We evaluated three hypotheses: (1) more dependent smokers would experience greater negative affect and craving at baseline and after quitting than less dependent smokers; (2) smoking relapsers would experience greater postquit negative affect and craving than abstainers and controls; (3) smokers reporting greater craving would have greater negative affect than those reporting less craving. To evaluate these hypotheses, we assessed retrospective self-report, current self-report, and psychophysiology of negative affect and craving in smokers assigned to either a brief behaviorally based smoking-cessation treatment condition or to a delayed treatment control condition. Participants in the treatment condition attended four sessions, 4 –5 days prequit (baseline), 1–2 days postquit, 3–5 days postquit, and 10 –14 days postquit, while participants in the control condition attended four sessions spaced over the same intervals.
