Gender differences in dependency among alcoholics
Date
1996
Authors
Carr, Spencer
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Abstract
Research has established that biological, sociological and psychological factors are
involved in the presentation of alcoholism.Within the psychological domain, research
has consistently found that a relatively small number of trait-clusters represent the
personality profiles of a significant proportion of alcoholics. Dependency has
consistently emerged as a prominent feature in a number of these profiles. Research
into the relationship between dependency and alcoholism is limited. The majority of
significant studies on the relationship between alcoholism and personality have failed
to investigate the nature or extent of gender differences. Gender differences are
influenced by social forces, including the social construction of gender. The social
construction of gender is influenced by patriarchal interests and forces. Patriarchy is
a social dynamic that encourages, inter alia, the expression of dependency needs and
behaviours in women, and discourages their expression in men. Dependent
individuals are motivated to enter and maintain nurturing and supportive
relationships with others. High dependency needs can have a negative impact on
interpersonal relationships, and can result in the failure of these relationships. Such
failure is experienced by dependent individuals as emotionally distressing, and results
in affective pain. Alcohol, under certain, everyday conditions can temporarily
alleviate emotional pain. The current study hypothesized that as a consequence of the
above dynamics, dependency is more likely to be a feature in the presentation of
women alcoholics than among men alcoholics. This was tested by comparing the
mean levels of dependency for women alcoholics with that for men alcoholics,
women non-alcoholics and men non-alcoholics. The MCMI-II self-report inventory
was used to measure dependency. Data was obtained from an alcoholic outpatient
clinic and a general medical outpatient clinic. Women alcoholics were found to
report higher levels of dependency than women non-alcoholics. However, they were
not found to manifest higher levels of dependency than men alcoholics.
Description
A dissertation submitted to the Faculty of Arts,
University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg,
in partial fulfilment of the requirements for
the degree of Master of Arts (Clinical Psychology). Johannesburg September 1996.
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Citation
Carr, Spencer (1996) Gender differences in dependency among alcoholics, University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, <http://wiredspace.wits.ac.za/handle/10539/22095>