Intelligence, as defined in standard dictionaries is individual's ability to learn and reason.
What is Social Intelligence (SI)?
Social Intelligence (SI) is the ability to get along well with others, and to get them to cooperate with you. Sometimes referred to simplistically as "people skills," SI includes an awareness of situations and the social dynamics that govern them, and a knowledge of interaction styles and strategies that can help a person achieve his or her objectives in dealing with others. It also involves a certain amount of self-insight and a consciousness of one's own perceptions and reaction patterns.As originally coined by E.L. Thorndike (1920), the term referred the person's ability to understand and manage other people, and to engage in adaptive social interactions.E.L. Thorndike divided intelligence into three parts, pertaining to the ability to understand and manage ideas (abstract intelligence), concrete objects (mechanical intelligence), and people (social intelligence). More recently, however, Cantor and Kihlstrom (1987) redefined social intelligence to refer to the individual's fund of knowledge about the social world.
Moss and Hunt (1927) defined social intelligence as the "ability to get along with others" . Vernon (1933), provided the most wide-ranging definition of social intelligence as the person's "ability to get along with people in general, social technique or ease in society, knowledge of social matters, susceptibility to stimuli from other members of a group, as well as insight into the temporary moods or underlying personality traits of strangers"
Persons with high social intelligence are usually good in recognizing subtle facial, verbal and behavioral clues in other people that can indicate their emotions and intentions. Social intelligence includes the following abilities:
a) the ability to observe and interpret very subtle facial expressions that signal particular emotions or intentions in other people;
b) the ability to detect and understand hidden meanings in verbal expressions of other people - such as when people say one thing, but actually mean the opposite;
c) the ability to interact with other people verbally and through gestures in such a way that these partners feel comfortable, relaxed and understood.
d) the ability to intentionally provoke other people through cynicism, mockery or insults;
d) the ability to tell and understand jokes;
f) the ability to motivate other people to actions by providing verbal encouragement;
g) the ability to incite rage, fanaticism, or (religious) ecstasy in other people;
h) the ability to coordinate one's actions with the behavior of other people;
What is Social Intelligence (SI)?
Social Intelligence (SI) is the ability to get along well with others, and to get them to cooperate with you. Sometimes referred to simplistically as "people skills," SI includes an awareness of situations and the social dynamics that govern them, and a knowledge of interaction styles and strategies that can help a person achieve his or her objectives in dealing with others. It also involves a certain amount of self-insight and a consciousness of one's own perceptions and reaction patterns.As originally coined by E.L. Thorndike (1920), the term referred the person's ability to understand and manage other people, and to engage in adaptive social interactions.E.L. Thorndike divided intelligence into three parts, pertaining to the ability to understand and manage ideas (abstract intelligence), concrete objects (mechanical intelligence), and people (social intelligence). More recently, however, Cantor and Kihlstrom (1987) redefined social intelligence to refer to the individual's fund of knowledge about the social world.
Moss and Hunt (1927) defined social intelligence as the "ability to get along with others" . Vernon (1933), provided the most wide-ranging definition of social intelligence as the person's "ability to get along with people in general, social technique or ease in society, knowledge of social matters, susceptibility to stimuli from other members of a group, as well as insight into the temporary moods or underlying personality traits of strangers"
Persons with high social intelligence are usually good in recognizing subtle facial, verbal and behavioral clues in other people that can indicate their emotions and intentions. Social intelligence includes the following abilities:
a) the ability to observe and interpret very subtle facial expressions that signal particular emotions or intentions in other people;
b) the ability to detect and understand hidden meanings in verbal expressions of other people - such as when people say one thing, but actually mean the opposite;
c) the ability to interact with other people verbally and through gestures in such a way that these partners feel comfortable, relaxed and understood.
d) the ability to intentionally provoke other people through cynicism, mockery or insults;
d) the ability to tell and understand jokes;
f) the ability to motivate other people to actions by providing verbal encouragement;
g) the ability to incite rage, fanaticism, or (religious) ecstasy in other people;
h) the ability to coordinate one's actions with the behavior of other people;
Social intelligence should not be misunderstood as a particular political or social conviction, such as humanitarianism. All people with social intelligence may not have noble sentiment. Social intelligence is often used for political manipulation or brutal suppression of other people. Leaders such as Napoleon Bonaparte, Genghis Khan, Mao Zedong, Pol Pot, Adolf Hitler or Josef Stalin were able to initiate raw emotions and blind obedience among their followers at extreme levels. Religious leaders have been able to incite hundreds of millions of people with some of the deepest human emotions possible. Political and military power is not generated primarily by brutal force and suppression, but by winning over the "hearts and minds" of followers. We might not like it, but there can be no doubt that powerful political and military leaders must have high social intelligence to manipulate other people.When social intelligence is used for benign purposes it can lead to some of the most uplifting and noble human experiences.
Nicholas Humphrey points to a difference between intelligence and social intelligence. Some autistic children are extremely intelligent because they are very good at observing and memorising information, but they have low social intelligence. Similarly, chimpanzees are very adept at observation and memorisation, sometimes better than humans, but are, according to Humphrey, inept at handling interpersonal relationships. What they lack is a theory of other's minds.
More recently, popular science writer Daniel Goleman has drawn on social neuroscience research to propose that social intelligence is made up of social awareness (including empathy, attunement, empathic accuracy, and social cognition) and social facility (including synchrony, self-presentation, influence, and concern).Goleman’s research indicates that our social relationships have a direct effect on our physical health.
Educational researcher Raymond H. Hartjen asserts that expanded opportunities for social interaction enhances intelligence.This suggests that children require continuous opportunities for interpersonal experiences in order to develop a keen 'inter-personal psychology'.Traditional classrooms do not permit the interaction of complex social behavior. Instead, students in traditional settings are treated as learners who must be infused with more and more complex forms of information. The structure of schools today allows very few of these skills, critical for survival in the world, to develop. Because we so limit the development of the skills of "natural psychologist" in traditional schools, graduates enter the job market handicapped to the point of being incapable of surviving on their own.
Nicholas Humphrey points to a difference between intelligence and social intelligence. Some autistic children are extremely intelligent because they are very good at observing and memorising information, but they have low social intelligence. Similarly, chimpanzees are very adept at observation and memorisation, sometimes better than humans, but are, according to Humphrey, inept at handling interpersonal relationships. What they lack is a theory of other's minds.
More recently, popular science writer Daniel Goleman has drawn on social neuroscience research to propose that social intelligence is made up of social awareness (including empathy, attunement, empathic accuracy, and social cognition) and social facility (including synchrony, self-presentation, influence, and concern).Goleman’s research indicates that our social relationships have a direct effect on our physical health.
Educational researcher Raymond H. Hartjen asserts that expanded opportunities for social interaction enhances intelligence.This suggests that children require continuous opportunities for interpersonal experiences in order to develop a keen 'inter-personal psychology'.Traditional classrooms do not permit the interaction of complex social behavior. Instead, students in traditional settings are treated as learners who must be infused with more and more complex forms of information. The structure of schools today allows very few of these skills, critical for survival in the world, to develop. Because we so limit the development of the skills of "natural psychologist" in traditional schools, graduates enter the job market handicapped to the point of being incapable of surviving on their own.
Relation with Emotional Intelligence :
Social intelligence is closely related to cognition and emotional intelligence.
The emotional intelligence quadrant defines the four key competencies that enable a person to perform at their optimum in any given situation.
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| EI Quadrant |
Social intelligence is separate from, but complimentary to emotional intelligence.Some deficits in SI arise from inadequate development of EI, conversely, some deficits in SI may lead to unsuccessful social experiences which may undermine a person's sense of self-worth which is part of EI.EI is about Self-Mastery, SI is about your ability to lead and inspire other people through your ability to influence, empathize and care.
Relation with Brain :
Brain research in the last three decades has established that thinking and feeling originate from separate centers of the brain. The centers have been termed the “thinking mind” and the “emotional mind” respectively. The thinking mind is located in the cortex part of the brain while the emotional mind is in the area of the brain known as the limbic system. In particular, the amygdala in the limbic system is the structure that stores emotional experiences associated with various events. That structure is, therefore, the emotional center.
One of its functions, from what research has shown, is to communicate information of an emotional nature to the cortex — particularly to the prefrontal lobe of the cortex, instructing it to go into action or behavior mode. The prefrontal lobe considers the instructions from the amygdala in the context of the actual situation. Directly following that, it then decides whether to ignore the instructions or carry them through to action. If a person’s physiology is compromised — from drugs, alcohol, or moderate to high stress — the prefrontal lobe may fail to block the instructions from the amygdala, as it would in a more healthy state. In other words, we feel before we think. Emotions turn into action before the cognitive processes have a chance to interrupt the reaction.
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