Psychology Report on Alcohol Addiction in Early Adulthood: Analysis

This report delves into the issue of alcohol addiction during early adulthood, focusing on the factors that contribute to excessive drinking and its negative consequences, particularly among college students. The report examines the impact of alcohol abuse, including academic setbacks, risky behaviors, and health issues, supported by statistical data. It explores psychological theories, such as the psychodynamic theory, linking addiction to coping mechanisms for negative experiences and low self-esteem. The analysis includes a critical evaluation of the provided article, acknowledging its strengths in highlighting the adverse effects of alcohol while also noting its limitations, such as a narrow focus on college students and a lack of attention to the multifaceted influences on alcohol consumption, including psychosocial factors like parental alcoholism. The report concludes with a comprehensive overview of the subject, emphasizing the need for a broader understanding of the issue.

Running head: ALCOHOL ADDICTION IN EARLY ADULTHOOD
ALCOHOL ADDICTION IN EARLY ADULTHOOD
Name of the Student
Name of the university
Author’s note

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Article taken : White, A., & Hingson, R. (2013). The burden of alcohol use: excessive
alcohol consumption and related consequences among college students. Alcohol research:
current reviews.
Major tenets of the article
Researchers have shown that there are several factors that affect the college drinking such
as the genetic susceptibility of the individual towards the positive and the negative impacts of
alcohol. This article examines the recent findings regarding the factors that contribute to
excessive drinking and the consequences of excessive drinking. As per this report the male
outpace the female candidates with regards to alcohol consumption. According to MTF, in 2011,
43% of males and 32% of the females have surpassed the binge drinking threshold (White &
Hingson, 2013). According to Redonnet et al., (2012) the campus ambience contribute to the
likelihood of binge drinking. He had stated that students on campuses with lesser rate of
minorities and older students, sportspersons, students fighting with psychological misery, high
density of alcohol outlets near the campus, willingness to challenge the consequences of alcohol
abuse all contributes to the excessive drinking among the young adults.
The paper expresses the results of extreme alcohol use among the people in the early
adulthood. Alcohol consumers are more vulnerable to get behind in school work, suffer from
blackout, have unprotected sex, fail to use proper contraceptives during sex, damage properties,
commits rash driving often leading to accidents and may sometimes lead to self destruction.
According to Flores, (2012), excessive drinking by the young adults may contribute to
serious clinical conditions like cirrhosis of liver, impairment of the motor skills, loss of

2ALCOHOL ADDICTION IN EARLY ADULTHOOD
coordination between the hand and the eye coordination, henceforth increasing the risk of falls
and the injuries.
Psychological theory
People tend to get addicted to alcohols for coping their way up to negative relationships
or traumatic experiences, in the childhood or adolescence. Some of the people cannot express
their emotions regarding a traumatic experience and hence use alcohol to block their thoughts.
Alcohol addiction is also accepted as a way out to soothe themselves. Low self esteem and
hopelessness may also lead to alcoholism in young adults. The psychodynamic theory of
addiction can be linked to this topic as, according to this theory, depression can be caused due to
inwardly directed anger, intense super-ego demands, excessive personality needs and excessive
narcissistic , loss of self esteem and deprivation of the love and care during childhood (Flores,
2013). Freud's psychoanalytic theory is similar to the concept of psychodynamic theory. Freud
has suggested that depression can occur due to constant rejection from an important relationship
(Elliott, 2015). All these concepts of depression and anxiety can be linked to the excessive
alcohol consumption among the young adults.
Personal reaction
The major strength of this paper is that it provides a good explanation of the
consequences that occur due to the excessive alcohol drinking. The statistical data well
establishes the prevalence of alcohol abuses caused by the young adults in the college premises,
but the article missed out the multifaceted factors that are actually accountable for the excessive
drinking among the young adults. The article also did not focus on the psychosocial impacts of
excessive drinking in the adults like effect of parental alcoholism in developing an addiction

3ALCOHOL ADDICTION IN EARLY ADULTHOOD
towards alcohol (Waldron et al., 2014). Furthermore the article focused mainly on the college
students which could have expanded from high schools as well as high school adolescents as
these groups is also becoming the victims of alcohol abuse and are facing their consequences
(Patton et al., 2013).

4ALCOHOL ADDICTION IN EARLY ADULTHOOD
References
Elliott, A. (2015). Psychoanalytic theory: An introduction. Palgrave Macmillan.
Flores, P. J. (2013). Group psychotherapy with addicted populations: An integration of twelve-
step and psychodynamic theory. Routledge.
Patton, R., Deluca, P., Kaner, E., Newbury-Birch, D., Phillips, T., & Drummond, C. (2013).
Alcohol screening and brief intervention for adolescents: the how, what and where of
reducing alcohol consumption and related harm among young people. Alcohol and
alcoholism, 49(2), 207-212.
Redonnet, B., Chollet, A., Fombonne, E., Bowes, L., & Melchior, M. (2012). Tobacco, alcohol,
cannabis and other illegal drug use among young adults: the socioeconomic
context. Drug and alcohol dependence, 121(3), 231-239.
Waldron, M., Grant, J. D., Bucholz, K. K., Lynskey, M. T., Slutske, W. S., Glowinski, A. L., ...
& Heath, A. C. (2014). Parental separation and early substance involvement: Results
from children of alcoholic and cannabis dependent twins. Drug & Alcohol
Dependence, 134, 78-84.
White, A., & Hingson, R. (2013). The burden of alcohol use: excessive alcohol consumption and
related consequences among college students. Alcohol research: current reviews.