The influence of Gender and Alcohol Consumption Patterns on Alcohol Essay

The influence of Gender and Alcohol Consumption Patterns on Alcohol Expectancy amongst Undergraduate Students - Essay Example Its nearly impossible to study each and every single person's perceptions on the subject of alcohol prevalence rates, however, numbers and statistics are always an accurate tool for study. Many of the articles chosen to use for research include survey results, marketing opinions, college binge drinking studies, psychology related magazines and of course programs to cure alcohol related problems; such Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) and social norms programs made by colleges to reduce and stop binge drinking. Fact, one in three eighteen to twenty-four year old persons admitted into emergency rooms for serious injuries are intoxicated. Fact, a twelve-ounce bottle of beer has the same amount of alcohol as a standard shot of eighty-proof liquor mixed or straight as well as a five ounce glass of wine. Fact, rates of binge drinking are increasing alarmingly. When alcohol and undergraduate students are near, they are contributing to the need for college anti-alcohol social programs, strict laws and regulations, and of course, serious and sometimes fatal injury. But, what is the major problem and why is it a problem Increasing rates of alcoholism on college campuses are creating a large number of negative consequences including long term brain damage, long term jail sentences, and extremely long term sleep; six feet under. The main contributing factors to the increasing rates of alcoholism are directly caused by ineffective laws and regulations and the superior power of manipulation from the multi-media. This paper will be divided into five sections; the first section will cover the laws and regulations made by Canadian and American governments, the second and most focused part of the paper, the marketing power of the mass media and its effects on the individual, the third section will discuss why current marketing strategies to lessen the rates of alcohol use are failing and will continue to fail, the fourth section will bring attention to many of the skewed statistics of alcohol studies and use real articles and statistics to strengthen this allegation, and the latter sections will deal with many of the internal and psychological factors that each individual faces before consumption of alcohol; here, research from psychology journals and magazines will be criticized and analyzed to make a rational an d proper conclusion of the previous discussions and arguments. Laws And Regulations Of Alcohol In most of the United States of America, patrons must be twenty-one years of age to purchase and consume alcohol, whereas in most of Canada, the age of consumption is nineteen, however, one strange fact is that at eighteen, Canadians are considered adults; that is, they are indeed permitted to vote, but not purchase or consume