Related Experiment Videos
Relationship between two ways of measuring alcohol dependence
1Alcohol Research Group, Medical Research Institute of San Francisco, Berkeley, CA 94709.
Addictive Behaviors
|January 1, 1992
Summary
Operational definitions for alcohol dependence syndrome lack consensus, impacting research. Different measurement tools yield low correlations, suggesting they may not capture the same aspects of dependence.
Area of Science:
- Psychiatry
- Clinical Psychology
- Addiction Research
Background:
- The concept of alcohol dependence syndrome is central to addiction research.
- A significant challenge is the absence of standardized operational definitions for its components.
Purpose of the Study:
- To examine the impact of varying operational definitions on research findings.
- To assess the correlation between different sets of items used to operationalize alcohol dependence.
Main Methods:
- Utilized a clinical sample to analyze operational definitions of alcohol dependence.
- Compared two distinct sets of items for operationalizing DSM-III-R alcohol dependence.
Main Results:
- Correlations between different operationalization items were found to be low.
- Approximately 60% of correlations fell between .21 and .40, indicating weak relationships.
Conclusions:
- Different operationalizations of alcohol dependence may measure distinct phenomena.
- These varying definitions should not be treated as interchangeable in research settings.