Effects of Alcohol on Conflict and Avoidance Behavior

Abstract

The purpose of the experiment was to study the effects of alcohol on experimental neurotic behavior created by anxiety and conflict conditions. The experiment repeated certain aspects of Masserman and Yum''s study but embodied some methodological changes. The subjects, 30 male and female cats over 1 year of age and unselected as to breed and strain, were trained to press a switch to activate a feeder and then to lift a lid to obtain food. The animals were divided into 3 groups: the Preconsummatory Group received shock (3.5 ma. a-c, of 1 second duration) when they touched the food box; the Consummatory Group received shock when they ate the food; and the Shock Alone Group received shock not associated with either touching the box or eating. The aversive stimuli were light (4 100-w. bulbs) and sound (800 cycle/sec. tone). Half of the Ss were assigned randomly to either an Alcohol or Dextrose Group. Shock sessions of 8 shocks randomly interspersed throughout 40 trials continued for 4 days. On the 5th day the cats were given either 1.5 cc of alcoholAg of body weight or an equicaloric dose of dextrose, and again performed 40 trials but with no shock. Alcohol mitigated 4 of 15 defined neurotic behaviors; the cats given alcohol exhibited significantly fewer (p < .05) neurotic behaviors than did those given dextrose. Alcohol had no effect on food seeking; there was no significant difference between the Alcohol Group and the Dextrose Group in the number of switch presses, food box openings or eating responses. Alcohol had no special effect on conflict-induced behaviors; there were no significant differences among the 3 groups, the Consummatory, the Preconsummatory and the Shock-Alone, in degree of neurotic behavior or in eating responses. Certain similarities and differences between this study and Masserman and Yum''s are discussed in accounting for the degree of correspondence between the 2 sets of results. The most important differences were the use of only one alcohol trial and the discontinuance of shock during the alcohol trial in the present experiment. The findings as a whole give limited support to theories of the etiology of alcoholism which postulate an anxiety-reducing effect of alcohol.