In Study 1, a verbal role-playing test of interpersonal problem solving, the Adaptive Skills Battery (ASB), and selected "impersonal" neuropsychological problem-solving tests were given to male alcoholics (N = 73) in a VA alcohol treatment program and to male nonalcoholic controls (N = 36). Alcoholics' ASB competency scores under a "give your typical response" instructional set were significantly lower than controls' scores. In response to a "give the very best response" set, ASB scores for alcoholics and controls did not differ. Alcoholics' interpersonal problem-solving deficits appear to be due to their less effective execution of cognitive or problem-solving skills as opposed to their capacities for such skills. A lack of correlation between performance on impersonal neuropsychological tests and performance on the ASB suggests that these areas of functioning involve quite different psychological processes. In Study 2, alcoholics with alcoholic family members (family history positive) were found to have lower ASB scores than family history negative alcoholics. "Best" ASB responses were positively correlated with therapists' ratings of treatment behaviors and treatment outcome; "typical" ASB responses were not. Thus, alcoholics' therapeutic progress was predicted by their conceptualization of the "best" response in the interpersonal problem-solving situations and not by their typical pretreatment response.