ABSTRACT
Alfred Adler’s theory of personality was the first to place importance on responsibility, usefulness, and, above all, social relationships in life. Although often uncredited, Adler’s visionary work influenced later schools of neo-Freudian, cognitive, humanist, and existential thought (for reviews see Ansbacher & Ansbacher, 1956; Mozak, 1979). Recently, Mozdzierz and Krauss (1996) argued convincingly that Adler’s views on the importance of interpersonal relatedness are supported by emerging research in psychology, anthropology, and evolutionary biology. Given Adler’s wide influence, then, one may ask how his personality theory relates to contemporary trait formulations such as “The Big Five.” Is the construct of social interest, a theoretical center for Adler, subsumed in current research on empathy, altruism, prosocial behavior, or Machiavellianism? This review argues that social interest as it applies to theories of personality and therapy is meaningfully different from contemporary theories and, therefore, worthy of continued study.
