Responsibility for alcoholism can lie within the
alcoholic, within wider sociocultural forces, among
other family members, within personal experiences or
through a combination of such influences. The notion
that someone or something could have done something
differently, thereby resulting in another outcome,
is implied. The potential power of a
predisposition to become alcoholic due to biological/
genetic reasons carries much currency in the
United States [e.g. 44--48]. The proposition that 'An
alcoholic is born an alcoholic' represents a highly
fatalistic expression of this view. Alcoholism researchers
rarely take such a narrow perspective.Although most researchers prefer to study either
predisposing (biological, genetic) or precipitating
(cultural, experiential, environmental) factors, most
recognize the complex interplay between multi-factorial
influences on the etiology of alcoholism [49].