[Locus of control and process of "pseudo-internality" in an alcoholic patient]

In clinical practice with alcoholics we frequently encounter a phenomenon whereby the subject claims he is able to cope with a situation, whereas in reality he cannot. This discrepancy between the claimed and the actual capacity for "control" led us to devise a study which would permit a better understanding of the phenomenon. We gave patients two questionnaires which deal with the concept of control. Comparison of the MHLC (Multidimensional Health Locus of Control, Wallston, 1978; a questionnaire which investigates the subjective degree of control in relation to health) and the GEFT (Group Embedded Figures Test, Witkin, 1971; a questionnaire which focuses more on actual behaviour and field-dependency) allowed us to test the hypothesis that alcoholics have a "pseudointernal" locus of control, that although, in what they say, they evince a strongly internal subjective locus of controls, in reality they are particularly external and dependent. The data confirm that the tendency towards an "internal" selfportrayal on the MHLC which is not backed up by the GEFT is significantly higher in alcoholics than in nonalcoholic subjects. Thus, all in all, this supports the hypothesis of a "pseudointernality" syndrome in alcoholics.