Motivational Models of Substance Use

This chapter uses Cox and Klinger’s motivational model of alcohol use as a framework for reviewing research on motives for using alcohol, marijuana, and tobacco. Results of this review provide strong support for key premises underpinning this model in the alcohol literature, including that people drink alcohol to manage internal feeling states and to obtain valued social outcomes. Importantly, these motives may provide a final common pathway to alcohol use through which the influences of more distal variables are mediated. The research literature on motives for marijuana use revealed important similarities in the nature of motives underlying use and in the unique patterns of use and use-related consequences associated with specific motives. Research on tobacco use motives showed few similarities, with tobacco use being more habitual, automatic, and largely motivated by withdrawal cues, at least among more experienced and dependent users.