Binge Drinking Critical Review

Critical Review
Word Count: 979
Szmigin I, Griffin C, Mistral W, Bengry-Howell A, Weale L, & Hackley C. (2008). Re-framing 'binge drinking' as calculated hedonism: empirical evidence from the UK. International Journal of Drug Policy. 19(5), 359-66.
Overview:
The main aim of this study was to put forward a new meaning to the phrase “binge drinking” when connected to young consumers of alcohol in the UK. The study tries to show the difference between the definitions of binge drinking and calculated hedonism, which refers to a process of controlling alcohol consumption, which might be seen as excessive. The reason for this study was trying to define the meaning of “binge drinking” and to try and resolve the media created panic around the subject.
The issues were that most of the participants were collected from nearby colleges, which could give a bias to results and it only represents a small part of the population, by not including people in and out of work and in other types of education. Another type of problem was that two of the selected locations (Seatown & Bolston) were relatively close together and therefore that could also be unrepresentative of the population. Another issue was that study did not state clearly how many women were in the study in comparison to men, this could therefore alter results because each gender could have a different attitude towards alcohol. Again the procedure chosen for this study was appropriate because it clearly looks at finding data that can confirm the main aim of this paper, but there were some issues with lack of information, which could stop other researchers from trying to replicate the paper such as the lack of detail about obtaining consent and the lack of knowledge about what was told to the participants before and after the study. The paper then clearly shows some transcripts from the study that highlight the key issues of the studies and then analyse them, but the paper also mentions that some of the participants did not drink alcohol, but none of the conversations from
There were some ethical problems with this study because first it did not tell the participants the main aim of the study, which could have changed their conversations and therefore could have different results. Another issue was that the paper did not give the information about what was told to the participant after the study, so if they were told what the study was about. Also the conclusions drawn from the study were justified and were compared to other similar research and it also explained again all the definitions of the key ideas surrounding the topic. It also concluded with the information about the paper marketing schemes and how they affect alcohol consumption. There was another issue with the paper because it did not clearly provide and even approach to the answering of the research question and it did not argue or show enough information about some of the bad attitudes the participants had towards alcohol, so it did not clearly argue against the aim of the