In the final stages of her doctoral study, an ACU instructor is researching the perspectives and consumption stages of smoking addictions.

Cherisse Flanagan, director of the ACU Psychology Clinic and instructor of psychology, specialized in the health aspects of psychology. Flanagan chose a health related issue in the area of smoking for her study. She has fulfilled all her course work and internship, except her dissertation.

Flanagan is currently in the data collection period for her dissertation, entitled, “The Role of Viewer Orientation and Consumption Level in Smoking Cue Reactivity.” She is working with a team of four graduate students at the Presbyterian Medical Care Mission, which provides medical care for the working poor, to collect data on smokers.

“My study is looking at the role of factors of cues in a smoking population,” said Flanagan. “In the research, pictures of smokers and smoking are shown to a sample of dependent smokers. They rate how the pictures makes them feel: whether the pictures has an emotional response or not; whether the pictures make them crave smoking or not.”

Flanagan and her team are trying to identify whether cues have a reaction on smokers to have a cigarette.  All kinds of cues are found in our environment motivate people towards a certain behavior. With smokers there are certain cues that compel them to smoke. These cues are present when they drive, mow the lawn, or meet with other people. Through her research, smokers will learn to identify and control the cues in their environment to reduce or even stop smoking.

To further her research, Flanagan discusses portraying different perspectives to her test subjects using first and third person pictures that pertain to smoking. For example, watching a person smoke or viewing a cigarette from a person’s hand has different effects on the smokers. On another level, the pictures will show different stages of a cigarette. The cigarette is seen freshly lit or almost gone.

Graduate assistant Katelyn Thornton, counseling psychology major from North Richland Hills, said, “The test subjects are disgusted by the smoking images. They are either sad or ashamed to look at the pictures because they would want to quit, but can’t. This shows how strong the addiction is.”

“I have been struck, in this research, from the amount of people, who readily admit to smoking, expressing shame,” said Flanagan. “I show them smoking cues. Pleasant ones. Not pictures of decrepit lungs or cancerous mouths. Even so, people are still embarrassed and wished they could stop.”

The study on smoking cue reactivity does overflow to other areas of addiction. People addicted to different kinds of substances are going to be reactive to cues around them. Individuals struggling with obesity pair food with certain emotions that motivates them to eat more.

The effects of smoking are devastating. Flanagan said, “Tobacco in itself kills 15 million people in a year. On average smokers die 13 to 14 years sooner than non-smokers.”

The data collection has been on going for three to four weeks and is coming to an end. With almost all of her needed results, Flanagan and her students are on their last week of the data collection phase. After one year of work, Flanagan is finishing her dissertation and is looking forward to being reviewed for her Ph.D. in mid-March.

Thornton said, “The pictures that are used now aren’t very good. She’s hoping to get standardize pictures that researchers could use for more studies on smoking.”