Word association profiles of alcoholics.

A group of 100 alcoholic outpatient men were compared to 100 control participants, matched for race, age, and occupational status on 15 scales of the Karp Objective Word Association Test. Consistent with 2 of the 3 specific hypotheses of this study, a one-way multivariate analysis of variance found significant differences between the groups, with alcoholics offering more rejections (nonresponses) and more hostile associations than controls. Unexpectedly, alcoholics offered more synonyms than controls, congruent with a more positive diagnostic picture.