Selective attention and social interest.

Social interest may well be called Adler's most distinctive concept (5). In his theory it is the barometer of normality and adjustment. "All failures-neurotics, psychotics, criminals, drunkards, problem children, suicides, perverts, and prostitutes-are failures because they are lacking in social interest" (2, p. 156). Social interest thus is a crucial factor in one's development. But it does not develop like an inborn instinct, rather "it is an innate potentiality which has to be consciously developed" (2, p. 134). Ansbacher (5) has made a distinction between the object dimension and the process din1ension of social interest. The former has been described as ranging from a feeling of belonging among others to no less than a harn10nious communion with the cosmos. The latter refers to the behavioral and perceptual aspects. The behavioral aspect has been described, according to Huber (12), as an empathic, cooperative style of living. The perceptual aspect reflects Adler's conviction that perception is selective in accordance with the individual's style of life. He called this selectivity, "schema of apperception" (2, p. 182), later one's "conception of oneself and the world" (I, p. 19). Through consideration of the above, (a) that one's mode of perceiving is part of one's life style; (b) that social interest is a matter of conscious development which can be assumed normally to increase with age during childhood; (c) that maladjustment is characterized by deficient social interest, we arrived at the following two hypotheses: