The Alcohol Responsibility Scale

Worell and Timility (1981)
 
I more strongly believe that:
a. I can “make it” if I want to hard enough.
b. If the cards are “stacked against me”‚ I will never “make it”.
a. I am the victim of bad luck of fate.
b. I have chosen a poor solution to some of life’s problems.
a. I have learned to become an alcoholic.
b. Heredity played a major role in my becoming an alcoholic.
a. My drinking is a “disease”.
b. My drinking is a poor solution to problems in my life.
a. If I could understand why I got this way‚ I would be well on my way to becoming cured.
b. My behavior reflects what I lace the most value in¡Xalcohol or family‚ job‚ etc.
a. I am “sick” or “ill”.
b. I am “irresponsible”.
a. I was born to be an alcoholic.
b. The experiences I have had and how I have reacted to them played a large part in determining whether I would become an alcoholic.
a. I can be the biggest “con man’ in the world.
b. I am the victim of society and others around me.
a. I am just no good and I probably never will be.
b. I can be rehabilitated but only with my help.
a. If I make up my mind to quit drinking‚ I can do it.
b. Without the “right breaks”‚ I don’t stand a chance at being sober.
a. The Service is the main reason why I was forced in to drinking in the first place.
b. I can choose to refuse a drink even if others expect me to have a drink with them.
a. What happens to me‚ as an alcoholic‚ is up to me.
b. I don’t have very much control over the direction my life takes.
a. My staying sober involves taking responsibility for my behavior and placing more value on sobriety than on drunkenness.
b. If I could get the “right breaks” I could kick the habit.
a. I would give anything to stay sober.
b. If I placed more value on staying sober than in drowning my troubles in alcohol‚ I would stay sober.
a. Other people can drive me to drink.
b. I have repeatedly chosen the easy way out of bad situations.
a. I can make the choice not to drink no matter how my parent have treated me.
b. My parents don’t realize how much they have put me on the road to alcoholism.
a. Physical problems often cause me to drink too much.
b. My drinking too much often causes me physical problems.
a. If people understood me better‚ they would realize that I can’t help myself.
b. I earn most of the contempt others show towards me.
a. I have made the choice of becoming an alcoholic‚ not other people.
b. If society were different‚ I wouldn’t have had to become an alcoholic.
a. I need a rehabilitation program that will help me.
b. I need to take an active part in my own treatment‚ whenever I seek help.
a. I have given my life over to alcoholism.
b. Alcoholism has taken over my life.
a. I certainly get a “raw deal’ in life.
b. I generally get what I ask for in life.
a. When pressure builds up‚ I can’t keep from drinking.
b. Even when things are tough‚ I am responsible for staying sober.
a. I can control other people with my drinking behavior.
b. When I am drunk‚ I am an easy victim of other people’s manipulations.
a. If anyone really cared about me‚ I wouldn’t have to drink.
b. If I cared enough about other people‚ I wouldn’t drink.
a. I can’t justify my drinking by focusing on a “rough childhood” or a lost marriage.
b. A woman is the major cause of my being pushed into alcoholism.
a. I am responsible for choosing my way of life.
b. Things that have happened to me have pushed me towards alcoholism.
a. Alcoholism is a behavior problem that only I can change.
b. Doctors will soon find a cure for my drinking.
a. I have made the choice to drink or not to drink every day.
b. When a way of life‚ like alcoholism‚ took over my life it was almost impossible to change.
a. I can’t excuse myself for drinking just because I get frustrated by other people.
b. When the hospital staff gives me a “bad time‚” they are driving me to drink.
a. My alcoholism was likely caused by my being influenced by other drinkers.
b. I have likely chosen the kind of friends that give me an excuse to drink.
The Alcoholic Responsibility Scale‚ as found in Lefcourt (1981).
 
A Search of Academic Search Alumni Edition‚ Academic Search Complete‚ ERIC‚ Health Source – Consumer Edition‚ Health Source: Nursing/Academic Edition‚ MEDLINE‚ Mental Measurements Yearbook‚ PsycARTICLES‚ PsycCRITIQUES‚ Psychology and Behavioral Sciences Collection‚ PsycINFO‚ and GoogleScholar indicates that this scale is not commonly used in the Locus of Control literature.
 
 
The Alcohol Responsibility Scale seeks to measure the extent to which an individual places the locus of responsibility for problem drinking on the self or on outside forces. The scale consists of 24 items. Johnson and colleagues (1991) found this scale to be comparable to Rotter’s scale‚ with both scales showing alcohol relapse to be associated with an external Locus of Control.
 

Furnham & Steele (1993). Measuring Locus of Control: A critique of general‚ children’s‚ health- and work-related Locus of Control questionnaires. British Journal of Psychology‚ 84‚ 443-479

Johnson‚ E. E.‚ Nora‚ R. N.‚ Tan‚ B. & Bustos‚ N. (1991). Comparison of two Locus of Control scales in predicting relapse in an alcoholic population. Perceptual and Motor Skills‚ 72‚ 43-40

Lefcourt‚ H. M. (Ed.). (1981). Research with the Locus of Control construct: Volume 1: Assessment methods. New York‚ NY: Academic Press Inc.

x