Addictive Attitudes Test

People considering how their beliefs may support or obstruct change can use the Addictive Attitudes Test to examine patterns around alcohol and drug use. It suits someone who wants to examine beliefs about control, responsibility, and coping before deciding what to explore next. The result can organize those reflections into a clearer starting point for discussing change.

What This Assessment Explores

Statements examine explanations for use, personal responsibility, emotional regulation, perceived risk, and views of addiction. The assessment is most useful when answers reflect personal experience rather than socially acceptable positions, especially for someone examining attitudes toward substance use.

Thematic groups below show the beliefs represented in the result:

• Responsibility and control show views of willpower, self-discipline, predictability, and agency.
• Emotional coping shows whether substances are expected to relieve distress or manage difficult feelings.
• Normalization and minimization show whether heavy use seems harmless, deserved, ordinary, or minor.
• Causes and recovery focus show how addiction is explained and how important change seems.

Addictive Attitudes runs from 42-210: Low intensity, 42-93; Moderate intensity, 94-127; High intensity, 128-210. Higher scores indicate more pronounced maladaptive attitudes and greater distance from recovery; around 110 corresponds to the average level among clinical patients with chronic alcohol or drug dependence and should not be read as a general-population norm.

Methodology and Evidence Base

The displayed statements use a five-position agreement response, from strong or complete agreement to strong or complete disagreement. Items address responsibility, control, emotional relief, social pressure, entitlement, denial, and beliefs about addiction. The questionnaire presents one overall score, while its item-level scoring procedure is not stated for this online version; interpret the displayed band rather than trying to reconstruct points.

Conceptually, the questionnaire is consistent with the McMullin Addiction Thought Scale, published by McMullin and Gehlaar in 1990, but it should not be called an adaptation of that instrument. The published scale supplies a conceptual reference, not evidence that this online form has equivalent measurement properties. No online standardization or validation data are reported for this questionnaire.

Self-report results can shift with current stress, defensiveness, insight, and willingness to disclose. Read the score as an indicator of attitude intensity and a prompt for reflection rather than a complete account of substance use or recovery.