Andrew Lac, Ph.D.

Professor Andrew Lac’s research interests focus on the psychology of substance use and addictive behaviors. His topic areas include alcohol, marijuana, caffeine, inhalants, psilocybin, other substances (almost anything that could be ingested or inhaled), sexual activities, interpersonal compulsions, social media, and other addictive behaviors. These topics are examined from various perspectives: attitudes and beliefs, motivations and expectations, feelings and emotions, stress and trauma, social and peer norms, cultural and racial disparities, cue exposure and cue reactivity and priming experiments, family environment and history, attachment security and interpersonal relationships (e.g., parent-child, best friends, siblings), risk factors, protective factors, prevention, coping, brief interventions, and the role of social media. Furthermore, he publishes on scale development and validation (EFA, CFA, and IRT) and the evaluation of the psychometric properties (factor structures, reliabilities, and validities) of measurement questionnaires relevant to his research interests. Dr. Lac was previously affiliated with Claremont Graduate University as Research Professor and Loyola Marymount University as Visiting Professor. 

*The Director of Psychological Science Training is responsible for all aspects of the Psychological Science MA track including recruitment and admissions, curriculum, professional development, and assessment.

Professor Lac is seeking to recruit new graduate students interested in conducting research in any of these areas to join his research lab. 

Substance Use, Addictive Behaviors, Sexual Behaviors, Health Psychology, Psychometrics, Scale Development and Validation

Ph.D. Psychology, Claremont Graduate University (CGU) 
M.A. Psychology, California State University, Los Angeles (CSLA)
B.S. Cognitive Science, with Computing Specialization, University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA)

PSY 5810 - Research Statistics and Methods I
PSY 5820 - Research Statistics and Methods II
PSY 5830 - Applied Multivariate Techniques I
PSY 6813 - Meta-Analysis

Selected from over 100 scholarly publications. The comprehensive list of publications can be downloaded from Google Scholar (https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=dtU9VMAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao) or ResearchGate (https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Andrew_Lac2) 

*Current/former student coauthor

*White, K.P., *Muhonen, M.A., *Wearth, K. & Lac, A. (2025). A meta-analysis of psychopathy and the sociosexual orientation inventory. Personality and Individual Differences, 236, 1-9. 

Lac, A. (2024). How should coronaphobia be conceptualized? Evaluating competing models of the COVID-19 Phobia Scale using confirmatory factor analysis. Journal of Psychiatric Research, 178, 164-172.

Lac, A. (2024). Cannabis use disorders: Measuring usage. In C. R. Martin, V. R. Preedy, V. B. Patel, & R. Rajendram (Eds.), Handbook of the Biology and Pathology of Mental Disorders (pp. 1-15). Springer. 

Lac, A. (2024). Drinking to cope with the COVID-19 pandemic mediates pathways from COVID-19 anxiety to alcohol use and alcohol myopia consequences. Journal of Dual Diagnosis, 20, 327-339.

*Bukreyev. A., & Lac, A. (2024). A cue reactivity experiment: Exposure to images of alcoholic beverages and social context on alcohol cravings, motivations, attitudes, approval, and behavior. Addictive Behaviors, 158, 1-8. 

*Dixon, K E., *Owens, A., Lac, A., Samuelson, K. W., & Mahoney, C. T. (2024). Do coping self-efficacy, coping flexibility, and substance use coping mediate the connection from PTSD to problematic alcohol use behaviors? Journal of Psychopathology & Behavioral Assessment, 46, 386-398.

*Neeley, K. M., & Lac, A. (2024). Experimental effects of sexual crime (indecent exposure and rape) and substance use (sober, alcohol, marijuana, and cocaine) on attributions of perpetrator responsibility, blame, and punishment. Substance Use & Misuse, 59, 536-548.

Lac, A. & Luk, J. W. (2023). The Alcohol Relief Questionnaire: Development and validation of a multidimensional scale to measure the psychological, interpersonal, sleep, and physical effects of drinking. Psychological Assessment, 35, 533-545.

Lac, A. (2023). COVID-19 stress (traumatic symptoms, compulsive checking, xenophobia, and danger & contamination) and alcohol use uniquely explain state alcohol cravings. Journal of Psychopathology and Behavioral Assessment, 45, 537-548.

Lac, A. & *Donaldson, C. D. (2022).  Development and validation of the Drama Triangle Scale: Are you a victim, rescuer, or persecutor? Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 37, 4057-4081.

Lac, A., & *Donaldson, C. D. (2021). Sensation seeking versus alcohol use: Evaluating temporal precedence using cross-lagged panel models. Drug & Alcohol Dependence, 219, 1-8.

Lac, A., & *Donaldson, C. D. (2021). Experimental priming of peer injunctive norms and peer descriptive norms on personal alcohol attitudes, behaviors, and motivations. Addiction Research & Theory, 29, 338-346.

*Harvey, A. M., *Thompson, S., Lac, A., & Coolidge, F. L. (2019). Fear and derision: A quantitative content analysis of pro-vaccine and anti-vaccine Internet memes. Health Education & Behavior, 46, 1012-1023.

Lac, A., & Luk, J. W. (2019). Development and validation of the Adult Interpersonal Acceptance-Rejection Scale. Psychological Assessment, 31, 340-351.

Lac, A., & Luk, J. W. (2019). Pathways from positive, negative, and specific alcohol expectancies to weekday and weekend drinking to alcohol problems. Prevention Science, 20, 800-809.

Lac, A., & *Donaldson, C. D. (2019). Personality traits moderate connections from drinking attitudes to alcohol use and myopic relief, self-inflation, and excess. Substance Use & Misuse, 54, 818-830.

Lac, A., & *Donaldson, C. D. (2018). Validation and psychometric properties of the Alcohol Positive and Negative Affect Scale: Are drinking emotions distinct from general emotions? Psychology of Addictive Behaviors, 32, 40-51.

Lac, A., & Luk, J. (2018) Testing the amotivational syndrome: Marijuana use longitudinally predicts lower self-efficacy even after controlling for demographics, personality, and alcohol and cigarette use. Prevention Science, 19, 117-126.

Lac, A., & *Donaldson, C. D. (2018).  Testing competing models of injunctive and descriptive norms for proximal and distal reference groups on alcohol attitudes and behavior. Addictive Behaviors, 78, 153-159.

Lac, A., & *Brack, N.  (2018). Alcohol expectancies longitudinally predict drinking the alcohol myopic effects of relief, self-inflation, and excess. Addictive Behaviors, 77, 172-179.

Lac, A., & *Donaldson, C. D. (2017). Higher-order and bifactor models of the Drinking Motives Questionnaire: Examining competing structures using confirmatory factor analysis. Assessment, 24, 222-231.

Lac, A., & *Handren, L, & Crano, W. D. (2016). Conceptualizing and measuring weekend versus weekday alcohol use: Item response theory and confirmatory factor analysis. Prevention Science, 17, 872-881.

Lac, A. & *Donaldson, C. D. (2016). Alcohol attitudes, norms, behavior, and personality traits longitudinally classify nondrinkers, moderate drinkers, and binge drinkers using discriminant function analysis. Addictive Behaviors, 61, 91-98.

Kenney, S. R., Lac, A., Hummer, J., & LaBrie, J. W. (2014). Development and validation of the Hookup Motives Questionnaire. Psychological Assessment, 26, 1127-1137.

Lac, A., & Crano, W. D. (2016). Marijuana use. In R. J. R. Levesque (Ed.), Encyclopedia of adolescence (2nd ed., pp. 1-8). Springer International.

Lac, A. (2016). Measurement validity. In R. J. R. Levesque (Ed.), Encyclopedia of adolescence (2nd ed., pp. 1-4). Springer International.

Kenney, S. R., Lac, A., Hummer, J., & LaBrie, J. W. (2014). Development and validation of the Hookup Motives Questionnaire. Psychological Assessment, 26, 1127-1137.

Napper, L. E., Hummer, J. F. Lac, A., & LaBrie, J. W.  (2014). What are other parents saying? Perceived parental communication norms and the relationship between alcohol-specific parental communication and college student drinking. Psychology of Addictive Behaviors, 28, 31-41.

Lac, A., Crano, W. D., Berger, D., & Alvaro, E. M. (2013). Attachment theory and theory of planned behavior: An integrative model predicting underage drinking.  Developmental Psychology, 49, 1579-1590.

Lac, A., & Berger, D. (2013). Development and validation of the Alcohol Myopia Scale. Psychological Assessment, 25, 738-747.

UCCS LAS Research Award Alan Marlatt “Early Career Award” (American Psychological Association, Division 50: Addiction Psychology) “Early Career Research Award” (National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism) Peter M. Bentler “Multivariate Award” (Western Psychological Association) Robert L. Solso “Research Award” (Western Psychological Association)

UCCS Psychology Director of Psychological Science, 2023-Present
UCCS Psychology Interim Director of Psychological Science, 2020 - 2021