Notice Board

The Psychology Colloquium Series is pleased to present visiting speaker Prof Marvin Krank, UBC Okanagan, discussing social and cognitive factors in substance use:

"Cognitive Biases About Alcohol and Drugs: Implications for Effective Prevention"

Alcohol and drug use is the main cause of the mental and physical health problems in teens. We will explore the social and cognitive antecedents of early substance use. Research demonstrates that social influence from parents, peers, and popular media often leads to cognitive biases. These biases are important proximal predictors of future increases of teen substance use. Analysis of longitudinal data indicates that these cognitive biases mediate the strong effects of parents and peers on early initiation and escalation of substance use in teens. We will examine several cognitive biases that play a role including 1) overestimation of how often and how much others use, 2) unrealistic positive expectancies about the effects of substance use, and 3) implicit substance use associations. Exploring how these biases arise points to new prevention approaches that target changing cognitive biases and further accents the need to evaluate what is learned in any prevention approach.

Prof Krank's homepage: http://psyo.ok.ubc.ca/faculty/krank.html

Greeting and refreshments at 10:45am; talk at 11:00am. Contact: Dr Javid Sadr, Psychology Dept.