Personality Traits and Self Regulation: A Comparative Study among Current, Relapse and Remitted Drug Abuse Patients

Abstract

Objective: The current study aimed to investigate the relationship among personality traits and self regulation among different drug abuse cases. The three categories of drug abuse were based on phases of addiction namely current, relapse and remitted cases. Method: The sample consisted of 108 drug abusers taken from different rehabilitation centers of Rawalpindi and Islamabad. The selected drug abusers were at current (n = 40), relapsed (n = 42) and remission phase (n =2 7) of drug addiction; with an age range of 20 to 70 years. The data were collected from private rehabilitation centers of Rawalpindi and Islamabad. In this study, Eysenck Personality Questionnaire Revised EPQR-Short (Eysenck, Eysenck & Barrett, 1985) was used to measure personality traits of the drug abuse cases. Self Regulation Questionnaire (SRQ) developed by Miller and Brown (1991) was used to measure the self regulatory skills. The data were collected from rehabilitation centers. Before collection of data, formal permission was taken from the administration of these centers. Research protocol included an Ethical Proforma explaining rationale of study, ensuring confidentiality of the information to be used for research purpose only and also had personal consent form. In the first phase, pilot study was conducted to check the reliability of translated scale and availability of sample. A sample of 15 drug abusers was selected for pilot study. In the next step (main study); protocol was administered on current, relapsed and remitted cases through individual administration. For remitted cases, the researcher consulted authorities (administration head, and medical doctors) of centers and administered protocol on the days when these participants came for follow-up session. Results: The results of the study indicate strong correlation between self regulation and personality traits (r = 0.27**). Furthermore, most of the participants scored higher on Psychoticism (100%), Introversion (75%) while Neuroticism (58%) trait was found less among drug abuse cases. The study also indicates strong correlation between self regulation and Extraversion-Introversion personality trait (r = 0.20**) while other traits did not have significant correlations with self regulation. Furthermore, the descriptive frequencies reveal that most of the participants scored higher on Psychoticism (100%), Introversion (75%) while Neuroticism (58%) trait was found less among drug abuse cases. Conclusion: From the above mentioned findings, it is concluded that self regulation is associated with personality traits among drug abusers. The comparisons of personality traits and self regulatory skills among the different phases of addiction provide an insight into how these traits interact with self control to regulate impulsive and addictive behaviors.