Locus of control in alcoholics: comparative study of 64 alcoholics vs 50 hospitalized patients and 50 normal controls
Dhee-Perot, P.; Loas, G.; Fremaux, D.; Delahousse, J.
L'Encephale 22(6): 443-449
1996
ISSN/ISBN: 0013-7006 PMID: 10901837 Document Number: 467675
The locus of control is a construct that consists of factors that influence and contribute to a person's belief concerning the extent and degree to which he or others can influence life events. The study had four purposes. They were to examine differences between psychiatric inpatients alcoholics and non alcoholics on the internal, chance and powerful others subscales of the French version of Levenson's scale, to evaluate differences on these scores between the alcoholics who accepted the alcohol program treatment proposed at the admission (hospitalization of 15 days with a directive and structured context) and those who refused this treatment, to assess the impact of treatment on the Levenson scale scores of the alcoholics, and finally to determine whether the Levenson scale scores differentiate between treatment successes and failures (evaluated at three months). 171 subjects were divided into three groups: 64 patients hospitalized in psychiatry for chronic alcoholism (ICD-10 criteria for alcohol dependency), 50 patients hospitalized in psychiatry for an other pathology (control group) and 57 healthy subjects (normal group). These subjects filled out the IPC (Internal, Powerful others, Chance) scale of Levenson, different from the I-E (Internal-External) Rotter's scale because it distinguishes two types of externality: one imprevisible, the chance, and the other previsible, the powerful others. The results showed that the alcoholics as the controls are more external than the healthy subjects (Chance and Powerful others subscales). They also showed that the alcoholics who refused the alcohol treatment program proposed at the admission were more internal than those who accepted. We also found that, during the treatment, the alcoholics' scores of Internality increased while their scores of externality (Chance and Powerful others) decreased. This decreasing was also found with the check inpatients. So these changes would have connections with an "hospitalization factor" and wouldn't be due to the alcohol treatment. As for the last purpose, there were no significant differences between the initial locus of control scores of the successes and those of the failures.