The Social World of Alcoholics Anonymous

Data is presented to illustrate that integration into the social world leads to the A.A. conversion, a transformation of self-identity in which the alcoholic accepts at the deepest level of being that he or she is alcoholic and that recovery depends on the acceptance of A.A. values and practice of A.A. principles. A typology of A.A. social world participants is established which is informed by high or low levels of affiliative needs and group dependency, group- versus individual-focused social world participation, and affective versus cognitive conversion experiences.