First Advisor

Robert Liebman

Term of Graduation

Spring 2000

Date of Publication

Spring 5-19-2000

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science (M.S.) in Sociology

Department

Sociology

Language

English

Subjects

Alcoholics, Alcoholism, Temperance

Physical Description

xx, 212 pages

Abstract

This thesis is an example of Norman K. Denzin’s postpositive research model of interpretive interactionism. This research model is meant for examining the micro-level social interactions that occur when the personal troubles of individuals interface with the public policies and institutions that have been created to respond to those particular kinds of troubles.

The original intent of this thesis was to locate the meaning of abstinence (from alcohol) held by a set of purposefully selected alcohol treatment providers in the Portland metropolitan area. The original hypothesis of this thesis proposed that individual understandings of abstinence would be affected by unique historical and biographical influences and would thus express significant variety.

It was further hypothesized that some of these understandings would conflict with this society’s dominant model of alcohol treatment (which values total abstinence as a treatment outcome), and that this conflict would manifest as skewed treatment services at both individual and institutional levels.

However, during the process of gathering data via face- to-face interviews, the direction and substance of this thesis changed: The participants, almost universally, chose to discuss their family and drinking history, rather than their own understanding of abstinence. Following the interpretive practice of inductive data analysis this unexpected result was analyzed and interpreted as an emergent representation of the phenomenon of alcoholic knowledge.

Using the interpretive tools of bracketing, constructing, and contextualizing three narrative-portraits were drawn from the interview data and then presented in a literary style of writing to illustrate three distinct varieties of alcoholic knowledge. Each narrative-portrait depicts the day-to-day activities, thoughts, and emotions of a fictional character to reveal the broad, yet subtle nature and influence of alcoholic knowledge in the treatment setting.

The trustworthiness, generalizability, and usefulness of this study’s results are discussed relative to each the research method, the research question, and the research outcome. Specific recommendations for the practical application of these results are made for alcohol treatment providers, alcohol treatment agencies, and alcohol treatment policy makers, with special attention paid to understanding the intimate connection between knowledge and power.

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In Copyright. URI: http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

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Persistent Identifier

https://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/44744

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