R. Lorraine Collins, PhD

For two decades, she studied as a senior scientist at UB’s Research Institute on Addictions (RIA), before joining the School of Public Health and Health Professions as associate dean for research in 2008.

Collins maintains a close connection with the RIA and appreciates the benefits provided by collaborative research. With regard to a current grant funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Collins notes, “Within UB, my research on physical activity and marijuana use includes collaboration with Dr. Leonard Epstein, from the Department of Pediatrics in the School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, and staff from the Computer Services Department at the RIA. In both cases, the collaboration provided expertise and skills that enhanced the conceptualization of the research questions and the feasibility of implementing the studies.”

Collins also values and is motivated by the real-world impact of her research, including in the community in which she works and lives. “Substance use and abuse occurs in every community in the U.S.A., including in the Western New York region,” she said.  “The findings from my research on substance use by young adults can be used as the basis for developing prevention programs to lessen their use of alcohol and drugs and/or treatment strategies that help those who have been diagnosed with substance abuse disorders.”

Her impressive research accomplishments also include:

• Introducing the construct of drinking restraint to the literature on alcohol use and abuse. “The drinking restraint involves the preoccupation with limiting alcohol intake, and is best understood within the Limit Violation Effect (LVE),” she explained. “The LVE provides a conceptual framework, involving limit setting and negative affect, for describing the process through which restrained heavy drinkers move to excessive, problem drinking.”
• Developing the Temptation and Restraint Inventory, a measure of the preoccupation with controlling alcohol use in the context of being a restrained drinker. The TRI includes two components that measure attraction to (i.e., temptation) and restriction (preoccupation with attempts to limit alcohol intake).
• Introducing and/or refining additional measures, including the Daily Drinking Questionnaire (DDQ), a calendar based assessment of typical weekly drinking that is widely used in alcohol research; a self-administered version of the Timeline Follow-back (S-TLFB) procedure; and the Malt Liquor Expectancy Questionnaire (MLEQ).
• Pioneering the collection of real-time, ecological momentary assessment data on alcohol use, and using the data to test and provide support for the limit violation effect (LVE) in excessive drinking.
  
• Pioneering the use of cell phones to collect ecological momentary assessment data. The use of cell phones introduces flexibility in collecting data in the field and allows for the utilization of emerging smart phone technologies.
  

Drinking Restraint

Collins, R. L., & Lapp, W. M. (1991).  Restraint and attributions:  Evidence of the abstinence violation effect in alcohol consumption.  Cognitive Therapy and Research, 15, 69-84.

Collins, R. L. (1993).  Drinking restraint and risk for alcohol abuse.  Experimental and Clinical Psychopharmacology, 1, 44-54. 

Collins, R. L., Lapp, W. M., & Izzo, C. V. (1994).  Affective and behavioral reactions to the violation of limits on alcohol consumption.  Journal of Studies on Alcohol, 55, 475-486. 

Collins, R. L., Koutsky, J. R., Morsheimer, E. T., & MacLean, M. G. (2001).  Binge drinking among underage college students:  A test of a restraint-based conceptualization of risk for alcohol abuse.  Psychology of Addictive Behaviors, 15, 333-340.

The Temptation and Restraint Inventory

Collins, R. L., George, W. H., & Lapp, W. M. (1989).  Drinking restraint:  Refinement of a construct and prediction of alcohol consumption.  Cognitive Therapy and Research, 13, 425-442.

Collins, R. L., & Lapp, W. M. (1992).  The Temptation and Restraint Inventory for measuring drinking restraint.  British Journal of Addiction, 87, 625-633.

Collins, R. L., Koutsky, J. R., & Izzo, C. V. (2000).  Temptation, restriction, and the regulation of alcohol intake: Validity and utility of the Temptation and Restraint Inventory.  Journal of Studies on Alcohol, 61, 766-773. 

Daily Drinking Questionnaire

Collins, R. L., Parks, G. A., & Marlatt, G. A. (l985).  Social determinants of alcohol consumption:  The effects of social interaction and model status on the self-administration of alcohol.  Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 53, 189-200.

Timeline Follow-back

Collins, R. L., Kashdan, T. B., Koutsky, J. R., Morsheimer, E. T., & Vetter, C. J. (2008).  A self-administered Timeline Follow-back to measure variations in underage drinkers' alcohol intake and binge drinking.  Addictive Behaviors, 33, 196-200.

Malt Liquor Expectancy Questionnaire

Collins, R. L., Vincent, P.C., Bradizza, C. M., Kubiak, A. J., & Falco, D. L. (2011).  A beverage-specific measure of expectancies for malt liquor:  Development and initial testing.  Psychology of Addictive Behavior, 25, 605-615.

Ecological Momentary Assessment

Collins, R. L., Morsheimer, E. T., Shiffman, S., Paty, J. A., Gnys, M., & Papandonatos, G. D. (1998).  Ecological momentary assessment in a behavioral drinking moderation training program.  Experimental and Clinical Psychopharmacology, 6, 1-10. 

Muraven, M., Collins, R. L., Morsheimer, E. T., Shiffman, S., & Paty, J. A. (2005).  One too many:  Predicting future alcohol consumption following excessive drinking.  Experimental and Clinical Psychopharmacology, 13, 127-136.

Muraven, M., Collins, R. L., Morsheimer, E. T., Shiffman, S., & Paty, J. A. (2005).  The morning after:  Limit violations and the self-regulation of alcohol consumption.  Psychology of Addictive Behaviors, 19, 253-262.

Collins, R. L., & Muraven, M. (2007).  Ecological momentary assessment of alcohol consumption.  In A. A. Stone, S. Shiffman, A. A. Atienza, & L. Nebeling (Eds.), The science of real-time data capture: Self reports in health research (pp. 189-203). New York:  Oxford University Press.

Kashdan, T. B., Ferssizidis, P., Collins, R. L., & Muraven, M. (2010).  Emotion differentiation as resilience to excessive alcohol use:  An ecological momentary assessment in underage social drinkers.  Psychological Science, 21, 1341-1347.

Using Cell Phones to Collect Ecological Momentary Assessment Data

Collins, R. L., Kashdan, T. B. & Gollnisch, G. (2003).  The feasibility of using cellular phones to collect ecological momentary assessment data:  Application to alcohol consumption.  Experimental and Clinical Psychopharmacology, 11, 73-78.