“…For example, individuals experiencing high levels of discomfort and distress deriving from their appearance concerns (e.g., anxiety, shamefulness, or embarrassment in social contexts) may use alcohol to "self-medicate" and attenuate such negative affect, with the outcome of improving functioning in such situations. Such expectancies, particularly positive expectancies, have been consistently shown to predict heavier drinking patterns in university students (Dunne, Freedlander, Coleman, & Katz, 2013;Ham, Wang, Kim, & Zamboanga, 2012;Young, Connor, Ricciardelli, & Saunders, 2006), while the predictive utility of negative expectancies has been found to be questionable, with empirical work even suggesting a link between the construct and heavier drinking patters (Dunne et al, 2013;Wood, Nagoshi, & Dennis, 1992;Zamboanga & Ham, 2008;Zamboanga, Schwartz, Ham, Borsari, & Van Tyne, 2009). Alcohol expectancies are beliefs that people hold about the effects of alcohol on behaviour, cognition, moods, and emotions (Leigh, 1989), and can act as a mediator of alcohol consumption as individuals will often consume alcohol in a way that delivers expected outcomes (Jones, Corbin, & Fromme, 2001).…”