Sequence and Process: A Discussion of the Requirements for Analyzing Movement into and Out of Alcoholism

Abstract

It is argued that the definitions contained in the disease-concept and problem-drinking approaches to alcoholism have suffered from a common weakness, the confounding of cause and effect. The utility of alternative ways of measuring movement into and out of an “alcoholic role” is discussed by comparing the assumptions upon which such measurement options would be based. Specifically, we ask whether greater involvement implies increasing complexity with continuity of behavior, or non-continuous behavior patterns such that greater involvement is characterized by different behavior than lesser involvement, or whether greater involvement implies nothing more than covarying but differentially sensitive indices. Finally, the theoretical advantages of assuming conceptual discreteness among the phenomena of alcoholism are discussed.