Personality Theory And The Tension Reduction Theory example essay topic

Alcoholism is a problem that ravishes this country. More and more people each day fall victim to this disorder. Alcoholism has caused pain to the alcoholic and to his or her family. A major cause of alcoholism corresponds to the personality of the abuser. It has also been used as a device to repress stress and reduce tension in their lives. In explanation of the phenomenon of alcoholism as a psychological construct, two distinct theories which apply are the personality theory and the tension reduction theory.

Personality theory and the tension reduction theory illustrate the use of alcohol as a negative influence and conceptualizations about alcohol. The procedures used to the analyze these concepts in relation to one another from a scientifically acceptable general principal is called a theory. Theory is a set of statements or principles devised to explain a group of facts or phenomena, especially one that has been repeatedly tested or is widely accepted and can be used to make predictions about natural phenomena. "Theory represents our attempt to organize previous empirical observations into a series of logical rules that represent our hypotheses about the causal influences on the phenomenon of alcoholism (Blane p. 1)". Alcoholism is known to be the most highly prevalent disorders in the United States and many other modern societies. Although a number of psychological factors have been concerned in the study of alcoholism, the general belief that personality plays an important role in causing alcoholism has been a major theme for much of history up to today.

Personality is "internal, organized, and characteristic of an individual over time and situations, and his motivational and adaptive significance" (Blane p. 56). A brief overview of various models of personality that have been promoted as comprehensive beliefs focus on either the three major dimension (Big Three) or five major dimension (Big Five). The father of the Big Three model Hans Eysenck identifies the three personality dimension of Neuroticism versus Emotional Stability, Extraversion versus Introversion, and Psychoticism versus Super-Ego Control to explain personality. Neuroticism which explore concepts such as anxiety, and depression, Extraversion which explores activeness, and assertiveness, Psychoticism which explores aggressiveness, and egocentric. The Big Five model which is similar to the Big three with different added dimension such as Intellect, and emotional stability. These two model assist theorist explain the correlation of these traits to alcoholism.

Alcoholics have been seen by various psychoanalytic writers as fixated at, or regressed to, each of the three pre genital psychosexual stages of development: oral, anal, and phallic (Leonard P. 57). Oral fixation seem to have originated when the male child, frustrated by his mother during the oral stage of psychosexual development. Consuming alcohol not only is orally stimulating but often provides an immediate feeling of psychological well-being that individuals continue to seek oral gratification throughout their life. Contrast to that belief Menninger asserted that because of oral frustration during infancy, young children become enraged with their parents, but since they are unable directly to express their hostile impulses to their more powerful parents, the impulses become self-directed. Another variable affiliated with alcoholism is gender, where alcoholism is more prevalent among males than among females. Although hazardous to assume that gender represents a variable could reflect pervasive gender differences in personality.

Male are more susceptible to this disorder due to the male environmental factor that assist males in being Research on personality and alcoholism has suggested several models relating personality to alcohol use and abuse. Personality trait could affect the likelihood that an individual who is already drinking is likely to continue drinking despite the fact that alcohol is interfering with his life and is uncontrollable. Antisocial alcoholism, another track is associated with an early age of onset and neuroticism may be more relevant to alcoholism appearing later in life. Gom berg (1997) reported that young problem drinkers with earlier onset show greater impulsivity and more anti sociality, whereas older problem drinker with later onset manifest more negative emotionality (Blane p. 75). The emotions conjured in the alter state of alcohol in the long term structure the drinkers personality. The influence of personality as a consequence of alcoholism and alternatively observed alcoholism to be the causal variable of personality.

Studies have noted the possibility that extraversion / sociability factors may be etiologically relevant to the development of drinking problems. Pre-alcoholic were rated as being high in expressiveness and gregariousness, and sociability has been found prospectively to predict frequency of intoxication (Silber, 1981). A broad personality dimension that appears to be most relevant to alcoholism is that of impulsivity. This dimension incorporates traits such as sensation seeking, aggressiveness, and Psychoticism. Drinkers frequently reported drinking to socialize, to conform, and to alter their mental state (Cox p. 89). Drinking to regulate one's emotional state represent that motives are related to basic dimensions of personality traits.

A major motivation of altering the performance or behavior is to reduce anxiety. The task of reducing anxiety by the reinforcement of drinking is explained via Tension Reduction Theory. The tension-reduction theory of drinking and alcoholism states that individuals drink alcohol because it reduces tension. Tension reduction theory is a direct outgrowth of the application of the drive reduction theory. Although drive reduction theory applies to motivational states equally where alcohol is concerned the primary focus of attention is the aversive states. An aversive state such as anxiety is conceived as a drive with anxiety fulfilling the need to reduce tension.

The three main emotional behaviors or fundamentals of the tension reduction theory are escape-avoidance, conflict and experimental neurosis, and conditioned suppression. In the experimental of this theory it was predicted that "alcohol would disrupt performance of avoidance and escape responding by reducing fear or anxiety" (Leonard p. 16). Tension reduction theory is highly applicable when society becomes complex, restrictions and frustration grow tensions increase in frequency, the release or suppression of anxiety is sought after. Alcohol allows, through its depressing function, a relaxation of tension, of inhibition, of anxiety, of guilt (Leonard p. 190). Tension is something that can interfere with performance or well-being and therefore required a coping method to balance the stress with consumption of alcohol. Subjects who drank were measured in where the experimental group measured an increased attitude change from the control group concluding that the consumption of alcohol reduced the psychological tension associated with conflict.

Alcohol may have analgesic properties that in turn reduce the stress and alleviation of pain (Leonard p. 26). A few categories identified as positive reinforcement are social drinking, drinking to relax, and increase sexual performance and experience. Contrary to belief alcohol does many things beside reducing anxiety and suppress stress. Tension reduction theory is not a single factor explanation of alcoholism but relatively makes its greatest contribution as a crucial component to a complex disorder Looking at both the personality theory and tension reduction theory of alcoholism, the personality theory seems to have a stronger ground. After coming across the data presented in experiments and models, the personality theory makes a more definitive argument of the disorder. The subjects involved in the experiments show that the certain personality types, gender, and background suggest the susceptibility to the disorder.

In general, it seems likely that personality shares important similarities in the study of substance use disorder, other health-related problems, and psychological disorders. Although it is certainly possible that there are theoretically important differences in the personality correlation of dependencies of alcohol, the similarities appear much greater than these possible differences. Existing data suggests that personality variables play an important etiological role in the ongoing struggle of drinking problems. Therefore, the traits of the personality theory must be integrated into the investigation of alcoholism..