Emotional self-description of alcoholic patients after treatment.

Abstract

The present study investigated the effect of hospital treatment on self-described moods of alcoholics. A set of 52 mood items, each a five-step scale, were administered to w o groups of inpatient alcoholics. In addition, the Edwards Social Desirability (SD) scale and the Marlowe Crowne Social Desirability (MC-SD) scale were given. Ss were randomly assigned to either Group I or I1 from consecutive admissions. Group I (N = 61) was tested on the first day after admission and Group I1 (N = 61) after 3 wk. of treatment. The median age for both groups was 48 yr. To evaluate differences of means, t tests were computed. Patients just being admitted to the hospital judged themselves significantly differently from those who received treaunent (p < .01) as feeling more wornout, ashamed, worthless, useless, and angry, and less able to work. It was concluded, that hospitalization reduces the amount of guilt feelings in alcoholics more than any other emotion. In addition, the treated group scored significantly higher on the SD scale ( p < .01) but not on the MC-SD scale. This suggests that after treatment patients give a more socially desirable self-description (SD) bur do not change significantly in their need for approval or defensiveness ( MC-SD ) . When the treated patient group was compared with a group of 97 undergraduate students, the students were found to feel significantly ( p < .01) more sleepy, tired, worn-out, and useless, and less alert, ashamed, efficient, active, able to work, and sorry for things done. No significant differences for hostile, depressive, or tense moods were noted. SD does not correlate substantially with such items as sleepy (-.11) or tired (-.lo) for the student group, but significant Pearsonian correlations ( p < .01) of 3 3 and -.40 were computed for the patient group. It was assumed that students describe themselves as being more fatigued because they differ from patients in their desirability concepts of inactivity and tiredness.