Alcoholism: spirituality and personality dynamics

Date
2009
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Abstract
This quantitative study explored spirituality factors as measured by the Spiritual Well­Being Questionnaire (SWBQ) and personality factors as measured by the Clinical Analysis Questionnaire (CAQ) in three groups of recovering male alcoholics. The three groups (85 participants) of male alcoholics were divided by length of sobriety; the Early Recovery Group (29 participants) had less than one year, the Mid-term Recovery Group (29 participants) had between one to three years of recovery, and the Long-term Recovery Group (27 participants) had over three years of sobriety. Specifically, the purpose of this research was to explore the spiritual and personality dynamics between these three population groups in various stages of their recovery process. Data captured consisted of all participants completing the SWBQ and the CAQ. Results of the study showed that there were spiritual differences between the Early and Mid-term Recovery groups in relation to SWBQ-Communal, SWBQ-Transcendental, and SWBQ-Global. Additional results showed personality differences in the areas of Super-Ego and Depression scales between the Early Recovery Group and the other two groups. These results suggest that the Mid-term Recovery Group may be attaining these results through significant engagement into their respective recovery process while the Long-term recovery Group may be complacent in their attentiveness to ongoing spiritual health. From a personality perspective, it appears that both Super-Ego and Depression traits improve after Early Recovery and stabilize out from Mid-term recovery beyond. A correlational matrix was also performed with respect to the instruments, which showed negative correlations and group specific effects. Based upon the research it may be beneficial to introduce at differing developmental points spiritually founded activities into the recovery process as a means of improving potential outcomes. It would be equally important to program educational or therapeutic interventions related to depressive tendencies and super-ego related characteristics.
Description
Bibliography: p. 126-148
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Citation
Streukens, J. P. (2009). Alcoholism: spirituality and personality dynamics (Doctoral thesis, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada). Retrieved from https://prism.ucalgary.ca. doi:10.11575/PRISM/3021
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