Psychology of Addictive Behaviors - Assignment Example

Critique of 2 Articles on AlcoholismTwo Aspects of AlcoholismThe first article is from a peer reviewed journal, ‘Psychology of Addictive Behaviors’ published in 2005. Flora & Chassin (2005) conducted a study to evaluate the impact of parental alcohol use patterns on subsequent drug abuse behavior in children, in the transition stage from adolescence to adulthood. The study is a comparison between two groups of children, one labeled as ‘children of alcoholics’ (COA) and the other as children of non-alcoholic parents, labeled non-COA.

Both groups were demographically matched when selecting the sample for this study in order to eliminate variations due to this factor. Data was extrapolated from an ongoing study on the impact of parental alcoholism on growing children from where the sample sizes were prepared in order to yield statistically significant data. Data was gathered in the form of computer assisted questionnaires and interviews. The study determined that during the transition period of emerging adulthood to young adulthood, the non-COA were more likely to give up drug abuse and settle down in life by marrying as opposed to children of alcoholic parents who experienced difficulty in leaving drugs as well as settling down in life.

The article conforms to scientific method in its approach as it takes into consideration an appropriate sample size selected carefully after eliminating demographic variations in order to obtain consistency in results. The study has also been built upon previous inferences on the impact of parental alcoholism on children and the drug use patterns in teenagers and young adults. The data has been collected by using previously established and proven methods of information collection and analyzed using accepted statistical techniques.

The accepted APA style has been followed both in layout and the pattern of citation and references. The conclusions have been drawn after accurate and painstaking calculations in accordance with scientific established norms. The data fully supports and satisfies the conclusion and deductive capabilities of the authors.The second article is from a general magazine, ‘Psychology Today’ and discusses the phenomenon of alcoholism by following its natural history (Staff, 1993). It attempts to address the issue of alcoholism by elaborating about the pattern of effects at different stages in life.

The author suggests that the course of alcoholism follows a remarkably regular pattern in exerting its effects on life as well as health which can be predicted with great accuracy. There is a definite consistency and similarity in effects contrary to popular belief and conventional thought. The author has drawn his inferences from interviews conducted on 636 alcohol dependant men (Staff, 1993) and arranged data in terms of decades in the life of alcoholics, by comparing the effects and health problems encountered in the ‘20’s, 30s and 40’s’ age stages in men.

The author has used the data gathered from conducted interviews and presented in a manner to obtain generalizations about the persistence and repeatability of social as well as medical ailments afflicting alcoholic white men. The article tries to draw the attention of the reader to the consistency and predictability of effects of alcohol and elicit an appreciation and recognition of this problem as a social malady. This article does not follow a scientific approach but merely quotes a scientific study mentioned within the article in order to put forth an explanation and prove it to a general reading audience.

The two articles mentioned above although similar in approach are diagrammatically different, as the former (Flora & Chassin, 2005) is a thorough, peer reviewed study published in a journal while the latter (Staff, 1993) is more literary than scientific. REFERENCESFlora D.B. & Chassin L. (2005). Changes in Drug Use during Young Adulthood: The Effects of Parent Alcoholism and Transition into Marriage, Psychology of Addictive Behaviors, Vol. 19, No. 4, 352–362Staff P.T. (1993). The Natural History of Alcoholism, Psychology Today, Assessed online on 4/10/2009 at: http://www.

psychologytoday.com/articles/pto-19930901-000023.html