Personality Traits and Interpersonal Functioning in Substance Abuse Therapists with and without Personal Recovery Status

Abstract

The study ascertained whether there are differences in the personality traits or interpersonal functioning of therapists with personal recovery of substance abuse and other therapists. Moreover, an A/B typology reconstruction was made of the past substance abuse of the recovered therapists. The participants (N = 162) were therapists in Finnish inpatient treatment institutions. Personality traits were measured using a test based on the Five-Factor Model and interpersonal functioning with a vignette task. Significant differences between the scores of those with personal recovery (n = 15) and the other therapists (n = 147) were found on the factors Conscientiousness and Emotional Stability: those with recovery were less conscientious and emotionally stable than the others. No significant differences between the groups were found in interpersonal functioning. Most of the therapists with personal recovery had begun their substance abuse at a young age, and this had caused considerable problems. The picture created by the reconstruction of the therapists' substance abuse was closer to Type B than to Type A alcoholism.