Personality as an Explanation of Drug Use

Abstract

The personalities of fifteen people in residential drug treatment were compared to those of people in a long-term hostel for the homeless and those of students. Many of the personality factors previously reported to be correlates of drug use did not distinguish between these three groups. Drug users tended to be similar to hostel residents, while both differed from students. Drug use was best predicted by the MAC scale of the MMPI and drug users tended to be shrewd, tough-minded, anxious, experience-seeking and well motivated for the future (perhaps related to entering treatment). It is concluded that many of the psychological phenomena which have been reported as correlates of drug use may be artifacts of using inadequate or incomparable control groups (such as students or general population norms). Also, previous research may have confused being “streetwise” with being “antisocial.”