Psychosocial Factors in Alcohol Use and Alcoholism

181 There is no single, simple explanation for why some individuals develop problems with alcohol. One of the central findings of the large body of research that has examined the psychosocial causes, or etiology, of alcohol use is that there are multiple pathways to behavior that involves alcohol consumption (Cloninger et al. 1996; Sher et al. 1997; Zucker et al. 1994). Multiple biological and psychosocial factors mutually influence each other in causing alcohol abuse; it would be incorrect to view psychosocial causes as either independent from, or competing with, biological causes. Rather, alcohol use and alcoholism are best viewed as end products of a combination of biopsychosocial influences.