Psychology of Addictive Behaviors 1996, Vol. 10, No. 3,131-146 Copyright 1996 by the Educational Publishing Foundation 0893-164X/96/S3.00 Psychometric Properties of the California Psychological Inventory Socialization Scale in Treatment-Seeking Alcoholics Ronald M. Kadden University of Connecticut School of Medicine Mark D. Litt University of Connecticut School of Dental Medicine and School of Medicine Dennis Donovan University of Washington and Veterans Affairs Puget Sound Health Care System Ned L. Cooney Veterans Affairs Connecticut Healthcare System and Yale University School of Medicine Sociopathy has been identified as a prominent factor affecting the development and treatment of alcoholism. The present report examines the psychometric properties of a scale used to assess sociopathy, the California Psychological Inventory Socialization scale (CPI-So). The participants were 1,627 alcoholics taking part in a national trial of patient-treatment matching. The distribution of CPI-So scores was consistent with that of other studies of alcoholics, and the findings support the reliability and validity of the scale with this population. A principal-components analysis was generally consistent with similar analyses of nonalcoholic samples and identified 2 subscales that appear to tap previously described "personality" and "behavioral" dimensions of sociopathy. These subscales may be useful in further studies as potential bases for making patient- treatment matching decisions. The importance of sociopathy in addictive disorders, and specifically alcohol dependence, is evidenced by high rates of comorbidity and adverse impacts on treatment outcomes. Sociopa- Ronald M. Kadden, Department of Psychiatry, University of Connecticut School of Medicine; Mark D. Litt, Department of Behavioral Sciences and Commu- nity Health, University of Connecticut School of Dental Medicine, and Department of Psychiatry, School of Medicine; Dennis Donovan, Alcohol and Drug Abuse Institute and Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, University of Washington, and Veterans Affairs Puget Sound Health Care System; Ned L. Cooney, Veterans Affairs Connecticut Healthcare Sys- tem and Department of Psychiatry, Yale University School of Medicine. This research was supported by a series of grants from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) as part of the Cooperative Agreement on Matching Patients to Alcoholism Treatments. The contents of this article are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official views of NIAAA. We wish to thank Harrison Gough and Howard Tennen for their comments on an earlier version of this article. thy is often associated with alcohol dependence among patients seeking treatment (Lewis, Rice, & Helzer, 1983; Penick et al., 1994) and in the general population (Helzer & Pryzbeck, 1988), as well as with high rates of dropout from alcoholism treatment programs (Mandell, 1981) and a greater likelihood of relapse after treatment (Mather, 1987; Rounsaville, Dolinsky, Babor, & Meyer, 1987). An early onset of excessive drinking and a more rapid progression to alcoholism have been found among those with sociopathic traits (Hesselbrock et al., 1983), and sociopathy in adolescence has been identified as a possible etiologic factor in the development of alcohol problems (Harford & Parker, 1994). Suggested etiologic pathways in- clude a "deviance proneness" path characterized by deficient socialization, impulsivity, aggressive- ness, and sensation seeking and a "negative Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Ronald M. Kadden, Department of Psychiatry, University of Connecticut Health Center, School of Medicine, Farmington, Connecticut 06030- 2103. 131 This document is copyrighted by the American Psychological Association or one of its allied publishers. This article is intended solely for the personal use of the individual user and is not to be disseminated broadly.