From the review presented above, the role of the delay discounting dimension of impulsivity is clear. It is notable that in these studies delay discounting is studied largely in relation to the delay of positive reinforcement/reward. However, delay discounting also may be used to understand the discounting of aversive events, as a larger later aversive event may be preferred over a smaller current aversive event. This focus on aversive events fits well with alcohol, as its use can be viewed under some circumstances as a strategy to avoid immediate or short-term aversive events or aversive affective experiences (i.e., in line with negative reinforcement theory; Baker et al., 2004), despite the fact that the longer-term aversive events associated with alcohol use are often greater in magnitude. Although this form of delay discounting may be most appropriately applied to alcohol withdrawal, it can also be understood in the context of current use, such as when someone turns to alcohol when faced with environmental stressors, or even initiation of use, for example when youth combat influences such as peer pressure to drink; drinking
