Does Altered State of Awareness Mediate the Relationship Between the Unusual Experiences Trait and Alcohol Cue-Reactivity?(Report‪)‬

Cue-reactivity refers to responses to environmental stimuli or "cues" (e.g., an individual's favorite alcoholic beverage), which include changes in physiology (e.g., heart rate, salivation), affect, and craving. Previous research has begun to examine the role of personality and cognitive variables in influencing alcohol cue-reactivity in an attempt to uncover possible individual factors which may help explain craving responses (e.g., Franken, 2002; Glautier, Bankart, & Williams, 2000; Kambouropoulos & Staiger, 2001, 2004; McCusker & Brown, 1991). These studies consistently point to deficient attentional processes and heightened levels of impulsive type personality traits as markers of increased cue-reactivity. Specifically, it appears that high levels of impulsivity, disinhibition, and elevated sensitivity to reward may facilitate self-reports of craving when in the presence of alcohol cues (Glautier et al., 2000; Kambouropoulos & Staiger, 2001, 2004). Thus, focusing on individual personality characteristics appears to be a useful method for investigating the processes underlying cue-reactivity. However, a potentially relevant personality trait that has been neglected by cue-reactivity researchers is "mental boundaries." Hartmann's (1991) mental boundary construct refers to the notion that the contents of the human mind (e.g., memories, feelings, thoughts) constitute "... parts, regions, functions, or processes that are separate from one another and yet connected with one another" (p. 4). The 145-item Boundary Questionnaire (BQ) was developed by Hartmann (1989) to quantify the "thinness" or permeability of boundaries. Rawlings (2001-2002) factor-analyzed the BQ scores of 300 undergraduates and concluded that the boundary construct consists of six factors (i.e., unusual experiences, childlikeness, trust, perceived competence, need for order, and sensitivity). Individuals with "thin" boundaries tend to be described as "open," "sensitive" and "fluid" (Rawlings, 2001-2002). It is perhaps also noteworthy that thinness of boundaries is positively correlated with the transliminality construct (Sherwood & Milner, 20042005), which refers to "a hypothesized tendency for psychological material to cross thresholds into or out of consciousness" (Lange, Thalbourne, Houran, & Storm, 2000, p. 591). Consequently, thin boundary individuals tend to be high transliminals, who demonstrate the ability to transition with relative ease between ordinary waking states and altered states of awareness (unusual states of consciousness). Indeed, in a review of previous research concerning the boundary construct, Hartmann, Harrison and Zborowski (2001) cite studies suggesting that thinner boundaries are associated with various altered states of awareness (e.g., lucid dreaming, nightmares, hypnotic induction). Given that altered states of awareness typically consist of unusual experiences relative to the ordinary waking state (e.g., distortions in space-time perception, body image), it seems reasonable to suggest that the unusual experiences factor of the boundary construct may be a general trait tendency to experience altered states of awareness.