Autobiographical Narratives Can Be Used With Confidence to Collect Information About Ex-smokers’ Reasons For Quitting Smoking

Abstract

Although autobiographical narratives (ABNs) provide rich descriptions of how people change addictive behaviors, psychometric evaluations of such reports are rare. 27 ex-smokers who had quit for 1 to 5 years were interviewed twice about why they quit. Participants’ ABN reasons for why they quit smoking were compared with their answers on the Reasons For Quitting (RFQ) scale and found to be similar. Ex-smokers’ ABNs are reliably reported for number and types of reasons given for quitting. Reasons ex-smokers gave in their ABNs were similar to their RFQ subscale answers. ABNs, a qualitative measure of quitting smoking, captured more information about how people quit smoking than quantitative scales.

Keywords :

• Ex-Smokers
• autobiographical narratives
• smoking
• qualitative measures
• tobacco use

THE AUTHORS

Alex Cuc, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor at the Center for Psychological Studies at Nova Southeastern University. His research interests include autobiographical memory, memory in small groups, and collective memory of social and political events.

Linda Carter Sobell, Ph.D., ABPP is a Professor at the Center for Psychological Studies at Nova Southeastern University in Florida. She is known for her research in the addictions field, particularly time-limited cognitive-behavioral interventions, motivational interventions, the process of self-change, and the Timeline Followback.

Mark B Sobell, Ph.D., ABPP is a Professor at the Center for Psychological Studies at Nova Southeastern University in Florida. He is known for his research in the addictions field, particularly time-limited cognitive-behavioral interventions, the process of self-change, and the Timeline Followback.

Jessica Joy Ruiz, Psy.D. is an Assistant Professor at Carlos Albzui University in Florida.

Andrew Voluse, Ph.D. is a Staff Psychologist at Montgomery VA Medical Center in Jackson, Mississippi.