Graduation Date
1973
Document Type
Thesis
Program
Other
Program
Arts
Committee Chair Name
Alwyn Sessions
Committee Chair Affiliation
Cal Poly Humboldt Faculty or Staff
Second Committee Member Name
Dr. Larry Buffington
Third Committee Member Name
Dr. Josh Weinstein
Keywords
Art
Subject Categories
Art
Abstract
It is hypothesized in this study that both alcoholic women and wives of alcoholics show, a) psychopathic tendencies and, b) a more highly feminine orientation to life than women in general. The Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory "short form" was administered to twenty alcoholic women, twenty wives .of alcoholics and twenty "normal" women picked at random from the general population. It was found that both alcoholic women and wives of alcoholics obtained significantly elevated psycho- pathic deviance (high Pd) scores. The wives of alcoholics obtained significantly elevated femininity (low Mf) scores; while the alcoholic women did not obtain a significantly low femininity score. In both groups personality disturbance was evident and involved similar scales for each group. However, the alcoholic women as a group showed a higher degree of personality disturbance than the wives of alcoholics. It was -concluded that the results support the first hypothesis but that high femininity was found for the wives of alcoholics and not for the women alcoholics. A sociological differentiation was made in that the upper and lower classes of alcoholic women and wives of alcoholics were investigated separately to determine if the mean profiles on the MMPI of the different classes would vary significantly. It was found that the upper class wives of alcoholics differed from the other three groups in that their psychopathic (Pd) deviance scores were "normal" and their femininity was high.
Recommended Citation
Qvistgaard-Welsh, Birgitta E., "Personality Similarities Between Female Alcoholics and Wives of Alcoholics" (1973). Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects. 2341.
https://digitalcommons.humboldt.edu/etd/2341