Psychological Reports, 1975, 3 7 , 91-96 @ Psychological Reports 1975
PERSONALITY CHARACTERISTICS OF MALE ALCOHOLICS' RALPH E. TARTER" Carrier Clinic Foundation
Surnmary.48 alcoholics who were administered the California Psychological Inventory were distinguished from 24 normals on the Socialization and Selfcontrol scales. Early- and late-onset drinkers were also differentiated on several measures, suggesting that the late-onset drinkers are acutely disturbed while the early-onset drinkers are less consistent and exhibit disorders relating to personality organization.
While there is consensus that alcoholics do not comprise a single or unique personality type (Lisansky, 1967), it is generally accepted that they are discinguishable from ocher clinical disorders or normal individuals. McCord, McCord, and Gudeman (1960) reported that the alcoholic is aggressive, dependent, frequently in conflict with his family, and often alienaced from society. The pre-alcoholic in their longitudinal study presented himself as anxious, autonomous, aggressive and confused over personal role playing. Although no specific personaliry feature has been universally observed in alcoholic persons (Stein, Rozynko, & Pugh, 1971), there is a propensity for certain traits to appear with greater incidence chan in other psychopathological disorders. Thus Cacanzaro (1967) described 13 frequently observed characteristics of the alcoholic: low frustration capacity, grandiosity, anxiety, guilt, perfectionism, immaturity, difficulties with authority, sex-role confusion, poor anger modulation, excessive dependency, low self-esteem, isolation, and compulsivity. Alcoholics have also been differentiated from narcotic addicts on the MMPI (Overall, 1973) and the 16 PF (Brien, Kleinman, & Eisenman, 1973). On the 16 PF, alcoholics in one study were described as shrewd and radical (Brien, Kleinman, & Eisenman, 1973), while in another invescigacion as undependable, apprehensive, suspicious, and unstable ( Gross, 1971) . The aims of the present investigation were cwofold. The first objective was co determine if male alcoholics differ from normals on an objective personality test, the California Psychological Inventory. The second goal was to assess the relationship between personality disturbance and time of onset of alcohol abuse. As noted above, McCord, er al. (1960) were able to identify certain personality attributes of the pre-alcoholic. Ocher studies have found that young alcoholics are more maladjusted chan older alcoholics (Foulds & Hassall, 1969; Rosenberg, 1969). Bahr (1971) noted that chronic drinkers with an early T h e research was conducted under the support of Grant NIMH-14702 to Dr. 0.A. Parsons. Preparation of the manuscript was supported by Grant AA-00456-02 to Dr. 5. A. Sugerman. -Address reprint requests to Dr. Ralph Tarter, Carrier Clinic Foundation, Belle Mead, N. J. 08502.
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onset had fewer family associations and lower occupational status than alcoholics with a later onset of excessive drinking.
METHOD Sub jects Forty-eight male alcoholics and 24 controls, patients of the Oklahoma City V.A. hospital, participated in this investigation. The alcoholic patients were all inpatients in a rreacment program designed specifically for the rehabilitation of alcoholics. This was their first admission to this treatment facility, and none had an obvious psychiatric or neurological impairment. The controls were patients on the medical-surgical wards, and none had a history of alcoholism, drug abuse, psychiatric or neurological disturbances. The alcoholics had a mean age of 44.4 yr. while the controls had a mean age of 43.3 yr. Procedure The alcoholics were tested in groups ranging in size from 5 to 9. They consented to participate in this study on a voluntary basis. Testing was conducted at least 3 wk. after hospital admission so as to allow for total detoxification. The controls were tested individually and usually within a few days after their admission to the hospital. The California Psychological Inventory (Gough, 1969) was scored after all the subjects were tested; and in addition to tabulating the 18 standardized scales, the two factorial scales measuring personal and value orientation were also computed (Nichols & Schnell, 1963).
RESULTS In Table 1 are presented the means and standard deviations for the alcoholics and controls. The alcoholics scored lower than the controls on two scales, Socialization ( t = 3.31, P < .01) and Self-control ( t = 2.12, p < .05). They also obtained a nonsignificantly lower score on one of the factored scales, Value Orientation ( t = 1.77, p < .07). Next, the alcoholic subjects were divided into two subgroups of early- and late-onset drinkers. The criterion for dichotomizing the groups was the same as that employed by Bahr (1971) who used a cut-off age of 30. Fourteen of the Ss were then assigned to the early group, and they had a mean age of 40.0 yr. There were 33 late-onset drinkers whose mean age was 46.1 yr. Reliable data on the drinking history for one S was not obtainable and so he was omitted from .01) and late-onset drinkers this analysis. Both the early- ( t = 3.71, 9 ( t = 2.79, p < .05) scored lower than the controls on the Socialization scale, while the two alcoholic subgroups did not differ from each other. The controls .05) on the Selfscored higher than the late-onset drinkers ( t = 2.32, p control scale, but this difference was not significant when compared to the early-
PERSONALITY CHARACTERISTICS OF MALE ALCOHOLICS' RALPH E. TARTER" Carrier Clinic Foundation
Surnmary.48 alcoholics who were administered the California Psychological Inventory were distinguished from 24 normals on the Socialization and Selfcontrol scales. Early- and late-onset drinkers were also differentiated on several measures, suggesting that the late-onset drinkers are acutely disturbed while the early-onset drinkers are less consistent and exhibit disorders relating to personality organization.
While there is consensus that alcoholics do not comprise a single or unique personality type (Lisansky, 1967), it is generally accepted that they are discinguishable from ocher clinical disorders or normal individuals. McCord, McCord, and Gudeman (1960) reported that the alcoholic is aggressive, dependent, frequently in conflict with his family, and often alienaced from society. The pre-alcoholic in their longitudinal study presented himself as anxious, autonomous, aggressive and confused over personal role playing. Although no specific personaliry feature has been universally observed in alcoholic persons (Stein, Rozynko, & Pugh, 1971), there is a propensity for certain traits to appear with greater incidence chan in other psychopathological disorders. Thus Cacanzaro (1967) described 13 frequently observed characteristics of the alcoholic: low frustration capacity, grandiosity, anxiety, guilt, perfectionism, immaturity, difficulties with authority, sex-role confusion, poor anger modulation, excessive dependency, low self-esteem, isolation, and compulsivity. Alcoholics have also been differentiated from narcotic addicts on the MMPI (Overall, 1973) and the 16 PF (Brien, Kleinman, & Eisenman, 1973). On the 16 PF, alcoholics in one study were described as shrewd and radical (Brien, Kleinman, & Eisenman, 1973), while in another invescigacion as undependable, apprehensive, suspicious, and unstable ( Gross, 1971) . The aims of the present investigation were cwofold. The first objective was co determine if male alcoholics differ from normals on an objective personality test, the California Psychological Inventory. The second goal was to assess the relationship between personality disturbance and time of onset of alcohol abuse. As noted above, McCord, er al. (1960) were able to identify certain personality attributes of the pre-alcoholic. Ocher studies have found that young alcoholics are more maladjusted chan older alcoholics (Foulds & Hassall, 1969; Rosenberg, 1969). Bahr (1971) noted that chronic drinkers with an early T h e research was conducted under the support of Grant NIMH-14702 to Dr. 0.A. Parsons. Preparation of the manuscript was supported by Grant AA-00456-02 to Dr. 5. A. Sugerman. -Address reprint requests to Dr. Ralph Tarter, Carrier Clinic Foundation, Belle Mead, N. J. 08502.
92
R. E. TARTER
onset had fewer family associations and lower occupational status than alcoholics with a later onset of excessive drinking.
METHOD Sub jects Forty-eight male alcoholics and 24 controls, patients of the Oklahoma City V.A. hospital, participated in this investigation. The alcoholic patients were all inpatients in a rreacment program designed specifically for the rehabilitation of alcoholics. This was their first admission to this treatment facility, and none had an obvious psychiatric or neurological impairment. The controls were patients on the medical-surgical wards, and none had a history of alcoholism, drug abuse, psychiatric or neurological disturbances. The alcoholics had a mean age of 44.4 yr. while the controls had a mean age of 43.3 yr. Procedure The alcoholics were tested in groups ranging in size from 5 to 9. They consented to participate in this study on a voluntary basis. Testing was conducted at least 3 wk. after hospital admission so as to allow for total detoxification. The controls were tested individually and usually within a few days after their admission to the hospital. The California Psychological Inventory (Gough, 1969) was scored after all the subjects were tested; and in addition to tabulating the 18 standardized scales, the two factorial scales measuring personal and value orientation were also computed (Nichols & Schnell, 1963).
RESULTS In Table 1 are presented the means and standard deviations for the alcoholics and controls. The alcoholics scored lower than the controls on two scales, Socialization ( t = 3.31, P < .01) and Self-control ( t = 2.12, p < .05). They also obtained a nonsignificantly lower score on one of the factored scales, Value Orientation ( t = 1.77, p < .07). Next, the alcoholic subjects were divided into two subgroups of early- and late-onset drinkers. The criterion for dichotomizing the groups was the same as that employed by Bahr (1971) who used a cut-off age of 30. Fourteen of the Ss were then assigned to the early group, and they had a mean age of 40.0 yr. There were 33 late-onset drinkers whose mean age was 46.1 yr. Reliable data on the drinking history for one S was not obtainable and so he was omitted from .01) and late-onset drinkers this analysis. Both the early- ( t = 3.71, 9 ( t = 2.79, p < .05) scored lower than the controls on the Socialization scale, while the two alcoholic subgroups did not differ from each other. The controls .05) on the Selfscored higher than the late-onset drinkers ( t = 2.32, p control scale, but this difference was not significant when compared to the early-
