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Social Intelligence: Abilities
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Social intelligence according to the original definition of Edward Thorndike, is "the ability to understand and manage men and women, boys and girls -- to act wisely in human relations" [1]. It is equivalent to [I]nterpersonal intelligence, one of the types of intelligences identified in Howard Gardner's Theory of multiple intelligences, and closely related to Emotional intelligence. Some authors have restricted the definition to deal only with knowledge of social situations, perhaps more properly called social cognition.
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A recent psychometric study of social intelligence used a methodology similar to that of Sternberg et al. (1981) and Kosmitzki & John (1993). Schneider, Ackerman, and Kanfer (1996) asked subjects to generate descriptions of socially competent behavior. These descriptors were then collated and reduced to form a Social Competence Questionnaire, in which subjects are asked to rate the extent to which each item described their typical social behavior. A factor analysis revealed seven dimensions of social competence: extraversion, warmth, social influence, social insight, social openness, social appropriateness, and social maladjustment. Composite scores on these dimensions were essentially uncorrelated with measures of quantitative and verbal/reasoning ability. On the basis of these findings, Schneider et al. concluded that "it is time to lay to rest any residual notions that social competence is a monolithic entity, or that it is just general intelligence applied to social situations" (p.
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The other component of social intelligence is social facility. This refers to the ability to establish a synchronous pattern of verbal communication with others, to shape the outcome of interactions with others, and to feel concern and compassion for others. He makes the point that not everyone scores high on social facility. Narcissists, Machiavellians, and sociopaths, have social awareness; they are very astute at sensing what others are feeling, but they really do not care about others and use them for their own selfish purposes. That is not true social intelligence.
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An exception to the general rule that social intelligence plays little role in scientific theories of intelligence is the theory of multiple intelligences proposed by Gardner (1983, 1993). Unlike Spearman (1927), and other advocates of general intelligence (e.g., Jensen, 1998), Gardner has proposed that intelligence is not a unitary cognitive ability, but that there are seven (and perhaps more) quite different kinds of intelligence, each hypothetically dissociable from the others, and each hypothetically associated with a different brain system. While most of these proposed intelligences (linguistic, logical-mathematical, spatial, musical, and bodily-kinesthetic) are "cognitive" abilities somewhat reminiscent of Thurstone's primary mental abilities, two are explicitly personal and social in nature. Gardner defines intrapersonal intelligence as the person's ability to gain access to his or her own internal emotional life, and interpersonal intelligence as the individual's ability to notice and make distinctions among other individuals.
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The evolution of the human species as a social species is based on the survival value of 'social intelligence'. For survival, the human organism depends on the ability to evaluate correctly the social environment in order to make the right choices for survival. As a social organism, the human depends for survival on comprehension and correct evaluation of the realities of the social environment.
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According to psychologist E. L. Thorndike, who founded the study of social intelligence, the term should be defined as the ability "to act wisely in human relations." Thorndike felt it was implausible to this type of intelligence, as opposed to abstract intelligence or mechanical intelligence. Other psychologists... disagreed with this assessment.
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