Using self-report measures, we did not find that relapsers reported more postcessation negative affect than abstainers. Previous findings have established a strong link between postcessation negative affect and relapse (Borland, 1990; Brandon et al., 1990; Shiffman & Waters, 2004; Shiffman et al., 1996). However, these studies either asked smokers to recall their affect at the time of lapse or used ecological momentary assessment to record, in real time, smokers’ negative affect at the time they lapsed. In contrast, we assessed smokers’ negative affect at the time of attendance at laboratory sessions, which were temporally removed from when incidences of postcessation smoking occurred and might explain why we failed to find a higher level of postcessation negative affect among relapsers than among abstainers.
