Browsing by Subject "Alcoholism -- Psychological aspects"
Now showing 1 - 11 of 11
Results Per Page
Sort Options
Item A crosscultural study of the psychological aspects of alcoholic and tuberculous-alcoholic patients(Texas Tech University, 1969-08) Martinez, Floyd HNot availableItem A psychosocial reinforcement model of alcoholism.(Texas Tech University, 1974-08) McGahee, Bernard MNot availableItem An experimental investigation of the effectiveness of assertion training with alcoholics.(Texas Tech University, 1975-05) Hirsch, Steven MNot availableItem Application of the MacAndrew alcoholism scale to alcoholics with psychiatric diagnoses(Texas Tech University, 1984-12) Preng, Kathryn WallaceThe MacAndrew Alcoholism Scale (MAC: MacAndrew, 1965) has demonstrated significant discriminative power in separating male alcoholics from male psychiatric patients, but there are two different interpretations of MAC scale scores. Apfeldorf and Hunley (1981) have proposed that high MAC scores measure an alcoholic response pattern and low scores measure a psychiatric response pattern. In contrast, MacAndrew (1981) has proposed that high MAC scores measure a reward seeking orientation, and low scores measure an orientation to avoid punishment. These researchers concur, however, in questioning the MAC'S ability to detect alcoholism which coexists with psychiatric diagnosis. Therefore, the present study examined the MAC's performance with alcoholic psychiatric patients. Subjects were 140 male V. A. Hospital patients assigned to one of five diagnostic groups (Alcoholics, Alcoholic Personality Disorders, Alcoholic Neurotics, Personality Disorders, or Neurotics) based on DSM-III diagnoses. All patients completed a valid MMPI which was used to determine MAC scores. MAC scale scores successfully differentiated the Alcoholic group from the combined psychiatric groups which was consistent with previous research. However, the MAC scale did not effectively discriminate alcoholics from patients with character disorder diagnoses. The MAC scale failed to differentiate either of the alcoholicpsychiatric groups from its psychiatric counterpart. The alcoholicvi psychiatric groups did not obtain intermediate MA£ scores as Apfeldorf and Hunley's ideas would suggest. In fact, the Alcoholic Personality Disorder group scored significantly higher than the Alcoholic Neurotic group, which would suggest that these psychiatric diagnoses influence the MAC scale in different ways. Further investigation revealed that the majority of patients in the highest scoring group did not appear to possess a reward seeking orientation. At present, MacAndrew's theory has not been tested adequately. Specifically, future research needs to assess whether high and low scorers actually possess the characteristics proposed by MacAndrew. Recommendations for other research and for the clinical application of the MAC scale are discussed.Item Ego Strength and Defense Mechanisms in Male and Female Alcoholics(Texas Tech University, 1972-05) Clemens, Vivian MNot Available.Item Locus of control orientation in a broad sample of alcoholics(Texas Tech University, 1972-05) Roberts, Gustave WilliamNot availableItem Locus of control orientation in a broad sample of alcoholics(Texas Tech University, 1972-12) Roberts, Gustave WilliamNot availableItem Psychological reactance among alcoholics in treatment(Texas Tech University, 1986-12) Tucher, John JosephPsychological reactance is a form of negativism (or resistance) in the presence of perceived threat to one's freedom to perform a specific behavior or hold a specific attitude. The purpose of this study is to extend the theory of reactance to a clinical setting by considering reactance to be a potentially important variable in the treatment of alcoholism. Reactance to a treatment message that threatened freedom to drink and prior demonstration of such freedom were examined in an alcoholic population. Subjects were 112 male military personnel undergoing a 6-week inpatient alcoholism treatment program at the Naval Hospital, Bethesda, Maryland, and assigned randomly to one of four experimental conditions (n = 28). The experimental design was a 2 (Threat/No-Threat) x 2 (Prior- Demons t rat ion/No Prior-Demonstration) Completely Randomized Factorial. In order to facilitate this study, the Psychological Reactivity Scale (PRS) was developed to investigate individual differences in manifested reactance. Other instruments included four well-established personality scales, two essay blanks differing in prior-demonstration potential, two short paragraphs differing in level of threat, a 12-point Likert rating scale measuring degree of reactance, and a counselor rating form. Procedures involved administering the PRS and the four personality scales on Day One, with all manipulations occurring on Day Two. Alcoholism counselors rated each subject along five dimensions of treatment on Day Three. The major finding of the present study is the significant correlations between reactivity (assessed by the PRS) and related personality constructs. All correlations ranged between absolute values .27 and .33 (£S < .01). A personality profile of the highly reactive individual is described with reference to these related constructs. Suggestions to improve the validity of the PRS are discussed, with special attention to refining its psychometric basis. Results of analyses of variance failed to support the major hypotheses that alcoholics react to treatment demands that threaten drinking behavior, and that a prior demonstration of attitudinal freedom to drink can attenuate this reactance. Possible explanations for these negative results are discussed, along with suggestions for future research that would circumvent the limitations inherent in this study.Item Relationship of alcoholic subtypes to treatment outcome(Texas Tech University, 1985-05) Roberts, Samuel JosephThe present study represents an extension of previous research on alcoholic personality subtypes and their response to treatment for alcoholism. Alcoholics, in the present study, were subtyped according to the presence or absence of coexisting psychiatric syndromes similar to those described in DSM III (APA, 1980). The Psychiatric Diagnostic Interview (Othmer, Penick & Powell, 1981) was used to diagnose alcoholics and three prominent subtypes were identified. These included Primary alcoholics (with no history of psychiatric syndromes), Depressed alcoholics (with a history of major depression) and Antisocial alcoholics (with a history of antisocial personality). These three subtypes were then compared on their response to treatment for alcoholism. Subjects in the present study were 84 male veterans who participated in a traditional 28 day inpatient treatment program for alcoholism. Subjects in each subtype were compared on a variety of treatment outcome measures one year following treatment including post-treatment alcohol consumption, social-occupational functioning, emotional problems and health care problems associated with drinking. Results indicate that Primary alcoholics experienced fewer emotional and health care problems following treatment than other subtypes. No differences between subtypes were found for post-treatment alcohol consumption or social-occupational functioning. The present findings suggest that alcoholics with no psychiatric history may respond more positively to treatment for alcoholism than alcoholics who exhibit significant psychopathology such as major depression or antisocial personality disorder. Results of the present study also indicate that the presence or absence of coexisting psychopathology may be an important moderator variable that may have a significant influence on response to treatment among alcoholics.Item The differential effectiveness of two styles of presenting rational-emotive-therapy to internal and external alcoholics(Texas Tech University, 1979-05) Christensen, Phillip WayneNot availableItem Verbal and figural memory deficits in abstinent alcoholics(Texas Tech University, 1983-12) Hightower, Michael GlennEarly investigations of memory dysfunction in alcoholics have suggested that alcoholics who have been abstinent for a period of three to four weeks experience complete recovery of verbal memory functioning independent of drinking history and age. After a similar period of abstinence, older alcoholics with long drinking histories have generally demonstrated only partial recovery of nonverbal memory functioning while younger alcoholics, regardless of drinking history, have been reported to completely recover these nonverbal functions. In view of the neuropathological evidence of bilateral cerebral damage in alcoholics (which may be partially reversible) and the demonstration of behavioral continuities which continue with abstinence between alcoholics with and without Korsakoff's disease, the absence of a m.ore permanent verbal memory deficit, especially in alcoholics with long drinking histories, is surprising. Several investigators have suggested that the finding of complete recovery of verbal memory has been primarily due to the insensitivity of the tests which have been used to assess these functions rather than to recovery per se. Recent investigators, using tests which were purported to be more sensitive to subtle verbal information processing disturbances, have found alcoholics to demonstrate verbal memory deficits even after three to four weeks of abstinence. However, it is unclear as to how the tests used by these investigators were more sensitive to verbal memory deficit than were those used in earlier studies Furthermore, continuing verbal memory deficits were demonstrated on tests which have little clinical utility. The present study investigated the relationship between chronic alcohol abuse and verbal and figural memory. Specifically, the pattern of memory deficit in alcoholics who had been abstinent for a period of four weeks was examined as a function of age and number of years of heavy drinking. Four groups of right-handed male Caucasian alcoholics were studied; (1) older longer-term; (2) older shorter-term; (3) younger longer-term; and (4) younger shorter-term. Comparison groups of older and younger nonalcoholics were also tested. Groups were matched on socioeconomic status. The Revised Wechsler Memory Scale (RWMS) was used to assess memory. The RWMS is a clinically useful memory battery which has been related to other indices of cerebral dysfunction and it provides measures of verbal and figural short- and long-term memory. After four weeks of abstinence, nonalcoholics were found to perform significantly better than longer- and shorter-term alcoholics on verbal short-term mem.ory and better than longer-term alcoholics on verbal long-term and figural short-term memory. Younger individuals performed significantly better than older individuals on measures of figural short- and long-term memory. There were no significant interactions between number of years of heavy drinking and age. Older and younger longer-term alcoholics and younger shorter-term alcoholics performed significantly better on figural short-term memory than on verbal short-term memory. Younger groups, regardless of alcohol abuse status, performed significantly better on figural long-term memory than on verbal long-term memory. In terms of degree of impairment, each alcoholic group demonstrated moderate impairment on verbal short-term memory. Older alcoholics, regardless of number of years of heavy drinking, were moderately impaired on verbal long-term memory while younger alcoholics were mildly impaired on this measure. Figural memory measures were clearly sensitive to memory deficit only in older, longer-term alcoholics. Overall, verbal memory measures, especially measures of verbal short-term memory, were the most sensitive indicators of memory deficit in alcoholics with four weeks of abstinence.