Community perspectives on deviance: some factors in the definition of alcohol abuse.

This paper examines how alcohol abuse is ""defined'' by the social milieu within which it occurs, according to the three conceptual dimensions of (a) the perceived prospects for change, (b) perceived personal control, and (c) attributions concerning the causes of alcohol problems. Respondents from three socioeconomically different communities made similarity ratings between all possible pairings of 13 stimulus items (78 in all). These items reflected four types of drinker, and the three conceptual dimensions. Multidimensional scalings and an analysis of variance demonstrated substantial community differences, such that the lower socioeconomic status respondents had a more complex and more clearly articulated view of alcohol abuse than did the upper status respondents. Further, these communities differed in their perceptions of the internal or external origins of alcohol problems. Shared features of these communities' view of alcohol abuse included a basic normal vs. problem drinker distinction, as well as a distinction between alcoholics and ex-alcoholics according to the amount of personal control they were seen as having.