What is social intelligence, what does it consist of, how to develop this ability? Types and levels of SQ

What is it: definition

Important. SQ is a set of abilities that influence the success of social interaction.

It consists of the ability to understand oneself and the behavior of other people, as well as the ability to act according to the situation, and is a very important quality, as it is necessary for effective interpersonal interaction.
The term was introduced to denote the ability to act successfully in society , to behave most effectively in any situation.
This is the ability to understand the mood of others and their personality traits, the ability to self-present in society and various interactions, a kind of talent that allows you to get along with people and adapt to the behavior of others in society. This global ability, based on a combination of other personality traits (intellectual, behavioral, communicative, etc.), determines the understanding of what people say and do, the ability to:

• social interaction;
• decision making;
• forecasting the development of events in interpersonal communication.

The personal component of social intelligence is quite large, but it can be corrected from the outside (special techniques and maximum training interaction).

You will learn about the year in which Thorndike introduced the term social intelligence and what is the history of the concept of SQ, as well as the definitions of this concept and approaches to understanding it, the relevance of the study today, methods of study and measurement, and research on SQ.

In what year did Thorndike coin the term and what is the history of the SQ concept?

The concept of intelligence was introduced by Cicero as the ability to understand . Then his thought was continued by Plato, Aristotle and others. The definition of social intelligence was first introduced by E. Thorndike in 1920, so this concept can be considered relatively young for psychology. It sounds like the ability of people to act wisely in human relationships. But this definition was far from the only one.

In total, the following time periods can be distinguished in history:

Models of its structure and types

There are several approaches to the interpretation of social intelligence, which has given rise to several models of its structure:

• G. Eysenck.
• D. Guilford.
• G. Allport.
• F. Vernon.
• O.Konta.
• R. Sternberger.
• Yu. Emelyanova.
• V. Kunitsyna.
• F. Yuzhaninova.

The most common are several models, which will be discussed in more detail below.

Attention. SQ itself, in turn, is one of the types of general intelligence; it is knowledge and skills acquired in the process of socialization in combination with genetically determined abilities. This is a personality trait on which success in interpersonal interaction depends.

According to G. Eysenck

He believed that this type of intelligence is social in nature. It is formed during the socialization of a person. In his opinion, social intelligence can be distinguished as something separate that is based on biological and psychometric intelligence:

• The first is the entire set of innate abilities that allow one to act on the basis of received information in society. This is a basic aspect of social intelligence.
• The second acts as a link between the biological and the social. The main parameter influencing the level of this type of intelligence is the speed of information processing.

According to J. Guilford

D. Guilford understood SQ as a set of intellectual abilities associated with the knowledge of behavioral information. His model of intelligence contains three dozen abilities related to social intelligence. This is, first of all, understanding behavior, productive thinking in this direction and assessment. He emphasizes the importance of recognizing non-verbal language.

Important. D Guilford first approached the problem from a measurement point of view, developing a test to determine the level of intelligence.

Unlike Eysenck, he believed that SQ does not depend too much on general intelligence, but is related to the ability to work with behavioral information, which includes six aspects:

• ability to understand verbal and non-verbal behavior;
• recognize what is important in the flow of information;
• understand relationships, the logic of the development of situations, the meaning of people’s behavior.

According to G. Gardner

He proposed a structure of multiple intelligences that are directly related to social intelligence.

In his opinion, it is based on different abilities and skills suitable for survival in society.

Different people have different intellectual abilities in different combinations, and social intelligence acts as the ability to solve problems in society.

According to Gardner, there are several types of intelligence, and one does not depend on the other; they work in the brain and as independent modules:

• linguistic;
• musical;
• mathematical;
• verbal;
• kinesthetic;
• spatial;
• personal.

The latter, in turn, is divided into:

• intrapersonal (the ability to recognize one’s feelings, motives, etc.);
• interpersonal (the ability to recognize everything related to the behavior of other people).

Levels

Immediately after the scientific community was able to describe social intelligence, it decided to develop a scale for dividing it into levels. For this purpose, D. Gilforod created a special psychological test. He tested the speed and originality of solving problems of varying complexity. This made it possible to give an accurate answer to how savvy the subject is in the social sphere. Based on the results, it was possible to identify three levels, each of which describes the development of different social intelligence.

In Russia, a technique based on the Guilford test, created by E. S. Mikhailova, has become widespread.

Short

People with low levels of social intelligence constantly experience various difficulties. As a rule, they are caused by a person’s behavior, and he himself does not understand it. Such people have a deviant behavior and are always guided by instincts, and most of their actions are caused by impulses. They are unable to get along with other people because... Even with the good development of relationships of any kind, at a certain moment their peculiarities appear, which completely excludes continued communication with the person and leads to misunderstandings or quarrels.

They are unable to solve such problems on their own, which is why people are often forced to resort to the help of loved ones.

Average

Those with an average level of SI act in a patterned manner. In everyday affairs, they almost always achieve their goals. Communication with people is not difficult. However, it is difficult for such a person to cope with unusual or complex tasks, which is why he can simply abandon this or that idea and continue to live according to his usual pattern.

High

A socially intelligent person easily copes with the most difficult tasks. They almost always come out of intractable situations as winners. It is very easy for them to make acquaintances, communicate with people and manipulate them, changing their thoughts, views, desires. Such people are leaders.

Components

Important. All people do something, counting on the success of the activity; this largely determines the meaning and amount of effort expended. All actions in society depend on other people with whom interaction is necessary when moving towards achieving a goal.

This is what SQ is for, since problem solving is based on understanding human behavior and the ability to influence it.

Several groups of abilities that make up social intelligence have been identified:

• educational;
• emotional;
• behavioral.

They, in turn, also include several components:

1. Cognitive. These are knowledge, memory, intuition, forecasting:
   Social knowledge. Knowledge about people, rules of communication, effective interaction.
2. Social memory. Remembering names, events, faces, and what people did and said.
3. Social intuition. Unconscious understanding of feelings, moods, motives and all other aspects of people's behavior.
4. Social forecasting. Conscious prediction of everything related to human behavior.
5. Emotional. These are expressiveness, empathy, self-regulation:
   Social expressiveness. We are talking about the degree and methods of manifestation of emotions and feelings, emotional sensitivity.
6. Empathy. The ability to empathize, the ability to put oneself in the place of another.
7. The ability to self-regulate. The ability to self-control and regulate emotions.
8. Behavioral. This is perception, interaction, adaptation:
   Social perception. The ability to hear, see, feel and recognize other manifestations of behavior.
9. Social interaction. Varying degrees of ability to communicate with people in society.
10. Social adaptation. The skill or gift to adapt to circumstances and people.

The concept of “social intelligence” in psychology

The concept of “social intelligence” in psychology

In modern psychology, the issue of studying social intelligence is gaining great interest..

The rapidly changing world places high demands on individuals to actively master new social knowledge and skills. The acquired skills should contribute to the understanding and interpretation of ongoing social changes, awareness of the behavior and actions of other people.

Personalities today have to quickly develop and improve themselves. A person needs to update his capabilities in order to be in demand in society. Social intelligence is the leading component of a person’s successful adaptation in society. Despite the results of numerous theoretical and empirical studies of social intelligence, questions remain that require resolution.

The term “social intelligence” was introduced into science in 1920 by E. Thorndike. The author defined three types of intelligence: mechanical, abstract and social. Abstract intelligence or abstract scientific intelligence involves understanding and managing thoughts, ideas. Mechanical intelligence or visuospatial mechanics finds its application to specific objects. Social or practical intelligence refers to practical interactions with people.1

From the point of view of E. Thorndike, the object of social intelligence is the system of social relations. Social intelligence is the ability to understand and manage men and women, boys and girls, and the ability to act correctly in human relationships.

Social intelligence is a complex of abilities and capabilities of the “general” intelligence of an individual, aimed at analyzing the social situation. E. Thorndike defined social intelligence as the ability to understand and manage people.

Further development of the issue of studying social intelligence spread among such foreign psychologists as: G. Eysenck, H. Gardner, J. Guilford, J. Kihlstrom, N. Cantor, G. Allport, R. Selman, R. Sternberg. The following psychologists studied this topic in Russia: N.A. Aminov, M.I. Bobneva, Yu.N. Emelyanov, E.I. Ishutina, M.L. Kubyshkina, N.A. Kudryavtseva, V.N. Kunitsyna, E.S. Mikhailova, A.L. Yuzhaninova.

Psychologists consider intelligence as an individual, personal property of a person. At the same time, they note that the content of the functions of this phenomenon reflects the double conditionality of social intelligence. Those. it is determined by the internal and external world of the individual.

The promotion of the concept of social intelligence in psychology generates interest among scientists. Scientists in their research strive to understand and explain the specifics of this phenomenon. At the same time, they offer different ways to study social intelligence and highlight its various forms.

It is customary to distinguish several stages in the study of social intelligence.

At stage 1 - 1920 -1924. For the first time, the term “social intelligence” was introduced into scientific psychological use. In 1920, the American journal Psychology and Education organized a round table to explain the concept of “intelligence.”

At stage 2 in 1925-1938. psychometric study of social intelligence begins. Definitions of social intelligence have been developed according to a psychometric approach and translated into standard measures of individual differences.

At stage 3 at the end of the 30s 1965. social intelligence disappears from the subject field of psychology. Further work in this area was considered unpromising, and research was stopped.

Stage 4 1965 - 1969 — social intelligence is considered in the basic structure of the intelligence model.2

At the moment, in modern psychology there are some general scientific approaches to the study of the phenomenon of intelligence.

1. Structural-genetic approach, based on the ideas of J. Piaget and considering intelligence as the highest universal way of balancing the subject with the environment.

2. The cognitive approach is based on the understanding of intelligence as a cognitive structure. The specificity of intellectual structures is determined by the experience of the individual. The founders of this approach are J. Bruner and O.K. Tikhomirov.

3. The factor analytical approach is the most common in modern psychology. Its founder is Charles Spearman. He views intelligence as general "mental energy." In the opinion of the author, the level of which is determined by the success of any tests.

R. Cattell owns one of the common concepts that considers hierarchical models of intelligence. In this case, intellectual qualities are arranged into a hierarchy according to the level of generality.

The variety of approaches to defining social intelligence determines the ambiguity of the structure of this phenomenon.

Psychologists believe that this ability is necessary for a person to have effective interpersonal interaction and successful socialization. Social intelligence implements the cognitive processes of the individual. They are directly related to the display of a person as a partner in communication and activity.

Psychologists also suggest that intelligence can be manifested both in the effectiveness of solving test problems and in the way a person understands and evaluates the behavior of people around him, as well as himself.

G. Eysenck differentiated the concepts of “biological intelligence”, “social intelligence”, “psychometric intelligence”. D. Wechsler defines social intelligence as the degree of a person’s adaptability to life in his given society.3 In D. Wechsler’s intelligence scales, the indicators of the “Comprehension” and “Sequential Pictures” subtests are defined as related to the development of “social intelligence”. The ability to understand the reasons for actions, customs, traditions, the ability to grasp the logic and sequence of events is noted.

D. Goleman identifies two main categories in the structure of social intelligence: social awareness and social objects. He defined social consciousness as how we feel for others. The social object appears as what we then do with our awareness.

From the point of view of interpersonal relationships, K. Albrecht classifies behavior towards other people according to the principle of “Toxic” effect and “Nutritional” effect. Toxic behavior leads to the fact that a person begins to experience anger, disappointment, guilt and depression. Nourishing behavior results in people feeling respected, needed, and satisfied with life. The lingering effects of toxic behavior indicate low levels of social intelligence. The individual does not have the ability to communicate with people and effectively influence their behavior. The long-term effects of nurturing behavior tend to make a person much more effective at communicating with others. Such communication skills determine high levels of social intelligence.

Possibilities for measuring social intelligence include identifying key interpersonal skills of an individual. The possibility of assessing them behaviorally is also determined. All personal interactions occur with some context. Effectiveness involves mastering contexts in which one is called upon to interact with another context. By this logic, social intelligence means understanding context. By knowing how to navigate within and between different contexts, and by knowing how to behave in different contexts, the individual will be able to achieve his goals of effective interaction.

Social intelligence is understood as a combination of skills that are expressed through learned behavior. The individual assesses the impact of his behavior on others. The extent to which one's success in relationships with others provides the opportunity to experiment with new behaviors and try out new interaction strategies. Thus, social intelligence is defined as the ability to “get along with people.” This happens in the process of growing up and communicating, when a person gains experience in communicating with other people.

In adulthood, many people do not continue to learn and develop as they age. They do not try to acquire the understanding and skills needed to succeed in social, business, or professional situations. In doing so, adults who lack understanding and competence in communicating with others can make significant improvements in their social intelligence as a result of understanding basic concepts and evaluating themselves from a comprehensive model of interpersonal effectiveness.

Then the criterion of intellectual maturity becomes the subject’s readiness to accept any event as it is in its objective reality, as well as his readiness to change the original motives, turn goals into means, taking into account the objective requirements of activity. A low level of intellectual maturity initiates certain types of defensive behavior against the backdrop of vigorous, albeit very unique, intellectual activity.4

Let's consider the model of social intelligence presented in the concept of A.I. Savenkova. The author identifies three groups of components that make up social intelligence:

a) the cognitive component is social knowledge. Knowledge about people, knowledge of special rules, understanding of other people, social memory, i.e. memory for names, faces, social intuition, assessment of feelings, determination of mood, understanding of the motives of actions;

b) emotional component - social expressiveness is represented here, this is emotional expressiveness and emotional sensitivity, empathy as the ability to enter into the position of other people, to put oneself in the place of another, the ability for human self-regulation, i.e. the ability to regulate one’s own emotions and one’s own mood;

c) behavioral component - social perception as the ability to listen to an interlocutor, social interaction and social adaptation.5

V.N. Kunitsyna considers social intelligence as a complex and multidimensional psychological structure. The author of this concept identifies the following components.

1. Communication and personal potential. It is a complex of mental properties that facilitate or hinder children’s communication. On this basis, such integral communicative properties as psychological contact and communicative compatibility are formed. This, in the author’s opinion, is the main core of social intelligence.

2. The main characteristics of children’s self-awareness are a sense of self-respect and freedom from personal complexes.

3. Social perception is defined as children's ability to understand and model social phenomena. The main thing here is understanding people and their motives. The ability to predict the development of interpersonal situations is also the basis of their effectiveness.

V.N. Kunitsyna explains the choice of these components by the fact that, in her opinion, they are the main directions of social development of children during the period of senior preschool and primary school age.

Concept by D.V. Ushakov, the whole variety of approaches to defining, explaining and diagnosing social intelligence comes down to three main parameters:

1. Social intelligence is a special ability that is different from the rest.
2. Social intelligence is social competence, a system of knowledge, skills and abilities acquired throughout life.
3. Social intelligence is a personality trait that determines the success of social interaction.

The phenomenon of social intelligence is directly related to success in professional activities. The authors note that, first of all, in activities where interaction with people is of no small importance, social intelligence is determined by one of the components of creativity, as the ability to put forward an idea.

D.V. Ushakov identifies a number of characteristic structural features of social intelligence:

1. Continuous character.

2. Use of nonverbal representation.

3. Loss of accuracy of social assessment during verbalization.

4. Formation in the process of implicit learning.

5. Using “inner experience.”

Social intelligence is the ability to understand social phenomena. This phenomenon is one of the components of social skills and competence. This is an important ability that can help a person’s successful functioning in society and his effectiveness in a particular activity. Within the framework of structural-dynamic theory, social intelligence uses the same “formation potential” as other types of intelligence.

This assumption allows D.V. Ushakov put forward several hypotheses that can be tested within the framework of empirical research. If the formation potential is the same, in the author’s opinion, then the connection between social intelligence and other types of intelligence may or may not exist. This will depend on the degree of uniformity of the potential distribution in the sample of subjects. The degree of uniformity of this distribution will depend, for example, on the field of activity in which the subjects’ interests lie: in the subject or communicative sphere.6

The phenomenon of social intelligence must be considered in connection with the issue of intelligence as a whole. In this case, with social intelligence we are talking about the ability of this constructor to explain the specifics of an individual’s social cognition. From the very beginning, when the attention of psychologists was attracted by the problem of social interaction and the role of intelligence in it, the development of social intelligence occurred mainly within the framework of general theories of intelligence. Therefore, this question seems not only interesting, but also productive, to consider at least in general terms the dynamics of views on this phenomenon from a historical perspective and analytically comprehend these approaches in order to determine a new view in the interpretation and application of this category within the framework of psychological research.

The phenomenon of social intelligence, despite a fairly long history of study, today appears as a new concept. This is primarily due to the methodological difficulties of the psychology of intelligence. Different approaches to considering social intelligence in general and social psychology and other problems. The justification of social intelligence as a category of social psychology is due to the fact that there are still no sufficiently clear criteria for this concept. There is a need to indicate which concepts can be recognized as general and fundamental definitions that cover the problems of modern personality psychology, the most essential properties and relationships of the phenomena being studied.7

N.V. Bogdanovich notes that for modern psychology, which is experiencing a critical period of consideration and assessment of its methodological foundations, the role of categorical analysis is great. The categorical apparatus is intended to highlight and designate the system of concepts that are most promising for development in modern psychological theory. It often happens that modern researchers do not formulate clear definitions. There is a tendency to limit oneself to listing the characteristics of social intelligence within specific scientific areas or to one’s own conclusions.

Social intelligence is defined as a person's ability to respond to social situations in everyday life. Social intelligence will not include feelings or emotions evoked in us by other people. They involve an individual's ability to understand others and respond so that effective communication is achieved.

In this work, the definitions of E. Thorndike are used as a basis. Social intelligence —

This is the ability of an individual to understand and predict the behavior of other people in various life situations. Be able to recognize feelings, intentions and emotions by their verbal and non-verbal characteristics.

Functions

• Communication-value is associated with the ability to communicate, understand (not only others, but also oneself), and assimilate the norms of relationships.
• Cognitive-evaluative is the ability to achieve a goal with the help of received information through cognition and assessment of situations and people's behavior.
• Reflective-corrective ensures making changes in the interaction process in order to obtain the desired result, helps to understand the perception of others.

Age characteristics

With age, it does not undergo significant changes, unlike the general one, but at the initial stage of life (childhood, adolescence) they are significant:

• In childhood, SQ develops through observation of the environment, adults with developed social intelligence, as well as during games and when communicating with peers.
• During adolescence , the communication aspect, the ability to understand oneself and others, forecasting, etc. develop most actively.
• In adults, the development of social intelligence is enriched by experience and takes the form of wisdom.

Read about age-related changes, gender differences, and the impact on the competence of judgments here.

How to develop skills?

Important. Skill development begins in the first year of life and continues into adulthood.

Then, from time to time, the formed social intelligence is adjusted in connection with current events.

Formation of SQ

Initial formation occurs in the family, then the influence of friends, relatives, preschool institutions, schools is added, then educational institutions plus the environment that accompanies each stage.

Periods of development

There are five stages of development. At the zero stage (presocial), the child is not aware of the differences, but gradually he begins to separate emotions, the feelings of others and his own:

• at the first stage, the ability to analyze words and behavior develops;
• on the second - empathic abilities, attempts occur to influence people and situations;
• on the third - there is an understanding of the inconsistency of people's behavior;
• on the fourth – the idea of ​​human interaction is structured;
• on the fifth, skills are honed.

We talked about the formation, developmental features, methods of diagnosis and research and adaptation of children with disabilities here.

Levels

There are three levels: high, medium, low.

• In the first case, this means that the person has high skill in communicating and managing people, and controlling situations.
• In the second - patterned behavior, an average level of skills and knowledge necessary for successful interaction in society.
• In the third - destructive behavior, low efficiency, poor recognition of people's behavior.

SQ measurement problems

The first test to measure SQ was created by T. Khan. Later, the D. Guilford test appeared, which is still used today.

Attention. It must be said that tests are not an accurate assessment of this type of intelligence; today there are no ways to fully “measure” it.

Techniques

Recommendations for SQ development include special techniques. The most effective methods for increasing your SQ level include:

• empathy training;
• analysis of human behavior in videos/films;
• replaying situations;
• development of non-verbal skills;
• role-playing games.

It is necessary to develop abilities such as:

• memory;
• oratory;
• attention;
• analytics, etc.

General self-development will automatically have a positive effect on your SQ level.

Conditions

At the presocial stage, it is necessary to help the child achieve success in terms of separating the thoughts and feelings of other people from his own, and developing an interest in social interaction.

• At the first stage, it is necessary to pay attention to the development of subjectivism, to teach us to understand, first of all, ourselves, and only then those around us.
• At the second and third stages, you should pay attention to the ability to reflect, analyze the behavior and words of others, the ability to take the position of another, and cooperation.
• At the fourth stage, you need to continue to improve your skills and begin training that allows you to successfully interact in society (more practice).