Alcohol’s Effects on the Body & Mind Paper
Abstract
Week 1 Assignment asks the following: “Read the article, “Do Men with Excessive Alcohol Consumption and Social Stability Have an Addictive Personality?” and identify the research questions or hypotheses as they are stated in the article. As you read the article, consider the following questions: What are the variables (sample sizes, population, treatments, etc.)? What are the descriptive statistics used in this article (frequencies, means, etc.)? Determine what questions the authors are trying to answer through this research. Determine the hypothesis being tested and the concepts that were applied in this process. Evaluate the article and critique the statistical analysis employed in the study. Would you have included more or different variables? Explain your answer. Examine the assumptions and limitations of the statistical study. What would you have done differently in this case? Why? Identify how the authors applied statistical testing to the problem. Interpret the findings of the author(s) using statistical concepts”. Alcohol’s Effects on the Body & Mind Paper
Keywords: alcohol, personality, statistics
Today, the theme of addictive personality is a complicated issue so it is no wonder if the researchers initially feel unsure where to begin their exploration. Numerous researchers’ descriptions regarding the issue of addictive personality were usually not fully explained and conflicting. Many theories and ideas concerning addiction had to be re-discovered after careful search in general area. Today, due to scientists’ attention and painstaking research, we have become familiar with the issue concerning addictive personality. Alcohol is the most popular drug in the world, which can cause powerful effect on an individual’s mood and mental state. The common thing is that alcohol consumption significantly influences the individual’s personality and leads to addiction and alcoholism. But alcohol affects each individual differently, and the effects of alcohol depend on many factors. Alcohol’s Effects on the Body & Mind Paper
The article “Do Men with Extensive Alcohol Consumption and Social Stability Have an Addictive Personality?” provides a detailed research on the issue of alcoholic men and their personalities and explains the question of whether or not males with social stability that drink alcohol excessively actually show the existence of an addictive personality. The article states that “the main objective of the present study was to investigate personality traits in a group of male individuals with excessive alcohol consumption and in controls by comparison with normative data and also by a multivariate projection-based approach” (Berglund, 2011, p. 257). Berglund and colleagues in their research explains one of the most commonly used typology: the Type 1 and Type 2 alcoholism. The Type 1 alcoholism is characterized by social stability with late onset of alcoholism, while Type 2 alcoholism is characterized by an earlier set of alcoholism. Furthermore, type 1 alcoholism is characterized by few psychopathological symptoms and social difficulties, while the type 2 alcoholism is characterized by severe addiction with serious social and medical consequences due to their drinking behavior and more severe psychopathological symptoms (Berglund, 2011).
By exploring the existence of an addicted personality researchers used nominal (categorical) data to compare the group to which an individual belongs. The research investigated personality in male individuals with excessive alcohol consumption (n=100) in comparison to a population-based control group (n=131) (Berglund, 2011). Here, researchers’ goal was to provide inferential statistics of all individuals with alcoholism problems by exploring the population-based group as a sample. Alcohol’s Effects on the Body & Mind Paper
Researchers have devoted much energy for choosing the individuals who took part in the research. These individuals had to be without psychological or physical disorders, not assigned with excessive alcohol consumption or experience abuse or dependence on substances other than nicotine or alcohol. But I believe that the opportunity to use the population as a sample requires deep knowledge, more care and attention in choosing and determining values of the participants. Thus, when it concerns the question about what I would have done differently in this case and why, I think it would be better to provide some help and support to the individuals who participated in the research. As known, drinking alcohol every day may cause negative effect on an individual’s health. According to National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (2016), drinking too much can take a serious toll on our health. Thus, I believe this is unethical because it causes harm to individual’s health. Fundamental ethical principles for research involving human subjects include the concepts of respect for individuals (meaningful, informed, and voluntary consent), beneficence (promote the well-being of the research subjects), and justice (the selection of research subjects must apply principles of justice) (National Institutes of Health, 2016). Researchers should have done their study in the lab setting in order to have more control over the environment.
Many state that alcohol consumption significantly influences an individual’s personality and leads to addiction and alcoholism. But alcohol affects each individual differently, and the effects of alcohol depend on many factors. The scientists had a long-time debate regarding an addictive personality. Through the authors’ descriptive statistics, they stated that while personality traits can differ between males that consume large amounts of alcohol every day and those that do not, many of their personality traits do not vary all that much. Some of their responses echo something said by other researchers, but through their complex and careful explorations the authors came to the conclusion that “male individuals with excessive alcohol consumption do not have a personality different from that of a general population, which supports the notion of no “addictive personality” (Berglund, 2011, p. 260). Alcohol’s Effects on the Body & Mind Paper
References:
Berglund, K., Roman, E., Balldin, J., Berggren, U., Eriksson, M., Gustavsson, P. & Fahlke, C. (2011). “Do Men with Excessive alcohol Consumption and Social Stability Have an Addictive Personality?” Scandinavian Journal of Psychology 52, 257-260.
National Institutes of Health (2016). “Alcohol’s Effects on the Body”. National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. Retrieved from NIAAA https://www.niaaa.nih.gov/alcohol-health/alcohols-effects-body
National Institutes of Health (2016). “Administering Alcohol in Human Studies”. National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. Retrieved from NIAAA https://www.niaaa.nih.gov/Resources/ResearchResources/job22.htm Alcohol’s Effects on the Body & Mind Paper