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Time perspective and time attitude in the alcoholic recovery process
Abstract
Experimental investigations of time functioning and alcoholism have generally shown that alcoholics have a shorter future time perspective than do nonalcoholics. This finding is consistent with clinical descriptions of alcoholics having limited frustration tolerance and poor ability to take the future consequences of present behavior into account. The purpose of this study was to investigate potential changes in psychological time among recovering alcoholics during sobriety. Male recovering alcoholics who were either in an inpatient alcoholism treatment unit, were sober alumni from that treatment unit, or were sober Alcoholics Anonymous members, were compared to each other and to a control group of nonalcoholic males on various measures related to psychological time functioning. It was found that recovering alcoholics from each of the three groups had significantly higher concern about drinking than nonalcoholic control subjects. Although alcoholic inpatients had higher concern than did subjects from either the Follow-up or AA groups, the concern was not significantly higher. In terms of length of future time perspective extension, alcoholic inpatients were found to have significantly shorter future perspective than the Control, Follow-up and AA subjects. The Control, Follow-up, and AA groups did not differ from each other in length of future time extension. No difference was found in comparing the attitude toward the future of the four groups, with each of them indicating a relatively positive view of the future. When examining relative changes in attitude toward the present and toward the future for individual subjects, as sobriety lengthened, the percentage of alcoholics anticipating positive changes decreased. In relation to abstract reasoning ability among the alcoholic subjects, no relationship was found between abstract reasoning and length of future time extension. Devotedness to staying sober "One day at a time" was rated highly by alcoholics, regardless of degree of AA involvement or length of sobriety. This was especially true for those alcoholics who viewed their future as more positive than their present.
Subject Area
Psychotherapy
Recommended Citation
Hulbert, Ryan J, "Time perspective and time attitude in the alcoholic recovery process" (1988). ETD collection for University of Nebraska-Lincoln. AAI8824934.
https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/dissertations/AAI8824934