Alcoholic Personality

Alcoholism as a label has little specificity. Alcohol abuse and dependence are more specific, behaviorally defined constructs with criteria based on the level of alcohol involvement and the impact of alcohol use on judgment, risk-taking behavior, physical and mental health, and social and occupational functioning. Personality can be thought of as a set of stable, enduring traits that impact social relations, cognition, behavior, and interaction with the environment. Efforts have been made to identify an alcoholic personality; however, current and past research does not support the existence of a single, specific personality structure for individuals with alcohol abuse or dependence. Rather, evidence suggests that broadband personality traits such as those from Hans Eysenck's Big Three model of personality are related to the risk for the ...