ECALC: Expectancy Challenge Alcohol Literacy Curriculum
What are Expectancies?
“Alcohol expectancies” refer to the anticipated effects of alcohol. Decades of research has demonstrated that expectancies develop before alcohol use and vary with individual drinking habits. For example, heavier or high-risk drinkers tend to associate alcohol with arousing effects such as “Alcohol will make me feel happy” or “more outgoing.” When key expectancy processes are modified properly a decrease in alcohol use follows.
Changing Expectancies
“Expectancy Challenge” is the term often used to describe successful efforts to modify expectancies to reduce heavy drinking. The initial format of the Expectancy Challenge involved alcohol and placebo drink administration during multiple sessions within a state-of-the-art bar-laboratory constructed for this type of research. An inability to identify who had alcohol among their group led to the realization that arousing effects are due to alcohol expectancies and not pharmacological effects.
Theory to Laboratory to Practice
Expectancy Challenge has been found to be effective, however, reliance on alcohol administration and use of a bar-laboratory made it impossible to implement outside of a few research laboratories. The ECALC was developed as an effective solution for these limitations.
The ECALC
The ECALC is a 45-minute presentation delivered in any typical school setting. Through an interactive, attention maintaining presentation, the ECALC produces changes in key alcohol expectancy processes leading to significant reductions in risky alcohol use. The content of the ECALC addresses the following topics...
Students also engage in activities that help them understand the program content within the context of their own experiences. Through this approach, the information is processed in a personal way for each student to maximize positive impact.
How Much is Alcohol Use Reduced?
The effectiveness of the ECALC has been established through a series of studies conducted by Dr. Michael Dunn and his research team. In one project, heavy drinking college students were randomly assigned to receive the ECALC or to receive a presentation on a different topic. Comparisons of the subsequent alcohol use of these students found that those who received the ECALC drank significantly less. The decreases in alcohol use include the following promising results...
The ECALC has been found to be effective across a broad range of conditions including small and large classroom settings, students at a variety of level of class standing, with fraternity and sorority members, and students within a variety of academic classes including English, psychology, sociology, and communications.
Theory Guided Practice
Substance Abuse Prevention at UCF
The University of Central Florida’s substance abuse prevention and intervention efforts support integrated, comprehensive solutions to high-risk drinking that include multi-disciplinary partnerships. The University's Substance Use Research Group (SURG) from the clinical psychology doctoral program partners with the Alcohol and Other Drug (AOD) Prevention Program, the Orange County Coalition for a Drug-Free Community, and several other departments within our division of student affairs. These and other collaborations support “theory to practice” strategies that enable university and community partners to provide a continuum of innovative services ranging from campus-wide awareness and education to individual access to substance use intervention and treatment services.
Partners and Links
For more information about the organizations that the SURG team works closely with, please visit some of the following links.