This study is an effort to bring our attention to social dependence on alcohol, focusing on previous studies of drinking behaviors. Although drinking behavior and problems must be understood in a biopsychosocial framework, a certain aspect is often ignored in alcohol research. A few attention has been paid to social aspect of alcohol abuse or dependence. Social processes of drinking behavior deserve to have same attention as other aspects, psychological and physical aspects of the behavior.
Literature show that the interdependence among group members exists to regulate individual´s drinking behavior. Such social interactions tend to control drinking level for individual in terms of amounts, frequency, and preference. The drinking level tends to be dependent on desires for heavy drinkers, ignoring variabilities of individual´s sensitivity to alcohol. However, such a heavy-oriented tendency in drinking behavior may have different patterns which are function of normative orientation of alcohol, negotiation among group members, and ethnoreligious characteristics.
Perspectives from conflict tradition and symbolic interactionism are function of normative orientation of alcohol, negotiation among group members, and ethnoreligious characteristics.
Perspectives from conflict tradition and symbolic interactionism are welcomed to illuminate multi-dimentional aspects of social dependence. policy implication were discussed from public health perspective.
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