Alcoholism is a complex behavior pattern. Social learning theory, which is concerned with the analysis of why individuals behave in certain ways and the effects of reinforcement patterns in their behaviors, offers an alternative to traditional treatments of alcoholics. Among alcoholics, drinking is a control issue. Locus of control is viewed as a measure of the degree of responsibility an individual perceives himself to have over meaningful life events. The Rotter Internal External (I-E) Locus of Control Scale represents the translation of generalized expectancies for locus of control into a measure of specific expectancies dealing with a variety of drinking behaviors. The I-E Scale was completed by 15 alcoholic clients before and after a 6-week treatment program which emphasized process-oriented small group therapy. Subjects were encouraged to take responsibility for making life changes which would increase the probabilities of their sobriety and general social and personal adjustment. Within this specific alcoholic patient population, the results showed a significant shift from externality as measured in the pretest toward internality in the posttest. These findings suggest that the alcoholics' greater internality was a function of exposure to treatment rather than a predisposing personality dimension and that externality was not a fixed trait of the alcoholic population since it was significantly changed following treatment. (Author/NRB)