations
implicitly related to alcohol in long-term memory. These
findings are consistent with
dual-process alcohol models that propose that the mind may still
become ‘intoxi-
cated’ if people expect to consume alcohol, even if they do not
consume a single
drop (Moss & Albery, 2009). These results are consistent with
the hypothesis that
alcohol stimuli operate on implicit expectancies, which, in turn,
influence explicit
self-perception.
Our findings also indicate that alcohol-related expectancies lead
to a general
increase of perceived attractiveness. There was no evidence that
alcohol-related
expectancies decreased perceived attractiveness in unattractive
individuals. Indeed,
almost everyone thinks they are more attractive after they think

they have con-
sumed alcohol. Moreover, our analysis showed that alcohol and
non-alcohol group
variances did not differ, which suggested that no polarization
effect of alcohol of
self-perceived attractiveness was observed. In order to find such
a polarization, we
maybe should have introduced salient cues referring to body
self-esteem. According
to the alcohol myopia theory (Steele & Josephs, 1990), in such a
case, attractive
people could have perceived themselves as even more attractive,
whereas the re-
verse may have occurred with less attractive people. Future
research is needed
to clarify the interesting issue of polarization under the
physiological influence of
alcohol.
Our study has also indicated that the quantity of alcohol
ingested was not related
to self-perceived attractiveness. We may hypothesize that pre-
experimental individuals’
alcohol use and chronic self-representations should be further
investigated to understand
such a result. A within-subjects experiment could provide useful
information regarding
this issue.
Previous studies have shown that alcohol consumption increases
the attractiveness
of members of the opposite sex (Jones, Jones, Thomas, & Piper,
2003). Our studies
provide complementary results showing that the mere belief that
one has consumed
alcohol increases self-perceived attractiveness. This is an

important topic to deal with
because self-perceived attractiveness has been shown to
significantly influence intimate
interactions. For example, in one diary study it was observed
that people who thought
they were attractive had more intimate interactions of all types
than did those who
thought they were less attractive (Nezlek, 1999).
In summary, the present research shows that alcohol-related
expectancies can
significantly boost self-perceived attractiveness. However, the
lies in the eyes of the ‘beer holder’ and is not shared by anyone
else.
Acknowledgement
We would like to thank the editor and three anonymous
reviewers for their insightful
comments and their very useful suggestions.
References
Bandura, A. (1965). Influence of models’ reinforcement
contingencies on the acquisition of
imitative responses. Journal of Abnormal and Social
Psychology, 66 , 575–582.
Bargh, J. A., & Erin, W. (2006). The automaticity of social life.
Current Directions in Psychological
Science, 15, 1–4.
Bargh, J. A., & Ferguson, M. J. (2000). Beyond behaviorism:

On the automaticity of higher mental
processes. Psychological Bulletin, 6 , 925–945.
Bègue, L., Subra, B., Arvers, P., Muller, D., Bricout, V., &
Zorman, M. (2009). The message, not the
bottle: Extrapharmacological effects of alcohol on aggression.
Journal of Experimental Social
Psychology, 45, 137–142.
Beresford, T. P., Blow, F. C., Hill, E., Singer, K., & Lucey, M.
R. (1990). Comparison of CAGE
questionnaire and computer-assisted laboratory profiles in
screening for covert alcoholism.
Lancet, 336 , 482–485.
Collins, A. M., & Loftus, E. F. (1975). Spreading activation
theory of semantic processing.
Psychological Review, 82, 407–428.
Collins, A. M., & Quillian, M. R. (1969). Retrieval time from
semantic memory. Journal of Verbal
Learning and Verbal Behavior, 8, 240–247.
Crowe, L., & George, W. (1989). Alcohol and human sexuality:
Review and integration. Psycho-
logical Bulletin, 105, 374–386.
Ferguson, M. J., & Bargh, J. A. (2004). How social perception
can automatically influence behavior.
Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 8, 33–39.
Friedman, R. S., McCarty, D. M., Forster, J., & Denzler, M.
(2005). Automatic effects of alcohol
cues on sexual attraction. Addiction, 100, 672–681.

Giancola, P. R., & Corman, M. D. (2007). Alcohol and
aggression: A test of the attention- allocation
model. Psychological Science, 18, 649–655.
Hull, J. G., & Bond, C. F. (1986). The social and behavioral
consequences of alcohol consumption
and expectancy: A meta-analysis. Psychological Bulletin, 99,
347–360.
Hull, J. G., Levenson, R. W., Young, R. D., & Sher, K. J.
(1983). The self-awareness reducing effects
of alcohol consumption. Journal of Personality and Social
Jones, B. T., Jones, B. C., Thomas, A. P., & Piper, J. (2003).
Alcohol consumption increases
attractiveness ratings of opposite sex faces: A possible third
route to risky sex. Addiction, 98,
1069–1075.
Knight, L. J., Barbaree, H. E., & Boland, F. J. (1986). Alcohol
and the balanced-placebo design: The
role of experimenter demands in expectancy. Journal of
Abnormal Psychology, 95, 335–340.
Lange, J. E. (2002). Alcohol’s effect on aggression
identification: A two-channel theory. Psychology
of Addictive Behaviors, 16 , 47–55.
Lyvers, M., Cholakians, E., Puorro, M., & Sundram, S. (2011).
Beer goggles: Blood alcohol con-
centration in relation to attractiveness ratings for unfamiliar
opposite sex faces in naturalistic
settings. Journal of Social Psychology, 151, 105–112.
Marlatt, G. A., & Rohsenow, D. J. (1980). Cognitive processes

in alcohol use: Expectancy and
the balanced placebo design. In N. Mello (Ed.), Advances in
substance abuse (Vol. 1,
pp. 159–199). Greenwich, CT: JAI Press.
Martin, C., & Sayette, M. (1993). Experimental design in
alcohol administration research:
Limitations and alternatives in the manipulation of dosage-set.
Journal of Studies on Alcohol,
54, 750–761.
McIntosh, D. (1999). Nondrinkers in films from 1940 to 1989.
Journal of Applied Social
Psychology, 29(6), 1191–1199
Millar, K., Hammersley, R. H., & Finnigan, F. (1992).
Reduction of alcohol-induced performance
impairment by prior ingestion of food. British Journal of
Moss, A., & Albery, I. (2009). A dual-process model of the
alcohol-behavior link for social drinking.
Psychological Bulletin, 125, 516–530.
Moss, A. C., & Albery, I. P. (2010). Are alcohol expectancies
associations, propositions, or
elephants? A Reply to Wiers and Stacy. Psychological Bulletin,
136 , 17–20.
Neave, N., Tsang, C., & Heather, N. (2008). Effects of alcohol
and alcohol expectancy on
perceptions of opposite-sex facial attractiveness in university

students. Addiction Research
& Theory, 16 , 359–368.
Nezlek, J. B. (1999). Body image and day-to-day social
interaction. Journal of Personality, 67,
793–817.
Rohsenow, D. J., & Marlatt, G. A. (1981). The balanced placebo
design: Methodological consider-
ations. Addictive Behaviors, 6 , 107–122.
Steele, C. M., & Josephs, R. A. (1990). Alcohol myopia: Its
prized and dangerous effects. American
Psychologist, 45, 921–933.
Streufert, S., Pogash, R. M., & Gingrich, D. (1993). Alcohol
and complex functioning. Journal of
Applied Social Psychology, 23, 847–866.
Wiers, R. W., & Stacy, A. W. (2010). Are alcohol expectancies
associations? Comment on Moss &
Albery (2009). Psychological Bulletin, 136(1), 12–16.
Received 20 September 2011; revised version received 23
March 2012
Copyright of British Journal of Psychology is the property of
Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be
copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv
without the copyright holder's express written

permission. However, users may print, download, or email
articles for individual use.
Running head: SONA ALTERNATIVE SUMMARY PAPER
INSTRUCTIONS 1
ARTICLE SUMMARY INSTRUCTIONS 2
SONA ALTERNATIVE ASSIGNMENT
Article Summary Paper Instructions (10 points possible)
Ryan J. Winter
Florida International University
This assignment is an alternative to the SONA Participation
Assignments (1 and 2). You must complete this assignment if
you are unbale or choose not to participate in research. There
are two required SONA participation assignments to complete
this semester, so you must complete two of these alternative
assignments total, one due when SONA Participation
Assignment 1 is due, and the second due when SONA
participation assignment 2 is due (see canvas for specific due
dates).
Each paper must focus on a different article to summarize (see
canvas for a list of articles to choose from), and you must
choose from the articles that we have listed in Canvas.

Article Summary Paper 10 possible)
Please follow the instructions and guidelines below. If you are
unclear about any of this information, please ask.
What is a summary paper?
This paper will require you to read and summarize the major
elements of an empirical research paper. I suggest also looking
at the example papers, which will give you a nice visual image
of APA style that you can mimic in your own paper.
This summary paper will include the following things:
1. Title page: 1 page (.5 points)
· Use APA style to present the appropriate information:
· A Running head must be included and formatted APA style
· The phrase “Running head” is at the top of the title page
followed by a short title of your creation (no more than 50
characters) that is in ALL CAPS. This running head is left-
justified (flush left on the page). Note that the “h” in head is all
lower case! Look at the first page of these instructions, and you
will see how to set up your Running head.
· There must be a page number on the title page that is right
justified. It is included in the header
· Your paper title appears on the title page. This is usually 12
words or less, and the first letter of each word is capitalized. It
should be descriptive of the paper (For this paper, you should
use the title of the article you are critiquing. The paper title can
be the same title as in the Running head or it can differ – your
choice)
· Your name will appear on the title page
· Your institution will appear on the title page as well
· For all papers, make sure to double-space EVERYTHING and
use Times New Roman font. This includes everything from the
title page through the references.
· This is standard APA format. ALL of your future papers will

include a similar title page
2. Summary of the Article: 1 ½ page minimum, 3 pages
maximum - 8)
An article summary should briefly summarize, in your own
words, the article research question and how it was addressed in
the article. Below are some things to include in your summary.
· The summary itself will include the following: (Note – if the
article involved more than one experiment, you can either
choose to focus on one of the studies specifically or summarize
the general design for all of the studies)
1. Description of the overall purpose of the study (this can be as
little as one sentence, and no more than 2 sentences)
2. Type of study (Was it experimental or correlational? How do
you know?)
3. Variables:
1. What were the independent and dependent variables? Be
specific with these. Define the terms independent and dependent
variable and make sure to identify how they are operationally
defined in the article)
4. Participants:
1. How many were there? How were they recruited?
5. Method:
1. Was there random assignment to groups?
2. What did the participants do in the study?).
3. How was data collected (online, in person, archival data, etc.)
6. Note the findings (What were their results/findings?). Don’t
include the statistical analyses that they did, instead, focus on
the overall interpretation for these findings.
3. References – 1 page (.5 points)
· Provide the reference for this article in proper APA format
(see the book Chapter 14 for appropriate referencing guidelines
or the Chapter 14 powerpoint).
· If you cited other sources during either your summary,
reference them as well (though you do not need to cite other

sources in this assignment – this is merely optional IF you
happen to bring in other sources). Formatting counts here, so
make sure to italicize where appropriate and watch which words
you are capitalizing!
4. Grammar and Writing Quality (1 point)
· Few psychology courses are as writing intensive as Research
Methods (especially Research Methods Two next semester!). As
such, I want to make sure that you develop writing skills early.
This is something that needs special attention, so make sure to
proofread your papers carefully.
· Avoid run-on sentences, sentence fragments, spelling errors,
and grammar errors. Writing quality will become more
important in future papers, but this is where you should start to
hone your writing skills.
· We will give you feedback on your papers, but I recommend
seeking some help from the FIU writing center to make sure
your paper is clear, precise, and covers all needed material. I
also recommend asking a few of your group members to read
over your paper and make suggestions. You can do the same for
them!
The key point is that your experimental paper should describe a
“position” that you have taken with respect to the content of the
article. Please note that you do not need to refer to any other
sources other than the article on which you have chosen to write
your paper. However, you are welcome to refer to additional
sources if you choose.
Other guidelines:
1. 2). Page size is 8 1/2 X 11” with all 4 margins set one inch
on all sides. You must use 12-point Times New Roman font
(Note: these instructions are in 12 point Times New Roman
font).
1. 3). As a general rule, ALL paragraphs and sentences are

double spaced in APA papers. This includes the spacing in your
Paper I: Article Summary Paper. It even includes the references,
so make sure to double space EVERYTHING
1. 4). When summarizing the article in your own words, you
need not continually cite the article throughout the rest of your
critique. Nonetheless, you should follow proper referencing
procedures, which means that:
2. If you are inserting a direct quote from any source, it must be
enclosed in quotations and followed by a parenthetical reference
to the source. “Let’s say I am directly quoting this current
sentence and the next. I would then cite it with the author name,
date of publication, and the page number for the direct quote”
(Winter, 2013, p . 4).
0. Note: We will deduct points if you quote more than once per
page, so keep quotes to a minimum. Paraphrase instead, but
make sure you still give the original author credit for the
material by citing him or using the author’s name (“In this
article, Smith noted that …” or “In this article, the authors
noted that…”)
2. If you choose to reference any source other than your chosen
article, it must be listed in a reference list.
1. 5). PLEASE use a spell checker to avoid unnecessary errors.
Proofread everything you write. I actually recommend reading
some sentences aloud to see if they flow well, or getting family
or friends to read your work. Writing quality will become more
important in future papers, so you should start working on that
now!
1. If you have any questions about the articles, your ideas, or
your writing, please ask. Although we won’t be able to review
entire drafts of papers before they are handed in, we are very
willing to discuss problems, concerns or issues that you might
have.
Purpose of the Summary Paper
1). Psychological Purpose

This paper serves several purposes, the first of which is helping
you gain insight into research papers in psychology. As this
may be your first time reading and writing papers in
psychology, one goal of Paper I is to give you insight into what
goes into such papers. This paper will help you learn about the
various sections of an empirical research report by reading at
least one peer-reviewed articles (articles that have a Title Page,
Abstract, Literature Review, Methods Section, Results Section,
and References Page). This paper will also give you some
insights into how the results sections are written in APA
formatted research articles. Pay close attention to those
sections, as throughout this course you’ll be writing up some
results of your own! You’ll need this practice when you go to
write your article critique paper this semester.
2). APA Formatting Purpose
The second purpose of the this paper is to teach you proper
American Psychological Association (APA) formatting. In the
instructions below, I tell you how to format your paper using
APA style. There are a lot of very specific requirements in APA
papers, so pay attention to the instructions below as well as
Chapter 14 in your textbook! I highly recommend using the
Paper I Checklist before submitting your paper, as it will help
walk you through the picky nuances of APA formatting.
3). Writing Purpose
Finally, this paper is intended to help you grow as a writer. Few
psychology classes give you the chance to write papers and
receive feedback on your work. This class will! We will give
you feedback on this paper in terms of content, spelling, and
grammar.
Scanned with CamScanner

Article Review Sheet and Mystery of the WeekName _______________.docx

Recommended

Recommended

More Related Content

Similar to Article Review Sheet and Mystery of the WeekName _______________.docx

Similar to Article Review Sheet and Mystery of the WeekName _______________.docx (19)

More from ssusera34210

More from ssusera34210 (20)

Recently uploaded

Recently uploaded (20)

Article Review Sheet and Mystery of the WeekName _______________.docx