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In
spite of the overwhelming scientific evidence for a link between cigarette
smoking and numerous chronic diseases, American continue to smoke.
Over 400,000 Americans die each year from smoking, with 134,235 of those
deaths due to coronary heart disease. Past research has shown that
although nicotine administration is a necessary factor, it is not solely
responsible for maintaining smoking behavior. Therefore, the goal
of the present study is to investigate key nonpharmacological factors that
may perpetuate smoking behavior and hinder individuals' efforts to quit.
Past research has demonstrated that when smokers are confronted with cues
previously linked with past cigarette use, they react subjectively, physiologically,
and behaviorally in ways that might mediate or motivate smoking behavior.
Indeed, several theories of drug use purport that confrontation with salient
drug-related cues should evoke strong reactivity across multiple domains
of functioning. However, while subjective responding to smoking-related
cues in the lab is typically quite robust, physiological responding remains
relatively weak, suggesting that the cues used in past studies may not
be those to which smokers are optimally reactive. Thus, our ability
to obtain clear patterns of reactivity and thereby understand their form
and function in the perpetuation of smoking behavior, has been limited
by researchers' inabilities to evoke strong physiological responses in
the lab. Likewise, we have been unable to determine links between
patterns of reactivity and smoking use, abstinence, and /or relapse.
In an effort to better capture the cues to which smokers will be most responsive,
both subjectively and physiologically, the present investigation will have
smokers generate their own battery of pictorial cues. using cameras,
smokers will be instructed to capture on film the cues/environments in
which they |
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