Oscar A. Parsons

Effects of alcohol abuse and familial alcoholism on physical health in men and women.

Detoxified alcoholic men (n = 76) and women (n = 72) and nonalcoholic control men (n = 50) and women (n = 51) were given a structured interview that assessed five categories of physical health: medical history, alcohol-related disorders, trauma history, drug use history, and, for females, female-related disorders. Approximately half the subjects in each group were family history positive for alcoholism. Significant differences between alcoholics and controls were found for all five categories; family history effects were significant for four of the five categories, and sex differences were present in two categories. The results indicate that (a) alcoholics suffer pervasive physical health difficulties, (b) a family history of alcoholism is predictive of health problems in both alcoholics and controls, (c) the effects of alcohol abuse and family history of alcoholism on health appear to be independent and additive, and (d) women may be more illness prone than men and exhibit an increased vulnerability to the adverse effects of alcoholism.

Minimal brain dysfunction symptoms claimed by primary and secondary alcoholics: Relation to cognitive functioning

A group of chronic alcoholics were classified as Primary or Secondary alcoholics according to a self-administering questionnaire. Primary, compared to Secondary, alcoholics claimed a significantly higher number of childhood symptoms associated with the Hyperkinetic and/or the Minimal Brain Dysfunction (Hk/MBD) Syndromes. Primary alcoholics also performed significantly poorer on the Shipley and Raven tests than Secondary alcoholics and had more severe alcoholic dependence scores. High Hk/MBD patients performed more poorly than Low Hk/MBD patients on the Shipley and Raven tests. The results support the hypothesis that a childhood history of Hk/MBD might be a predisposing factor to a more severe type of alcoholism. The results also suggest that certain alcoholics may have premorbid deficits in cognitive functions.

TRAIL-MAKING TEST PERFORMANCE IN RELATION TO CERTAIN EXPERIMENTER, TEST AND SUBJECT VARIABLES.

The Trail Making Test, previously reported highly effective in differentiating brain-damaged from non-brain-damaged Ss, was administered to 21 brain-damaged Ss and 63 non-brain-damaged Ss. Since the latter Ss performed at a level indistinguishable from that of the brain-damaged Ss, several studies were designed in an attempt to “explain” the poor performance of the non-brain-damaged Ss. The possible effects of behavioral agitation, anxiety, examiner differences, facility with letters of the alphabet, order of administration, and ego-involvement were investigated. Only anxiety was found to be significantly related to performance. However, in other analyses age, education, vocabulary, and degree of psychiatric disturbance were significantly related to performance. Until these variables are considered in the scoring system, it seems unlikely that the TMT will be effective as a general screening test for brain-damage.

Gross-National Stereotypes of Locus of Control in University Students

Abstract Stereotypes of locus of control were studied in male and female university students from eight countries (Canada, France, West Germany, India, Israel, Italy, Japan, United States). The subjects took the Rotter Internal-External Locus of Control (I-E) Scale in standard fashion (“own” scores) and then in the role of students similar to themselves in their own country (attributed own) and in selected other countries (attributed other). Using the difference between “own” scores and “attributed” scores as the operational measure of stereotype, the results indicate (1) that scores attributed to students in a given country bear little relationship to those students “own” scores, thereby suggesting the presence of stereotypes of locus of control; (2) students in most countries attribute greater externality to the average student in their own country compared to themselves; (3) countries vary in the degree to which they stereotype other countries with the U.S. students significantly attributing greater ex...

Overt and covert hostility in repressers and sensitizers.

Repressers describe themselves as less hostile and aggressive than Sensitizers. How do they compare on the covert (projective) and overt (behavioral) expression of hostility? Repressers, Sensitizers and Control Ss did not differ in the expression of hostility on the Rorschach test. However, in the same Ss, after group discussion, Repressers were rated by experienced judges as more hostile and aggressive than Sensitizers in their interpersonal behavior.

An Investigation of Vetrbal Spatial Functioning in Chronic Alcoholics

The mild generalized brain dysfunction hypothesis of alcoholic impairment predicts that, as a group, alcoholics will be impaired on both right- and left-hemisphere spatial functioning tests. A verbal-spatial problem-solving task (Luria, 1980) composed of explicitly spatial problems and comparative problems was developed and administered along with a well-known visual spatial problem-solving task (Block Design) to 24 sober male alcoholics and 24 peer controls. As expected, alcoholics performed more poorly and made more configurational errors than controls on Block Design. In accord with the mild generalized hypothesis, alcoholics performed more poorly than peer controls on the more explicitly spatial verbal problems, but not on the easier comparative problems.