Smoking cessation and smokers' perceptions of their addiction.

Investigated whether cigarette smokers' views of their own smoking and their attributions for why smokers generally often fail to quit were related to ratings of confidence in their own ability to quit, and their intention to do so by analyzing responses to 3 postal questionnaires. One year later, self-reports were obtained of whether the Ss had attempted to quit or reduce their consumption. The sample consisted of 141 smokers who had contacted a TV company in response to an offer of free antismoking kits. Path analyses were conducted on the total sample, and on a restricted sample of Ss who had previously tried to stop smoking but relapsed. These indicated that cessation attempts were predictable from intention, that intention was predictable from confidence (expectancy of success), and that confidence was predictable from attributions in a manner consistent with B. Weiner's (see PA, Vol 62:8688) model of achievement motivation. Ss' views of their own smoking, based on r! atings of 20 self-descriptive items, were characterized in terms of 2 factors that also related to attributions--Confidence and Intention.