Assessment of constructs and conflicts in smokers willing to quit

Rolf Deubner

Department of Medical Psychology, University of Giessen (Germany)

Abstract
Smokers often associate positive as well as negative attributes and attitudes with their own smoking behaviour. These attributes are represented in their construct systems. The „smoker-grid“ developed for this study offers a tool, to reveal these smoking-related constructs. 15 smokers not willing to quit and 15 smokers willing to quit are examined in the study. Especially smokers willing to quit show certain very individual conflict constellations of constructs related to their self and their ideal-self. These conflicts can be interpreted in terms of implicative dilemmas which prevent smokers from finally quitting smoking. The smoker-grid helps to specify the dilemmas and therefore may be used as a tool for assessment in stop-smoking-programs.

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