Perception of self and significant others by alcoholics and nonalcoholics

Abstract

Ratings of self and 15 significant others on four personality factors by 47 alcoholic and 90 nonalcoholic males were analyzed by means of step-wise regression analysis and multivariate analysis of covariance. Alcoholics rated themselves less positively on extraversion and self-assertiveness (lower mean on extraversion and higher on self-assertiveness) and also judged intimate others (father, mother, and spouse) less positively on unhappiness, extraversion, and productive persistence (higher mean on unhappiness and lower means on extraversion and productive persistence). There were no significant differences between the two groups in judging persons as a whole or in the degree of differentiation that was exhibited in rating all 16 persons including self.

Schema Model of the Self-Concept to Examine the Role of the Self-Concept in Alcohol Dependence and Recovery

“…Although these studies did not explicitly examine the characteristics of the self-related beliefs underlying low self-esteem, the findings are consistent with having either few positive and/or many negative beliefs about the self. A second group of studies focused on the number of positive and negative selfdescriptive adjective endorsements and found that persons with alcohol dependence endorsed fewer positive and more negative adjectives as self-descriptive compared to controls (Connor, 1962;Quereshi & Soat, 1976;Tarquinio et al, 2001;Vanderpool, 1969). Although it is not clear from the older studies that the number of positive and negative adjectives endorsed reflects the amount of positive and negative content or beliefs about the self that compose the self-concept, the Tarquinio et al (2001) study also used informationprocessing indicators that function outside of awareness to operationalize the proportion of positive to negative content included in the self-concept in persons entering treatment for alcohol dependence.…”

Self-Cognitions in Antisocial Alcohol Dependence and Recovery

“…Disturbances in the underlying structure of the selfconcept may be an important modifiable risk factor through which other more distal risk factors exert their influence. Self-concept disturbances have been implicated in the alcoholism clinical literature for decades (Connor, 1962;Drozd & Dalenberg, 1994;Matto, Miller, & Spera, 2005;Quereshi & Soat, 1976;Tarquinio, Fischer, Gauchet, & Perarnaud, 2001;White, 2000), but methodologic problems limit the usefulness of these findings. Because studies have not been based on a theoretical model of the selfconcept (Tarquinio et al is an exception), the properties of the self-concept that are linked with alcohol dependence remain unclear.…”