Further Validation of the Social Interest Index With Male Alcoholics

Abstract

The relationships between the Social Interest Index (SH) and other variables were explored in two studies of male alcoholics. The SH correlated positively with Achievement, Dominance, and Intraception of the Edwards Personal Preference Schedule and negatively with Abasement and Succorance. The SH failed to correlate positively with Affiliation and Nurturance and unexpectedly correlated negatively with Autonomy. The SH was also found to relate positively to Personal Orientation Inventory (POI) measures of inner-directedness, present-field time orientation, mental health, self-significance, and interpersonal contact, present-field time orientation, mental health, self-significance, and interpersonal contact. The SH was positively related to Edwards (1957) Revised Social Desirability Scale (So-R), and most partial correlations for the SH and the POH measures were significant with So-R controlled. Overall, the SH scores were not significantly related to age, marital status, and socioeconomic status but positively related to educational level. The implications of the results were discussed.

A multitrait-multimethod comparison of two social interest instruments in an alcoholic population

“…The correlations suggested that the alcoholics with higher social interest are motivated more by the achievement of success than by the avoidance of failure and vice versa for the alcoholic with low social interest. Mozdzierz and Semyck (1981) Zarski, West, and Bubenzer (1982) examined the relationship between social interest as measured by the SII and adjustment with a sample that contained runners and nonrunners. The authors predicted that runners would report greater life adjustments as measured by the Bell Adjustment…”