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Word association profiles of alcoholics
1Department of Psychology, George Washington University, USA.
Journal of Personality Assessment
|August 1, 1997
Summary
Alcoholics showed more hostile associations and nonresponses on word association tests compared to controls. However, alcoholics also provided more synonyms, suggesting a potentially more positive diagnostic profile than expected.
Area of Science:
- Psychology
- Clinical Psychology
- Neuroscience
Background:
- Alcohol use disorder (AUD) significantly impacts cognitive and emotional processing.
- Understanding the psychological markers associated with alcoholism is crucial for diagnosis and treatment.
- Word association tests offer insights into cognitive patterns and emotional responses in different populations.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate cognitive and emotional differences between alcoholic men and matched controls using the Karp Objective Word Association Test.
- To test specific hypotheses regarding word association patterns in individuals with alcoholism.
- To explore unexpected findings in the association patterns of alcoholic participants.
Main Methods:
- A comparative study involving 100 outpatient men diagnosed with alcoholism and 100 matched control participants.
- Utilized the Karp Objective Word Association Test, assessing 15 distinct scales.
- Employed a one-way multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) to analyze group differences.
Main Results:
- Significant differences were observed between alcoholic and control groups.
- Alcoholics exhibited a higher frequency of rejections (nonresponses) compared to controls.
- Alcoholics demonstrated more hostile associations than the control group.
- Unexpectedly, alcoholics produced a greater number of synonyms than controls.
Conclusions:
- Word association patterns in alcoholism reveal distinct cognitive and emotional characteristics.
- Increased hostility and nonresponses in word association may serve as indicators for alcoholism.
- The unexpected finding of more synonyms suggests a complex psychological profile in alcoholics, potentially indicating aspects of positive adaptation or different cognitive strategies.
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