Personality dimensions and alcoholism : patterns of pre-treatment consumption and treatment outcome in a clinical sample
Date
1996
Authors
Anderson, Robert Edmund
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Abstract
In this study, Structural Equation Modelling is used to explore relationships between broad-based personality characteristics, and pre-/post-treatment patterns of alcohol consumption within a clinical sample of alcoholics . It was hypothesized that personality dimensions measured in this sample are organizable into a cohesive factorial structure (i.e., Psychoticism, Extraversion, Neuroticism, and Stimulus Reduction), and that two of these latent factors, Stimulus Reduction and Psychoticism, are related to both pre-and post-treatment functioning as evidenced by reported alcohol consumption patterns. The first hypothesis was supported by the results of this study. In partial support of the second hypothesis, higher Psychoticism was found to be associated with more extreme patterns of alcohol consumption prior to treatment. It was not, however, found to have a direct relationship to patterns of alcohol consumption over a six month follow-up period. Stimulus Reduction was not found to be associated with alcohol consumption patterns within the clinical sample, either pre- or post-treatment.