Coping and avoidance in inebriated alcoholics and normals.

A methodological advance in studying a given abnormal behavior would be the production, under controlled observation, of the deviant behavior itself. Work with alcoholics who are inebriated provides such an opportunity for study. The literature on experimental intoxication of subjects (Ss) is rather sparse (Gantt, 19S7; Hartocollis, 1962; Kawi, 1961; Newman, 1935; Takala, Pikkanen, & Markkanen, 19S7), and alcoholics have not been used as Ss. Therefore it was considered desirable to experimentally intoxicate alcoholics and normals for the purposes of measuring and comparing behavioral alterations. For this purpose a revised Sentence Completion Test (SCT) initially devised by Mainord (19S6) was utilized, which is scorable on a copingavoidance dimension. The SCT attempts to separate individuals who («) try to cope with emotionally charged stimuli, from (b) individuals who characteristically avoid or evade those situations. Thus coping behavior involves maturity, independence, and commitment to the demands of reality. Regression, passivity, and withdrawal signal a failure in coping. The working hypothesis was derived from a role-play study by MacAndrew (1962) which suggested that alcohol intake had the following effects on alcoholics and normals: (a) that alcoholics would cope less effectively when inebriated than when sober and, (b) that the opposite would hold true for normals,