L’objectif de la présente étude est de vérifier l’existence d’un lien entre le locus de contrôle (LOC) et l’impulsivité parmi une population de patients présentant une dépendance à l’alcool. L’impulsivité étant un marqueur de faibles résultats pour les traitements de dépendance aux substances (Moeller et al., 2001 ; Patkar et al., 2004), il serait cliniquement plus abordable de travailler sur les croyances qui constituent le LOC du sujet afin de réguler indirectement ses comportements impulsifs, favorisant de fait le traitement des maladies addictives. Les 20 participants (14 hommes et 6 femmes) présentent une dépendance à l’alcool et ont complété un questionnaire composé notamment de l’échelle d’impulsivité UPPS-P version courte (Billieux et al., 2012) et de l’échelle IPC de Levenson (1974). D’après les résultats, il existe une relation négative entre la facette d’impulsivité « manque de persévérance » et le LOC interne, ainsi que des relations positives entre le LOC Chance et les facettes respectives « urgence » et « urgence positive ».

The main objective of this study was to investigate whether a relationship exists between impulsivity and locus of control (LOC) among patients who have a dependence on alcohol. Indeed, impulsivity seems to be a major predictor of poorer treatment outcomes for individuals with substance dependence (Moeller et al., 2001; Patkar et al., 2004). We assumed that it would be easier to work in therapy on beliefs which form locus of control rather than on impulsivity, as the former is considered as a stable personality trait (Eysenck and Eysenck, 1977). Moreover, an internal locus of control is a positive marker of treatment outcomes for people who have a dependence on alcohol. Indeed, individuals who have a dependence on alcohol with an external locus of control show a higher relapse rate than dependent people with an internal locus of control (Koski-Jännes, 1994). For this reason, working on individual beliefs could shift locus of control from external to internal. When they gain control over their life, it is assumed that they will become less impulsive. This is another clinical possibility to take into consideration.

Twenty subjects (14 men and 6 women) took part in this research and answered several questionnaires. They filled out the short French version of the UPPS-P Impulsive Behavior Scale (Billieux et al., 2012) which is composed of 5 subscales according to Whiteside and Lynam's theory of impulsivity (Whiteside and Lynam, 2001) : urgency, positive urgency, lack of premeditation, lack of perseverance and sensation seeking. Participants also filled out the Levenson Internal Powerful Others and Chance scale (IPC) (Levenson, 1974) which assessed locus of control.

The subscale « lack of perseverance » was significantly and negatively linked with internal LOC as a Spearman correlation of −0,53 was found. This implies that the more a person feels responsible for events which occur in their life, the more this person is perseverant. Indeed, it seems that people with internal LOC are more confident and able to deal with failure than people with external LOC who are more inclined to give up (Bouvard, 1995). Spearman correlations showed that LOC Chance is also positively linked with both “urgency” (0,45) and “positive urgency” (0,47) subscales. It appears that the more the subjects in the study believe that events occurring in their lives are the result of chance or fate, the more they react impulsively, in particular to strong emotions, whether they are positive or negative. Also, the more a subject imputes responsibility for what happens to them to chance, the less they control their reactions to emotionally rich situations. This occurs because they believe that they are unable to impact the course of their life as, in their mind, this is determined by fate. These results partially confirmed our hypothesis that a relationship exists between LOC and impulsivity. Indeed, it seems that the more subjects have internal LOC, the less they are impulsive. But also the more subjects have external LOC (here LOC Chance), the more they are impulsive.

The results of this study allowed us to establish a part significant relationship between LOC and impulsivity. Moreover, these findings might be relevant in the context of therapeutic intervention in cognitive behavioral therapy since they offer another way to treat impulsivity through beliefs which constitute LOC. However, further research should include a higher number of participants and use instruments which need to be administered by a clinician.