Our hypothesis is not that sensation seeking, uncorrected for its overlap with other personality predictors, would be unrelated to drinking quantity and problem consumption. Nor is it that positive urgency, uncorrected for other personality predictors, would be unrelated to drinking frequency. Rather, it is that the unique contribution of sensation seeking, above and beyond other predictors, is to the frequency of consumption, and that the unique contribution of positive urgency, above and beyond other predictors, is to the quantity of consumption and problem consumption. Thus, when sensation seeking and positive urgency are included together as predictors of college student drinking, sensation seeking will uniquely predict drinking frequency and positive urgency will uniquely predict drinking quantity and problem drinking. If these hypotheses are supported, they may lead to the enhancement of prevention programs. Successful prevention efforts are likely to differ for emotion-based risk and sensation-based risk.
