Article: Weidman, A. (1983). The compulsive substance abuser: Psychological differentiation and family process. Journal of Drug Education, 13(2), 161-171.
This research examined for relationships between psychological differentiation (psychoemotional independence from significant others) and locus of control (attribution of one's live circumstances to either internal qualities or to external agents such as fate, chance, or significant others) in a sample of compulsive adolescent substance abusers. Compulsive substance abuse was defined as those whose substance abuse (alcohol and other drugs) was characterized by significant impairment in psychosocial functioning.
Subjects consisted of 14 male residents (20 years of age or younger) of a therapeutic community and 27 of their parents. All adolescents had been court ordered to reside in the therapeutic community.
Psychological differentiation was measured by two scores on the Boundary/Fusion Questionnaire (BFQ) and one score on the Embedded Figures Test (EFT). Respectively, these scores were: (1) the boundary score which assessed an individual's ability to demarcate self from the environment; (2) the fustion score which assessed the extent to which one defined self in terms of others' feelings and experiences; and (3) the EFT score which measured the level of intrapsychic ability to differentiate. Locus of control was measured using the Norwick-Strickland Locus of Control Scale. All test instruments were standardized instruments of documented reliability and validity.
Existing research had indicated that compulsive substance abusers were psychologically undifferentiated from their mothers and distant from their fathers. Also, previous findings had shown higher than norm levels of internality of locus of control for compulsive adolescent substance abusers which was attributable to a lower than norm ability to differentiate. Based on review of this existing work,
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