A Comparison on Psychological Variables in Alcoholics and Non Alcoholics

Abstract

Hostility is a complex phenomenon that involves cognitive, behavioral and affective dimensions. Studies on the relationship between temperament as well as hostility and negative effects of alcohol intake found rigid alcohol patterns. Hostility is positively correlated with negative consequences of drinking. Since an external orientation seems to be connected with the induces of maladjustment, one might expect that alcoholics and heavy drinkers will be externally oriented, however many others contradicted this study and said that alcoholics are internally oriented. In our study, two groups of alcoholics and non alcoholics have been taken. The study has been conducted on males only. The age range includes subjects of 18-27 years. The fathers and sons are studied and have been further divided into four groups where either or both the fathers and sons are alcoholics. An analysis was conducted to study differences in alcoholics and non alcoholics on the variables of hostility and locus of control. Results show that the non alcoholics are high on internal locus of control and powerful others. They are also having higher mean scores on covert hostility. Alcoholics are showing high mean scores on overt hostility Further on, four groups were analyzed on the variables with the help of ANOVA by finding out the within and between group differences. Turkey’s Post Hoc is applied to find where the differences lie. Main effects and interaction effects were summarized with the help of factorial design. Significant mean differences were found mostly between group I(alcoholic sons with alcoholic fathers) and group IV (non alcoholic sons having non alcoholic fathers) on the variables of overt and covert hostility, internal locus of control and powerful others.