Variation in the suppression or enhancement of responses related to drug habits as a function of stimulus classes and competing response categories.

Male prisoners who were opiate addicts (N = 47) were given three Process Association Tests of Addiction containing stimuli which evoked responses characteristic of three levels of drug habits: beginning and ending stage of addiction, intermediate stage of addiction, and an advanced level of addiction. Each test required subjects to associate 278 word stimuli with one of five options which were randomly selected from among 20 options covering the stages of addiction, steps in drug taking, and drug effects. The purpose of the study was to determine whether responses to particular options suppressed or enhanced responses to other options. A strong interaction was found between the classes of stimuli and the response options which produced suppression or enhancement. This interaction made it possible to develop a suppression scale to measure the effect of each class of stimulus. Popular responses most frequently suppressed responses of other options. Thus, when the stimuli were clean, responses of "to be clean" and "to live a normal life," which are sensitive indicators of the beginning or ending stages of addiction , suppressed responses of other stages. The response of "to be high," a prime indicator of an intermediate habit, suppressed responses of other options when the stimuli were drug names. Responses of "to be hooked" and "to fix," which are specific indicators of a strong habit, and "to be high," which is a nonspecific indicator of a strong habit, suppressed responses of many other options. In the development of new association tests the analysis of suppression could provide a basis for selectively varying option groupings in order to increase or decrease the frequently of certain responses.

Defeated and joyless: potential measures of change in drug abuse characteristics.

Defeated and Joyless scales were developed from a questionnaire given to 54 normal, 53 alcoholic, and 28 opiate addict subjects. The Defeated scale differentiates the alcoholics and addicts from normals but not from each other, whereas the Joyless scale differentiates addicts from both alcoholics and normals. When shown to 48 college students, a film about poverty increased the Joyless score, as well as other measures, but had little effect on the Defeated score. These scales appear to distinguish between self-concept (Defeated) and mood (Joyless) components of hypophoria, an affective disorder hypothesized to be associated with drug abuse.

Strength of drug habits: for heroin, morphine, methadone, alcohol, barbiturates, pentobarbital, benzedrine, cocaine, and marijuana.

The drug habits for 78 confirmed opiate addicts were studied on eight scales from the Process Association Test of Addiction (PATA) for many drug names. Through cluster analysis eight stages of addiction were defined: "to be clean", "to learn about drugs", "to hustle", "to chip" (also "to be high"), to be psychologically dependent or "to need a shot", "to be hooked" "to kick a habit" and "to be in treatment". Associations stimulated by the words heroin and morphine were very similar over the eight stages of addiction in opiate addicts. The subjects were especially inclined to associate morphine and heroin with the most severe level of addiction, "to be hooked". Associations to both methadone and cocaine were elevated at the "hooked" stage, but in other respects associations to these drugs were opposite. Thus, associations to cocaine were focused on the stage of psychological dependence and the lower intermediate stage of addiction, "to chip" and "to be high", whereas associations to methadone suggested a turning away from addiction as indicated by avoidance associations ("to come down" and "to kick a habit") as well as associations to "treatment" and "to be clean". Marijuana, Benzedrine, "goofball" (barbiturates) and alcohol habits were prominent at an intermediate stage of addiction ("to chip" and "to be high"). Avoidance associations were common for Benzedrine and "goofballs" (also pentobarbital) but not for marijuana or alcohol. "Hustling" associations were frequent for marijuana but not for alcohol.

Degree of suppression of associations to stages of addiction by the response of "high".

Male heroin or opiate addicts (N = 78) had a great inclination to give the association "to be high" to the names of nine drugs of abuse in a multiple-forced-choice association test irrespective of whether they had weak or strong habits for the drugs used as stimulus words. The tendency to give the "high" response was so great that other responses indicative of stages of addiction, steps in drug-taking, or drug effects were suppressed below the chance level. When scales were scored so that the response of "high" had no effect, the habit status of the sample revealed by associations with a specific set of words became clearer. A pattern of a strong habit for opiates evoked by opiate names became more evident after elimination of the effect of the response to "high," as did the strong habit pattern in response to drug relevant words. However, the pattern of responses characteristic of a nonaddictive status evoked by clean words remained relatively stable even including the effect of the response of "high." The study suggests that more meaningful responses are found when the response options are multiple rather than fixed.

Measurement of strong and weak drug habits: associations to stages of addiction, steps in drug-taking, and drug effects in response to opiate names and nonopiate names.

Confirmed opiate addicts (N = 78) were asked to associate three opiate names (heroin, morphine, and methadone) and six nonopiate names [pentobarbital, alcohol, Benzedrine, "goofballs" (barbiturates), cocaine, and "reefers" (marijuana)] to stages of addiction, steps in drug taking, and drug effects. It was believed that associations to opiates would represent a strong habit since most of the subjects had been addicted ("hooked") on one or more opiates and that associations to nonopiates would indicate a weak habit as most of the subjects had never been "hooked" on nonopiates. Weak and strong habits were alike in that , regardless of the drug, associations to "high" were given. Beyond this similarity, the patterns of associations were qualitatively and quantitatively different. For example, a strong habit was characterized by associations to advanced stages of addiction ("hooked" and "kicking a habit"), to steps in drug-taking ("preparing" and "fixing a shot"), and to drug effects (to "nod" or "scratch"). A weak habit was marked by associations to intermediate stages of addiction such as "chipping" (occasional use of drugs), as well as to beginning stages of addiction and to beginning steps in drug-taking, such as to "hustle."

Psychopathic State Inventory (PSI): development of a short test for measuring psychopathic states.

Six rational psychopathic state scales for Impulsivity, Egocentricity, Needs, Hypophoria (negative feeling states), Sociopathy, and High (search for "highs") were revised by selecting items within a rational category which most highly differentiated psychopaths as exemplified by opiate addicts (N = 28) and alcoholics (N = 53) from normals (N = 54) and which also most highly correlated with the parent rational scale or correlated most highly with the differentiating items. These procedures were effective in deriving scales which more highly differentiated alcoholics and addicts from normals and which were more reliable in each criterion group. It is thought that the scales will be useful in the study of the prevalence of or changes in psychopathic states.

Slang knowledge as an indicator of a general social deviancy subcultural factor.

Evidence for a general social deviancy subcultural factor was found using the Kulik, Sarbin, and Stein (1971) slang test on drugs, gangs, law enforcement, and general words. The slang scores of 68 confirmed opiate addicts exceeded those of normals and young delinquents reported by Kulik, et al. (1971), including delinquents who were recidivists. Addicts knew more drug and alcohol slang than slang in the three other categories. It was recommended that more attempts should be made to subdivide measures of social deviancy by means of slang as there is some evidence of possible further differentiation of subcultural types by means of slang.