title: Recognition of intoxication by alcohol counselors.
abstract: Recent studies have found that police officers, bartenders, social drinkers, and trained interviewers are often unable to recognize when others are intoxicated. The present two studies were conducted to evaluate: (a) the recognition ability of alcohol counselors compared to mental health counselors, and (b) the recognition ability of less-experienced versus more-experienced alcohol counselors. Subjects viewed four videotapes of a 21-year-old male engaged in simulated counseling interviews after he was given drinks containing alcohol to achieve one of four target Blood Alcohol Level (BAL) goals: .00%, .05%, .10%, .15%. Results indicated that alcohol counselors were not uniformly more accurate than mental health therapists, nor were more-experienced alcohol counselors uniformly more accurate than less-experienced alcohol counselors at recognizing intoxication or estimating BAL. In addition, subjects generally underestimated the target's sober-intoxicated status and BAL when he was given alcohol, but almost every subject recognized that the target was at least moderately intoxicated when his BAL was .15%.
authors.affiliation: Psychology Department, Bradley University, Peoria, IL 61625.
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Carroll
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Rosenberg
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Funke
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000428:Alcohol Drinking / Q000523:psychology; D000435:Alcoholic Intoxication / Q000175:diagnosis*; D000437:Alcoholism / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D003156:Community Mental Health Services; D003376:Counseling; D000431:Ethanol / Q000493:pharmacokinetics; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D013695:Temperance
chemical_list: D000431:Ethanol