Cigarette smokers (n = 387) completed a questionnaire measure of smoki
ng motives, and subgroups of this sample provided external validation
information. Seven factors emerged from a principal components' analys
is: automatic, sedative, addictive, stimulation, psychosocial, indulge
nt and sensorimotor manipulation. A higher-order principal components
analysis revealed the presence of two second-order factors. Inspection
of the pattern of correlations between factor scores and criterion va
riables clearly indicated that the first four factors above and their
underlying second-order factor are more closely related to nicotine ph
armacology and mood-altering effects of nicotine than the latter three
motives and their underlying second-order factor. Moreover, the posit
ive correlations between these pharmacological motives and age, couple
d with a negative relationship between age and the non-pharmacological
motives, support the description of the smoking career as a progressi
ve transfer of reward from non-pharmacological to pharmacological fact
ors. These findings suggest that self-reported reasons for smoking rep
resent more than bias in verbal report.