The discrepancy between alcoholics' perceived control and actual skills

One of the major hindrances to the treatment of alcoholics is their constan t attempts to prove to us their ability to cope with their problems, when i n fact they cannot cope with them. Such overestimation of subjective contro l is not often found in other cases of clinical practice. By contracting re sults from two psychometric tests - the MHLC (Multidimensional Health Locus of Control, Wallston, 1978; a questionnaire which investigates the subject ive degree of control in relation to health) and the GEFT (Group Embedded F igures test, Witkin, 1971; a questionnaire which focuses more on actual beh avior and field-dependency) - we attempted to highlight this overestimation phenomenon. The results of this study confirm that alcoholics are more pro ne to subjectively overestimating their sk ills compared to other subjects.