Normal and Psychopathological Personality Characteristics of Individuals in Alcohol Rehabilitation

Relations between normal and psychopathological personality characteristics were investigated in 72 inpatient male alcoholics, who were administered the Personal Styles Inventory (PSI) and the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI). Results support the PSI circumplex model for normal personality traits. All PSI scales correlated significantly with one or more MMPI scales, including the basic MMPI orthogonal factors Anxiety ( r = .55) and Repression ( r = −.47), showing a relation between normal and pathological personality attributes. The mean MMPI profiles for subjects categorized by normal (PSI) personality traits corresponded significantly to basic MMPI profile types identified in previous research. Implications for counseling alcoholics and developing treatment programs using information from a broader based personality assessment approach are discussed.