Self-Concepts of College Problem Drinkers. 1. A Comparison with Alcoholics

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Abstract
In an attempt to distinguish between personality characteristics which precede the development of alcoholism and those which result primarily from the social and psychological consequences of loss of control over drinking, self-descriptions of college problem drinkers were compared to those of alcoholics as reported by Connor. Sixty-eight Ss [Subjects] from 4 fraternities at a New England men''s college completed a questionnaire including Park''s problem drinking measure and the Gough Adjective Check-List, the instrument used in Connor''s study. The main hypothesis, derived from Park''s finding of role deviation and ambivalence among male college problem drinkers, was that problem drinking is associated with low self-evaluation. Using 3 measures of self-evaluation derived from the Gough Adjective check-List, problem drinking seemed to be associated with low self-evaluation, self-criticality, self-acceptance, and real-self-ideal-self correspondence; these 3 measures were highly intercor-related. Results of the adjective analysis indicated that problem drinkers were similar to Connor''s alcoholics in their tendency to endorse adjectives suggestive of neurosis; showed incipient indications of the limited use of secondary-relationship terms typical of alcoholics; and were dissimilar to Connor''s alcoholics in deemphasizing (rather than emphasizing) primaryrelationship terms. The possible relevance of the findings to the etiology of alcoholism was discussed; their relevance is contingent upon the validity of the problem-drinking measure as a prognosticator of alcoholism.

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