Article Critique: Critical Evaluation of Drinking Feedback Study

This report is an article critique of a study by Agostinelli, Brown, and Miller (1995) that investigated the effects of normative feedback on the drinking behavior of college students. The study involved students from the University of New Mexico, with the goal of providing feedback to reduce undesirable drinking habits. The critique analyzes the study's methodology, including participant selection, data collection, and intervention strategies, highlighting both strengths and limitations. The limitations discussed include attrition rates, potential measurement errors, and maturation threats due to the study's timeframe. Strengths identified include the operational definition of heavy drinking and the use of a control group. The critique concludes by emphasizing the importance of the study for developing appropriate interventions and suggests improvements for future research, particularly in the methods of data collection to enhance validity. The critique also discusses the impact of potential calculation errors and the influence of students' varying involvement in activities like vacations, and suggests collecting data at different times to improve accuracy.

Running head: ARTICLE CRITIQUE 1
Article Critique
Drinking Feedback

ARTICLE CRITIQUE 2
Agostinelli, Brown, and Miller (1995), aimed to provide feedback on undesirable drinking
among college students, with the hope of changing their drinking behavior. The University of
New Mexico provided opportunities to introduction to psychology students for them to
participate in studies. This process resulted in 568 students expressing an interest in participating
and moving them on to the screening process. Following the screening process, 64 students met
criteria by reporting drinking more than 80 standard drinks. From those 64 students, only 50
students turned in an informed consent, which is a requirement in order to become a participant
in the study. Only 26 students returned their questionnaires providing details on their drinking
practices. Those students were then assigned to either a feedback or a no feedback group. After
the intervention, the authors conducted follow-up interviews and concluded that there was a
greater reduction in the consumption among students who received feedback as compared to the
no feedback group. The authors concluded that normative feedback could be a cost-effective
strategy for reducing risky drinking among college students.
The Study’s Methodological Limitations
Sixty-four students reported drinking more than 80 drinks, meeting the criteria to be part
of the study. But out of 64, only 50 students gave consent to receive a questionnaire by mail.
Only 26 students who were recruited and had consented, returned questionnaires meaning that
roughly 50% of the original participants were in the final sample. Attrition is a threat to internal
validity because there might be differences in those that return the survey versus those that do
not (e.g., more motivation and dedication to the study).
The authors asked students via the questionnaire about how much they drink per month
over the past three months. Students were also asked to record their number of drinks they have
on a typical drinking day. And also, they were asked to calculate how many drinks they had per

ARTICLE CRITIQUE 3
month over a period of three months. Since only 26 students returned their questionnaires, it is
possible that the students who did not bother to respond were not good at math or they were not
interested, meaning there would be a difference in true scores versus actually observed scores
(measurement error which is a threat to construct validity).
Another threat is that the study was conducted from 8/1/2015 – 9/15/2015, which is a
time frame that might include vacation, partying and more involvement of heavy drinking by
college students. This is a maturation threat to internal validity; the number of drinks might
naturally decrease as the semester begins and the decrease may not be due to the intervention at
all.
Study Strengths
In this study, the researchers operationally defined heavy drinking as 80 drinks per
month. Operational definitions provide a clear, concise definition of the variables being studied.
This helps establish construct validity – are the researchers really measuring what they believe
they are studying?
The use of a control group helps to control for any history or treatment diffusion threats
with internal validity. Moreover, the control group may allow the research to be continued in a
convincing approach, as the decision from the experimental study may be checked for their
efficiency from the results of the control groups. It may be further analyzed that the different
references in the study may be concluded from the control groups. The control groups may act as
a pillar that underlines the different attributes that are needed to be considered for the research or
the study. Moreover, the baseline for the research or the study may be obtained by utilizing the
effectiveness of the controls. The controls allow the researchers or the individuals to compare
their results in the different experiments.

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Conclusion
This study is based on the different aspects of the causes of drinking among the different
individuals. The individuals include the college students on account of the partying and heavy
drinking. As it has been seen that the amount of drinking has been massive among the college
students, therefore, the study is important for the preparation of appropriate interventions for the
present status of drinking among the college students. Validity may be significantly reduced
because of the calculation error. The statistics may be calculated at different times and it may
include the time when the students may be actively involved in the vacation mood, thereby
experiencing increased amounts of parties and hangouts. The study may be improved if the
methods of data collection are made flexible. Different sets of data may be collected at the
different times. A significant average may, therefore, be calculated for each of the subjected
students. Accordingly, the errors in the calculations may be improved.
Reference
Agostinelli, G., Brown, J. M., & Miller, W. R. (1995). Effects of Normative Feedback on
Consumption among Heavy Drinking College Students. University of New Mexico,
31-40.