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Description

Social intelligence is the ability to successfully build relationships and navigate social environments. When a person knows what makes other people tick, he or she is displaying social intelligence, being aware of the motives and feelings of themselves and others, and how to fit into different social situations.
Social intelligence helps individuals build relationships — and is important to numerous aspects of a person’s life. It allows an individual to form friendships and alliances. Also it assists a person against being taken advantage of. People with social intelligence can “read” other people’s faces and know what motivates them.
Social intelligence builds over time and as a person ages. In this sense, it is similar to the character strength of perspective.
On a group level, social intelligence is what allows us to function as humans. We are social beings and rely on each other’s cooperation. By understanding ourselves and other people, we can find ways to collaborate for mutual benefit.
Strong leaders often possess social intelligence in abundance. In order to motivate people, leaders must form relationships and inspire others to want to do what needs to be done.
History of the social intelligence
The social intelligence theory was first developed by psychologist Edward Thorndike all the way back in 1920.
Many of these early studies focused on describing, defining and assessing socially competent behavior. Edgar Doll published the first instrument designed to measure socially intelligent behavior in young children (1935).
Possibly influenced by Doll and Thorndike, David Wechsler included two subscales (“Comprehension” and “Picture Arrangement”) in his well-known test of cognitive intelligence that appear to have been designed to measure aspects of social intelligence.
A year after the first publication of this test in 1939, Wechsler described the influence of non-intellective factors on intelligent behavior which was yet another reference to this construct. In the first of a number of publications following this early description moreover, he argued that our models of intelligence would not be complete until we can adequately describe these factors.
Scholars began to shift their attention from describing and assessing social intelligence to understanding the purpose of interpersonal behavior and the role it plays in effective adaptability. This line of research helped define human effectiveness from the social perspective as well as strengthened one very important aspect of Wechsler’s definition of general intelligence: “The capacity of the individual to act purposefully”. Additionally, this helped position social intelligence as part of general intelligence.
Daniel Goleman’s model of social intelligence
Daniel Goleman, in his book Social Intelligence: The New Science of Human Relationships (2006) set out a working conceptualization of social intelligence that included two main facets. The first is that of social awareness, which refers to a spectrum that runs from immediately sensing another’s inner state, to understanding another’s feelings and thoughts, and being able to ‘get’ complicated social situations.
According to Goleman social awareness incorporates:
• Primal empathy: Being able to sense others’ feelings through nonverbal signals
• Atonement: Listening with full receptivity; ‘tuning in’ with a person
• Empathic accuracy: Understanding another person’s thoughts, feelings, and intentions
• Social cognition: Understanding how the social world works.
The second facet of SI is social facility, which refers to the ability to have smooth and effective interactions with others.
Social facility includes:
• Synchrony: Easily interacting with others at the nonverbal level
• Self-presentation: Presenting ourselves well
• Influence: Shaping the outcome of social interactions
• Concern: Caring about others’ needs and acting accordingly.
The Bar-On model of social intelligence
Dr. Reuven Bar-On is a clinical psychologist and has been working in the Emotional Intelligence field for many years. He is considered as one of the field’s thought leaders, and has published many books and articles on the subject. The Bar-On model is considered a “mixed model” of Emotional Intelligence and is quite well known.
According to the Bar-On model, emotional-social intelligence is a cross-section of interrelated emotional and social competencies, skills and facilitators that determine how well we understand and express ourselves, understand others and relate with them, and cope with daily demands, challenges and pressures.
With other words, according to this model emotional intelligence cannot be separated from the emotional intelligence.
Bar-On also hypothesized that effective emotional and social functioning should eventually lead to a sense of psychological well-being.
Bar-On model looks at five core factors and fifteen sub components:
1. Intrapersonal — relates to self-awareness and self-expression, governing our ability to be aware of our emotions and ourselves in general, to understand our strengths and weaknesses, and to express our feelings and ourselves non-destructively. It consists of sub factors including self-regard, emotional self-awareness, assertiveness, independence and self-actualisation.
2. Interpersonal — relates to our ability to be aware of others’ feelings, concerns and needs, and to be able to establish and maintain cooperative, constructive and mutually satisfying relationships. It consists of sub factors including empathy, social responsibility and interpersonal relationships.
3. Stress Management — relates to emotional management and controlling our ability to deal with emotions so that they work for us and not against us. It consists of sub factors including stress, tolerance, and impulse control.
4. Adaptability — relates primarily to change management i.e., how we cope with and adapt to personal and interpersonal change as well as change in our immediate environment. It consists of sub factors including reality testing, flexibility, and problem solving.
5. General Mood — relates to our level of self-motivation. It consists of sub factors including optimism and happiness.
The Bar-On model is the basis for the Bar-On EQ-i assessment. Reuven Bar-On continues to research and develop his model and theories around emotional intelligence. His work, like the others, is a valued contribution to the field.
The series about social intelligence will be continued with articles related to how can we develop it.
Social intelligence skills are something most of us can develop. They don’t depend on genes or biology, although there many aspects of our social behavioural that are wired in our brain…

Description

Social intelligence is the ability to successfully build relationships and navigate social environments. When a person knows what makes other people tick, he or she is displaying social intelligence, being aware of the motives and feelings of themselves and others, and how to fit into different social situations.
Social intelligence helps individuals build relationships — and is important to numerous aspects of a person’s life. It allows an individual to form friendships and alliances. Also it assists a person against being taken advantage of. People with social intelligence can “read” other people’s faces and know what motivates them.
Social intelligence builds over time and as a person ages. In this sense, it is similar to the character strength of perspective.
On a group level, social intelligence is what allows us to function as humans. We are social beings and rely on each other’s cooperation. By understanding ourselves and other people, we can find ways to collaborate for mutual benefit.
Strong leaders often possess social intelligence in abundance. In order to motivate people, leaders must form relationships and inspire others to want to do what needs to be done.
History of the social intelligence
The social intelligence theory was first developed by psychologist Edward Thorndike all the way back in 1920.
Many of these early studies focused on describing, defining and assessing socially competent behavior. Edgar Doll published the first instrument designed to measure socially intelligent behavior in young children (1935).
Possibly influenced by Doll and Thorndike, David Wechsler included two subscales (“Comprehension” and “Picture Arrangement”) in his well-known test of cognitive intelligence that appear to have been designed to measure aspects of social intelligence.
A year after the first publication of this test in 1939, Wechsler described the influence of non-intellective factors on intelligent behavior which was yet another reference to this construct. In the first of a number of publications following this early description moreover, he argued that our models of intelligence would not be complete until we can adequately describe these factors.
Scholars began to shift their attention from describing and assessing social intelligence to understanding the purpose of interpersonal behavior and the role it plays in effective adaptability. This line of research helped define human effectiveness from the social perspective as well as strengthened one very important aspect of Wechsler’s definition of general intelligence: “The capacity of the individual to act purposefully”. Additionally, this helped position social intelligence as part of general intelligence.
Daniel Goleman’s model of social intelligence
Daniel Goleman, in his book Social Intelligence: The New Science of Human Relationships (2006) set out a working conceptualization of social intelligence that included two main facets. The first is that of social awareness, which refers to a spectrum that runs from immediately sensing another’s inner state, to understanding another’s feelings and thoughts, and being able to ‘get’ complicated social situations.
According to Goleman social awareness incorporates:
• Primal empathy: Being able to sense others’ feelings through nonverbal signals
• Atonement: Listening with full receptivity; ‘tuning in’ with a person
• Empathic accuracy: Understanding another person’s thoughts, feelings, and intentions
• Social cognition: Understanding how the social world works.
The second facet of SI is social facility, which refers to the ability to have smooth and effective interactions with others.
Social facility includes:
• Synchrony: Easily interacting with others at the nonverbal level
• Self-presentation: Presenting ourselves well
• Influence: Shaping the outcome of social interactions
• Concern: Caring about others’ needs and acting accordingly.
The Bar-On model of social intelligence
Dr. Reuven Bar-On is a clinical psychologist and has been working in the Emotional Intelligence field for many years. He is considered as one of the field’s thought leaders, and has published many books and articles on the subject. The Bar-On model is considered a “mixed model” of Emotional Intelligence and is quite well known.
According to the Bar-On model, emotional-social intelligence is a cross-section of interrelated emotional and social competencies, skills and facilitators that determine how well we understand and express ourselves, understand others and relate with them, and cope with daily demands, challenges and pressures.
With other words, according to this model emotional intelligence cannot be separated from the emotional intelligence.
Bar-On also hypothesized that effective emotional and social functioning should eventually lead to a sense of psychological well-being.
Bar-On model looks at five core factors and fifteen sub components:
1. Intrapersonal — relates to self-awareness and self-expression, governing our ability to be aware of our emotions and ourselves in general, to understand our strengths and weaknesses, and to express our feelings and ourselves non-destructively. It consists of sub factors including self-regard, emotional self-awareness, assertiveness, independence and self-actualisation.
2. Interpersonal — relates to our ability to be aware of others’ feelings, concerns and needs, and to be able to establish and maintain cooperative, constructive and mutually satisfying relationships. It consists of sub factors including empathy, social responsibility and interpersonal relationships.
3. Stress Management — relates to emotional management and controlling our ability to deal with emotions so that they work for us and not against us. It consists of sub factors including stress, tolerance, and impulse control.
4. Adaptability — relates primarily to change management i.e., how we cope with and adapt to personal and interpersonal change as well as change in our immediate environment. It consists of sub factors including reality testing, flexibility, and problem solving.
5. General Mood — relates to our level of self-motivation. It consists of sub factors including optimism and happiness.
The Bar-On model is the basis for the Bar-On EQ-i assessment. Reuven Bar-On continues to research and develop his model and theories around emotional intelligence. His work, like the others, is a valued contribution to the field.
The series about social intelligence will be continued with articles related to how can we develop it.
Social intelligence skills are something most of us can develop. They don’t depend on genes or biology, although there many aspects of our social behavioural that are wired in our brain…