Self-Reported Alcohol Consumption; A Real Psychophysical Problem

Abstract

There are good practical reasons for wanting to know how much alcohol people consume, at what rate, and in what patterns over time. Various measures of consumption and their associated frequency distributions are described. Self-report data on alcohol consumption present problems of interpretation. A detailed rationale for the use of the self-report method by Gregson and Stacey (1980) is presented. Measurement problems arising with the method, emphasized by Skog (1981), are discussed.