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Running Head: ARTICLE EVALUATION 1
ARTICLE EVALUATION 2
Article Evaluation
Lana Eliot
Psychology 325
Professor Dr. Kendra Jackson
June 13, 2016
The article, Do Men with Excessive Alcohol Consumption and Social Stability Have an Addictive Personality? gives the reader information and research about men’s personalities when they consume alcohol. It asks the question of whether or not men with social stability that drink alcohol excessively actually have an addictive personality. Drinking alcohol affects everyone differently. Some people that drink excessively are sometimes called “sloppy drunks” and others “mean drunks” and so on. Drinking alcohol is addictive and that alcohol does affect an individual’s personality. The article offers us great information on the research and statistics of men that drink excessively and are socially stable. I will read this article and look at their findings to determine what answers the authors are trying to answer. Consuming alcohol in large amounts is dangerous to anyone. While consuming alcohol is not addictive for most people, it will alter their personality in many ways. Understanding how and why research like this is done and being able to understand their findings is a benefit to anyone studying psychology.
The authors of this article are studying men who consume excessive amounts of alcohol to see if they have an addictive personality. The men in this study are stated to be socially stable, which has an effect on the research findings. The article states, “The main objective of the present study was to investigate personality traits in a group of male individuals with excessive alcohol consumption and in controls by comparison with normative data and also by a multivariate projection-based approach” (Berglund, Roman, Balldin, Berggren, Eriksson, Gustavsson, & Fahlke, 2011).
The article explains that there are two types of alcoholics, the first being a Type 1 Alcoholic, which is characterized by social stability with a later start of turning into an alcoholic. The second type described is Type 2. Type 2 alcoholics have early signs of alcoholism and have a serious dependence on alcohol and may have medical health issues and in some cases, social consequences. A Type 2 alcoholic will have more of a risk of developing liver and kidney problems and may also have a hard time in social settings and have a difficult time maintaining healthy relationships. During the study, it was found that Type 2 alcoholics have a different personality profile when compared with Type 1 alcoholics. Type 2 alcoholics are also more likely to be aggressive, impulsive, and seek out medical prescriptions. On the other hand, Type 1 alcoholics have very few, if any, psychological and social symptoms.
The hypothesis that was being tested during this research was whether or not socially stable men have an addictive personality based on the amount of alcohol they drink. The researchers started their study in a unique way; with a phone conversation to see if each man was eligible for the study. The men who were eligible were invited to the research center for an exam. They were also studied psychiatrically using a well-structured interview by a very knowledgeable psychiatrist that specializes in the treatment of alcoholism at a university hospital. Among the questions that were asked, were how many years they had consumed the same level of alcohol and what age they were when it started. This data was taken by the experts to be calculated and then recorded. The participants also had to write down how much alcohol they consumed daily, in what was known as an Alco-card. Two weeks into the study, a nurse evaluated the results of the participants, using the Hamilton Depression scale. This was done to check for depression and other anxiety symptoms. The nurse was also responsible for administering the self-rating scale to do an assessment of the individual’s personality profiles. The scores could be anywhere from 0-56. (Berglund, Roman, Balldin, Berggren, Eriksson, Gustavsson, & Fahlke, 2011).
In this article, statistical analysis was used in several places. First it was used in the study of all the individual raw data from their personality tests. The PCA (principal component analysis) is responsible for handling many different variables and few observations and also few variables and many different observations, offering interchangeable information. The analysis that was done on the individuals and not the whole group is what was tested and studied. The method is designed mainly to remove and also display the systematic variation in the data set
This study was conducted to find out if men who were socially stable who drank excessive amounts of alcohol had an addictive personality. Their assumption turned out to be correct and they did find this answer after doing tedious, time-consuming research.
There were several limitations to this study. The first was that all the participants were from a population-based Swedish Twin Registry. Also, the amount of participants was not a large amount for this type of study. I think that the biggest limitation was that the men in this study were all middle aged. If the age group started at 21 and ended at 80, there might be a larger variety of data. Also, if the population was bigger, the numbers might have been different.
If I had been the one conducting this research study, I would have done a few things differently. The first thing is that I would have had a larger group of men participate. I think that by having a larger group, the results would have been different, perhaps more accurate. The other thing I would have done differently would be to include men of all ages, not just middle aged men.
In this study, the authors and researchers used statistical testing because it was the best and only way to determine whether or not there was enough evidence to support or discard an estimation, or hypothesis, about the process and the study itself. The researchers were attempting to determine what the relationship was between individuals and those of the control groups. Their main purpose was to investigate personality traits in a group of male individuals with excessive alcohol consumption and compare this with the normative data and also by a multivariate consumption as well as the controls had their mean values within the normative range.
The authors of this study came to the conclusion that men that drink alcohol excessively and were socially stable (and not taking part in any other treatment programs) do not have a different personality when compared to other middle-aged socially stable men. The article states, “Our hypothesis that male individuals with excessive alcohol consumption do not have a specific ‘‘addictive’’ personality, was confirmed in this study. Thus, this group as well as the population-based control group had mean values within the normative range in all scales of the KSP. Furthermore, the score plot in the PCA did not indicate a between-group separation. Our findings, obtained by either norm group comparisons or through the use of the statistical method of PCA, are thus in agreement with our own previous findings (Berglund et al., 2006; Eriksson et al., 2001a) that individuals with excessive alcohol consumption do not differ in personality patterns from a general reference population as assessed by the Temperament and Character Inventory (Berglund, Roman, Balldin, Berggren, Eriksson, Gustavsson, & Fahlke, 2011).
After testing and studying the individuals taking part in the research study, it was determined that socially stable men with excessive alcohol consumption do not have an addictive personality. There was a particular age range of men that was tested, being men in their middle age. There were a variety of different tests performed by using statistical analysis and testing. There were several tests performed on the participants, in which different scores were obtained and these scores were used to determine that men who are socially stable, in their middle age, who consumed excessive amounts of alcohol did not have addictive personalities. The consumption of alcohol is not addictive in most people, however it will have an effect on their personality and the actions they take while under the influence. Being able to understand how and why research like this and research that is similar to this is done, there will be a better understanding of human nature and being able to identify, using statistical analysis, countless different studies. The possibilities are endless. While consuming alcohol is not addictive in most people it will alter their personality in several ways. Understanding how and why research like this is done and being able to understand research study findings is a benefit to anyone studying psychology and will help people to understand many different topics.
Berglund, K., Roma, E., Balldin, J., Berggren, U., Eriksson, M., Gustavsson, P., & Fahlke, C. (2011). Do men with excessive alcohol consumption and social stability have an addictive personality? Scandinavian Journal of Psychology, 52(3), 257-260. doi:10.1111/j.1467-9450.2010.00872.x