Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Semester of Degree Completion

1978

Thesis Director

Randall H. Best

Abstract

An increasing awareness of drug use has been indicated by many reports in the last fifteen years. These reports come from studies, workshops, books, and the news media. What is of particular importance in these reports are the statistics on marijuana use. It has spread at an alarming rate. By detecting these users, greater emphasis on counseling and rehabilitation of the individual can be implemented.

The experimenter used one hundred voluntary subjects from introductory psychology classes at a midwestern university ranging from 18-33 years of age. Twenty-seven males and seventy-three females of mixed racial backgrounds with a majority of white, second semester on campus, freshmen were used in the pool of subjects.

The subjects were given two questionnaires. The first was a Social History Questionnaire, (SHQ), designed to elicit information concerning the extent of certain behaviors and events in the subjects past and present life. The second questionnaire asked subjects to indicate their drug usage and their frequency of drug use.

Subjects were divided into two groups consisting of those who used marijuana less than once a month (non-users) and those who used marijuana more than once a month (users). The computer then calculated the proportions of responses on each item for both groups. With this proportional information, a "t" test for significance between these proportions was determined for all 327 items of the SHQ. A .10 level of significance was adopted for the study.

The "t" test found fifty of the 327 items on the SHQ significant as the .10 level. The "t" test also enabled the experimenter to find thirty-eight of these items significant at the .05 level.

The results seem to indicate that there are a number of specific items on the SHQ that would differentiate between a marijuana user and non-user.

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