Kenneth Sher, PhD Curators' Distinguished Professor of Psychology Department of Psychological Sciences University of Missouri Personality & Alcoholism: What is the Connection? There are multiple etiological pathways that lead to the development of alcohol use disorders and personality traits play an important role in most of them. In particular, personality traits moderate a range of etiologically relevant effects of alcohol, are associated with drinking motivation, and are associated with the selection of environments that vary in how “wet” they are. Not only does personality prospectively predict the development of alcohol use disorders, but personality traits appear to covary with the course of alcohol-related pathology and is associated with “maturing out” of drinking problems. These various findings have implications for assessing those with drinking problems, targeting underlying etiological mechanisms, and perhaps gauging the extent of therapeutic changes and subsequent risk of relapse or escalation of drinking problems. This free lecture is made possible by a generous endowment from Professor Allen L. Edwards. |