Examination of relationship between college students' conceptual development and their perceptions of advertisements aimed at alcohol intervention.

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between college students' level of conceptual development and their preferences regarding types of advertisements aimed at alcohol behavior intervention. The participants were asked to consider two different advertisements, one based on social norms theory and a second, individual-based advertisement. Participants were 185 college students recruited from introductory and advanced level psychology courses at a midwestern university. The specific measures used for this study were the Paragraph Completion Test (PCT), which measures conceptual development levels. An Advertisement Questionnaire and Advertisement Comparison Questionnaire were constructed by the researcher to measure the participants' opinions about the two advertisements. Results failed to produce a significant relationship between conceptual development and advertisement preferences. However, the individual-based advertisement was rated as significantly more believable, appealing, and persuasive than the social norms based-advertisement. Results also indicated that participants had a significantly stronger identification with the individual based advertisement than with the social-norms based advertisement. A significant relationship was also found between conceptual level development and the percentage of participants who reported not drinking. A larger percentage of non-drinkers scored at the upper end of conceptual development, while a lower percentage of non-drinkers scored on the lower end of the conceptual development scale.