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The HABIT Laboratory has two primary goals. First, we strive to conduct research that is related to important public health priorities. For example, alcohol abuse among college students results in thousands of injuries, assaults, and fatalities each year, and can set the stage for a lifelong pattern of alcohol abuse and/or dependence. We conducted several controlled clinical trials that showed that brief interventions incorporating motivational interviewing and personalized drinking feedback can reduce heavy drinking among college students. These interventions are now being adopted by colleges across the country and are replacing previous models of “alcohol education” that were not efficacious. Similarly, we are interested in other health-compromising behaviors such as risky sexual behavior, and smoking, as well as health-promoting behaviors such as diet and exercise. We are interested in developing brief intervention approaches to treating individuals with comorbid conditions including Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and Depression.
The second overarching goal of the HABIT Laboratory is to conduct applied clinical research that is influenced by basic behavioral and biological research (e.g., translational research) and contributes to the overall goal of improving our scientific understanding of human behavior. For example, we have used behavioral economic theory and basic laboratory research to guide our applied research on substance abuse etiology, assessment, and prevention. Behavioral economic theory predicts that (1) increasing substance-free sources of reinforcement will reduce substance use, (2) proportional reinforcement from substance use relative to substance-free activities (i.e., relative reinforcing value) is an important index of drug problem severity, and (3) strong preference for immediate versus delayed reinforcement (i.e., delayed reward discounting) may be an important risk factor for addiction. We are also interested in identifying genetic contributions to addiction and health risk behavior, as well as the possible role of genes in moderating treatment response.
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