A validation study to determine the usefulness of five alcoholism scales in identifying alcoholics.

Abstract

Past studies have attempted to determine the usefulness of alcoholism scales derived from the MMPI. Such studies have focused on differences between alcoholics and other non-alcoholic groups. None, however, have dealt with differences among alcoholics as well as other non-alcoholic groups. The purpose of this study was to attempt to determine the usefulness of five alcoholism scales as reliable and valid tools in identifying alcoholics. Some of the alcoholics were court-committed and the others were self-committed to a treatment center. A third group consisted of non-alcoholic psychiatric subjects. The results of a chi-square analysis demonstrated that one of the five scales was ineffective in performing the task for which it was designed. The other four scales demonstrated only limited success in differentiating among the groups. Thus, the results of this study question the usefulness of the application of these scales in a clinical setting and would lend support to that research which indicated that the scales are sensitive to personality characteristics other than those for which they were originally designed.