Alcoholics' and nonalcoholics' attributions of control of future life events.

Alcoholic and nonalcoholic subjects rated the degree of control that they and others possess over future life events. Alcoholics attributed less personal control over events to themselves than nonalcoholics did. Alcoholics also attributed less control to themselves than to others, whereas nonalcoholics attributed more control to themselves than to others. These differences prevailed despite the similar socioeconomic and demographic characteristics, recent life experiences and beliefs concerning the general controllability of events of both alcoholics and nonalcoholics. The attributions of alcoholics were consistent with others' notions of self-handicapping. The attributions of nonalcoholics were consistent with control motivation. Alcoholics who attributed less control to themselves than to others more frequently failed to complete treatment than did alcoholics who attributed more control to themselves.

Attribution theory: a fit with substance abuse problems.

How substance-abusing individuals early and late in treatment explain the problem behavior of other substance abusers is analyzed in attributional terms. Alcoholism was chosen as the problem of interest. Subjects were 42 male alcoholics newly enrolled in a treatment program, 41 male alcoholics nearing the completion of the program, and 46 male nonalcoholic controls. All subjects viewed a videotape interview with an actor who was identified as an alcoholic or not identified. As predicted, early-treatment alcoholics made greater situational attributions to the "alcoholic" and greater dispositional attributions to the "nonalcoholic" actor in comparison to the late-treatment alcoholics and controls. Early-treatment alcoholics, more than late-treatment alcoholics or controls, rated the actor labeled as alcoholic to be more similar to themselves. Discussion focuses on the applicability of attribution theory to problems of substance abuse.

Effect of information about role and outcome on alcoholics' attributional processes.

Alcoholics attributed an alcoholic's behavior to internal or dispositional factors. Alcoholics identified more closely with alcoholics who could succeed and nonalcoholics who failed than with nonalcoholics who could succeed and alcoholics who failed.

Change in general and specific perceived locus of control in alcoholics as a function of treatment exposure.

Fifty alcoholics successfully completing a 2-month rehabilitation program were administered the I-E Scale and a drinking locus of control scale during their first week in treatment and again the week prior to discharge from treatment. A test--retest non-alcoholic control group was administered the I-E Scale at a 7-week interval. Alcoholics were significantly more internal with regard to their behavior in general and their drinking behavior in particular at the close of treatment than at the onset. The control group evidenced no change. It was suggested that the alcoholics perceived internality was a function of exposure to treatment rather than a predisposing personality dimension.

Control orientation and disulfiram.

Alcoholics electing to take disulfiram were significantly more externally oriented, as measured by Rotter's Internal-External Locus of Control Scale, than were alcoholics not electing to take disulfiram.

Relationships among control orientation, the FIRO-B, and the Ward Atmosphere Scale in hospitalized men alcoholics.

Internally oriented patients' scores on Rotter's Internal-External Locus of Control Scale remained the same over treatment but those of externally oriented patients shifted toward greater internal control.

Effect of alcohol and monetary reward on visually evoked potentials and reaction time.

A dose of alcohol producing a mean blood alcohol concentration of 0.09% slowed the peak of later components of visually evoked potentials recorded from the occipital scalp. Simple visuomotor reaction time was also slower in a low-motivation nonreward condition.

Compliance techniques to increase mailed questionnaire return rates from alcoholics.

The effects of three compliance techniques were examined. None elicited more returns than did a conventional mailed questionnaire.

Control orientation in women alcoholics.

Women alcoholics had higher scores than women social drinkers (indicating greater external control orientation) on both the Internal-External Locus of Control Scale and a Locus of Drinking Control Scale.

Effect of alcohol and task on hemispheric asymmetry of visually evoked potentials in man.

The study examined the effect of a dose of alcohol producing a mean blood alcohol content of 90 mg% on components of the scalp-recorded visually evoked potential (VEP) both with and without a visual discrimination task to control the level of attention, and the interaction of amplitudinal hemispheric asymmetry of the VEP with alcohol treatment and the discrimination task. Ingestion of ethyl alcohol producing a mean blood alcohol content of 90 mg% affected VEPs recorded from the central scalp by attenuating the overall amplitude of the later VEP components (60-200 msec) and by significantly reducing hemispheric asymmetry in the amplitude of these VEP components. Alcohol attenuates VEP components P90-N120 and N120-P180, and the task of counting flashes and attending to discriminate double flashes increased amplitude of VEP components N60-P90 and P90-N120 in control and placebo conditions. Several studies have reported that the VEP recorded from the right hemisphere of human beings is larger than the VEP recorded from the homologous location in the left hemisphere. Evoked potentials recorded under control and placebo conditions in this study also demonstrated a hemispheric asymmetry with right larger than left for component P90-N120. We also found a reliable alcohol by hemispheric asymmetry interaction. Alcohol selectively depressed the amplitude of the right hemisphere VEP (P90-N120) component to a significantly greater extent than the left hemisphere VEP was affected.

Control orientation in alcoholics related to extent of treatment.

The self-perceived locus of control of three groups of alcoholics who had had varying amounts of exposure to treatment was measured on the Internal-External (I-E) scale. Alcoholics who had had more treatment perceived themselves in greater control of their behavior in general and of their drinking in particualar than those who had had less treatment.