Date of Award
Spring 1997
Document Type
Dissertation - Restricted
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Department
Education
First Advisor
Bardwell, Rebecca
Abstract
It is estimated that there are ten million alcoholics in this country alone (Black, 1981). There has been a dramatic increase in research on alcoholism in the past two decades. Historically, however, alcoholism was viewed as an individual problem with little or no attention being given to the interpersonal or family factors (Jacob, 1987). There are a number of reasons for this viewpoint. First, due to biased sampling, the stereotype of the alcoholic was envisioned as a loner with few social ties. Second, as alcoholism changed from a matter of being weak willed or a moral problem to the point of being recognized from a medical perspective as a disease, consideration was once again given to the individual. Alcoholism was then viewed with a specific etiology, "set of symptoms, a typical course, and predictable prognosis" (Steinglass, 1976). Finally, social service agencies saw the disease of alcoholism as so perplexing that they gave intensive treatment to the alcoholic, again disregarding his or her family (Jacob, 1987). Thus, much of the research in the addiction field concentrated on alcoholism and the individual alcoholic...