The purpose of this competing renewal grant application is to provide training in alcohol research for pre and postdoctoral students in psychology. The training program is geared toward providing quality research training in the combined areas of etiology and prevention of alcohol abuse and alcohol dependence. Research training in etiology (e.g., studies of primary and secondary prevention in high-risk drinkers) will be approached from both biobehavioral and psychosocial perspectives. In the view of the training faculty, the study of alcohol programs is best approached from a theoretical base that includes the view of the training faculty, the study of alcohol problems is best approached from a theoretical base that includes psychological, behavioral, and biological factors. Psychology is in a unique position to provide this combined emphasis in a biopsychosocial approach since the field encompasses a number of specialty areas that bear direct on the study of alcohol. The training faculty participating in the proposed program includes representations from each of these specialty areas, including experimental, cognitive, social, clinical, physiological, and behavioral psychology. The principal focus of this training program will be alcohol research training in psychology at the University of Washington. Seven core and seven additional faculty, all with primary or adjunct appointments in the Department of Psychology, will provide apprenticeship training and research supervision for trainees. Funds are requested to support three to five postdoctoral, and three predoctoral trainees each year. Trainees will be requested to take part in the Addictive Behaviors Core Curriculum, which involves a series of courses and seminars in the field of alcohol and addiction research. Predoctoral trainees will be required to completed a core curriculum consistent with departmental requirements for a Ph.D. Required courses include: (1) statistics and general methodology. (2) a major area of study in clinical, physiological, developmental, or health psychology, (3) a minor area of study related to the addictive behaviors (e.g., an expanded version of the Addictive Behaviors Core Curriculum), and (4) breadth requirements intended to assure broad exposure to other areas of psychology. Trainees in the course of the program will be expected to (a) acquire research methodologies relevant to the alcohol filed with both human and animal subjects; and (b) apply such skills and knowledge in the design and execution of both basic and applied research related to the etiology and prevention of alcohol abuse and dependence.
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