The Development of a Research Methodology for Achieving the Cooperation of Alcoholics and Their Nonalcoholic Wives

Abstract

The paper, the first of a series the interrelatedness of excessive drinking and marital conflict, reports the strategy developed by the interdisciplinary research team in order to achieve maximum cooperation of the study population of alcoholic husbands and their nonalcoholic wives. Previous experimental studies employing human subjects in alcoholic studies make little or no reference to methods and precautions taken to insure their cooperation. Although extended research demands were placed on the 33 couples studied, 26 of them successfully completed the full research processing. The effectiveness of the strategy reported is attributed mainly to recognition of potential methodological complications concerning the relation of client needs to research demands and arriving at a uniform policy in this regard. Under such conditions the sensitive alcoholic did maintain contact with the agency, enabling us to obtain valuable data as well as to extend help to him.