motivation (Kuntsche, Knibbe, Gmel & Engels, 2006). These findings point to specific motivational pathways arising from individual differences that are temperamentally based and can help guide the selection of environmental variables and appropriate animal models. For example, to study the effects of alcohol on socialization or conformity (indeed, if conformity in its typical sense is relevant at all to nonhuman animals), one would select a species for study where socialization is an important part of adaptive behavior. Additionally, initial evidence suggests that motives for alcohol use may also be linked to similar genetic factors. Drinking motives involving coping with negative moods appear to be heritable, especially in females, (Agrawal et. al., 2007; Prescott et al., 2004) and a substantial portion of genetic variation in AUDs appears to overlap with drinking to manage mood states (Prescott et al., 2004).
