Describes issues and implications associated with personality conceptualizations of addictive behaviors. Directs attention toward characterizing the sociopolitical climate's effect on identification, evaluation, and management of substance abuse disorders. Explores alcohol and drug use in conceptual schemata encompassing multifactorial,…

Research suggests predisposition toward alcoholism and drug abuse by inherited behavioral propensities or temperaments which, through interaction with the physical and social environments, shape the development of the personality. Certain personality characteristics, specifically antisocial and neurotic traits, are also linked with the risk for…

The purpose of the present study, is to determine to what extent Change Seeker Index scores correlate with the reported incidence of specific behaviors judged by the authors to rank high in stimulation-seeking characteristics. (Author)

Compared changes in male drug abusers treated in a therapeutic community (TC) with untreated drug abusers in prison. Results showed little change in subjects confined in prison relative to marked changes in those treated in a TC. TC treatment did not markedly affect psychopathic traits. (Author)

Childhood and adolescent antisocial behavior has been identified as a precursor of alcoholism. Research suggests that substantial numbers of abusers meet Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders criteria for antisocial personality disorder and depression, behaviors symptomatic, respectively, of a disregard for society's rules and of…

Investigated the empirical derivation of clinically and theoretically meaningful subtypes among males arrested for driving while intoxicated. Five subtypes were defined through cluster analysis of driving--attitudinal, personality, and hostility measures. Two subtypes were found to have particularly high levels of risk-enhancing traits. (Author)

Compared self-concept scores from the Tennessee Self Concept Scale of alcohol- and drug-dependent men. Analysis yielded three significant results: true-false ratio, psychosis, and personality disorder. Data indicated similarity in all men regarding self-concept. A multivariate design in examining substance patterns and self-concept was…

The results of this study support the continued use of the MacAndrew Alcoholism Scale in screening patients to identify those who abuse alcohol. (Author)

Previous Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) research has largely failed to detect differences using standard univariate methods. The current study used multiple discriminant analysis successfully to generate two orthogonal functions that accounted for virtually all of the variance between groups. (Author)

This investigation examines the attitude-ambivalence measurement problem in the context of defining outcome criteria on which to measure the effects of aversive conditioning in alcoholism. (Author)

A random sample of university students was interviewed concerning illicit psychotropic drug use and administered the Personality Research Form. Univariate and multivariate analyses strongly supported the hypothesis that nonusers, moderate users, and heavy users of illicit drugs differ in personality characteristics. (Author)

Chronic alcohol abusers who had been violent while intoxicated and nonviolent alcohol abusers were administered the Buss-Durkee Inventory. Violence was documented. Violent drinkers scored significantly higher than control subjects on the inventory total hostility score and on subscales measuring assault, irritability, verbal hostility, indirect…

Students completed California Psychological Inventory, Adjective Check List, and drug-use questionnaire. Continuous nonusers never disclosed marijuana use. Switched nonusers did not disclose marijuana use initially but did so later. Users disclosed marijuana use initially and later. Marijuana use can be predicted by patterns of reported…

Increasing frequency of marijuana use was found to be significantly related to increased creativity, adventuresomeness, internal sensation novelty seeking and impulsivity, and decreased authoritarianism. No differences were noted in manifest anxiety among user groups, but heavier marijuana users earned lower grades in school. (Author)

Examined interrelationships among sex, race, drug-use patterns, and personality variables in chronic users of illicit drugs. Blacks were characterized by lower levels of sensation seeking, less psychopathology, use of fewer drug categories, and later drug use than Whites. Use and personality patterns among women differed little from men.…