Self-report issues in cigarette smoking: State of the art and future directions

We review the use of self-reports to answer three primary questions: (a) Do you smoke? (b) How much do you smoke? (or how often do you smoke?) and (c) What is the tar and nicotine yield of the cigarette you smoke? The answers to these questions are widely used in research and treatment. We consider three separable but interlocking domains: (a) verbal events (words and thoughts), (b) overt events (behavior), and (c) biological events. In general, self-reports appear to provide valid and reliable estimates of smoking, but not of tar yields. More attention is needed to understand how self-reports are generated by the smoker. Limitations of self-reports and proposals for their improvement are discussed.