Behavioral research: The particulary unwated child of conventional wisdom in the alcohol field

Abstract

The alcohol field and the field of behavioral research and therapy both developed over the past two decades to become major domains of scientific and clinical activity. While this concurrent development was coincidental, a result of the alcohol constituency's successful lobbying for an alcohol field. In several areas the findings of scienfic research have conflicted with conventional wisdom. The conflicts involving behavioral research have been especially severe, however, because the behavioral findings represent not just an academic but also a practical threat to the dominance of conventional wisdom. Behavioral researchers have an obligation to continue contributing to the prevention and remediation of alcohol problems, even when those efforts are viewed disfavorably by defenders of conventional wisdom.