Structure of Social Intelligence

This article uses a graphic metaphor to describe ways to construct the content of processes for diagnosing and developing social intelligence. The intersection of lines on the three faces of a cube allows for the creation of numerous methodological tools to diagnose and develop the basic components of social intelligence.

What Is Social Intelligence?

Social intelligence is the ability to correctly understand people’s behavior. This skill is essential for effective interpersonal interaction and successful social adaptation.

The term “social intelligence” was introduced into psychology by E. Thorndike in 1920 to denote “foresight in interpersonal relationships.” Many renowned psychologists have contributed to the interpretation of this concept. In 1937, G. Allport associated social intelligence with the ability to make quick, almost automatic judgments about people and predict their most likely reactions. According to Allport, social intelligence is a special “social gift” that ensures smooth relationships with others, resulting in social adaptation rather than depth of understanding.

Later, many prominent scholars explored social intelligence abilities within the structures of general intelligence, most notably in the models proposed by J. Guilford and H. Eysenck.

Debates on the Definition of Intelligence

Psychologists have long debated the definition of intelligence, such as E. Boring’s statement: “Intelligence is what intelligence tests measure.” Some, like B.F. Anurin, consider this tautological and trivial, while others see it as a recursive definition, common in mathematics and computer science. H. Eysenck disagreed with Boring, arguing that intelligence tests are not created randomly but are based on well-known, proven natural laws, such as the principle of “positive manifold.”

H. Eysenck’s Model of Intelligence Structure

Hans Jürgen Eysenck, a psychotherapist at the Bethlem Royal Hospital in London, developed a general concept of intelligence. He argued that intelligence, despite definitional challenges, is as scientific a concept as gravity or electricity. Eysenck identified three relatively distinct and independent concepts of intelligence, which he unified in a single model (see Figure 1):

• Biological intelligence – innate abilities for information processing, linked to the structures and functions of the cerebral cortex. This is the genetic, physiological, neurological, biochemical, and hormonal basis of cognitive behavior.
• Psychometric intelligence – the link between biological and social intelligence, representing what is measured by intelligence tests (as per Spearman’s “g” factor).
• Social intelligence – the intelligence formed during socialization, influenced by the conditions of a specific social environment.

J. Guilford’s Model of Intelligence Structure

In the 1960s, J. Guilford, who created the first reliable test for measuring social intelligence, viewed it as a system of intellectual abilities independent of general intelligence and primarily related to understanding behavioral information. His research led to the development of the “cube model” of intelligence structure, identifying 120 factors classified by three independent variables:

1. Content (type of information): Symbols (S), Semantics (M), Behavior (B)
2. Operations (mental actions): Cognition (C), Memory (M), Divergent thinking (D), Convergent thinking (N), Evaluation (E)
3. Products (results): Units (U), Classes (C), Relations (R), Systems (S), Transformations (T), Implications (I)

Each intellectual ability is described by a combination of these three indices. For example, social intelligence is highlighted as the block related to understanding behavior (see Figure 2).

Guilford’s Six Factors of Social Intelligence

• Cognition of behavioral elements (CBU): Ability to identify verbal and nonverbal expressions of behavior.
• Cognition of behavioral classes (CBC): Ability to recognize common properties in expressive or situational behavioral information.
• Cognition of behavioral relations (CBR): Ability to understand relationships between behavioral information units.
• Cognition of behavioral systems (CBS): Ability to understand the logic of developing holistic situations of human interaction.
• Cognition of behavioral transformations (CBT): Ability to understand changes in the meaning of similar behaviors in different contexts.
• Cognition of behavioral implications (CBI): Ability to foresee the consequences of behavior based on available information.

Guilford’s test battery, based on these factors, showed that social intelligence does not significantly correlate with general intelligence, spatial abilities, or originality of thinking, confirming its independence as a cognitive domain.

Social Intelligence in Russian Psychology

In Russian psychology, the concept of social intelligence has been explored by several researchers. M.I. Bobneva (1979) was among the first to describe it within the system of social personality development. She emphasized that socialization alone does not ensure holistic human development, highlighting two opposing tendencies: typification (stereotyping and group norms) and individualization (accumulation of personal social experience and attitudes).

Bobneva argued that social intelligence is a special ability formed through activity in the social sphere and that general intellectual development does not directly determine social intelligence. High intelligence may facilitate social development but cannot replace or guarantee it. In fact, high intelligence can be rendered useless by social blindness or inadequate social behavior.

Other Russian Researchers

Y.N. Emelyanov studied social intelligence in the context of practical psychology, focusing on improving communicative competence through active social-psychological training. He defined social intelligence as a stable ability, based on specific thinking processes, affective responses, and social experience, to understand oneself and others, their relationships, and to predict interpersonal events. Emelyanov introduced the term “communicative competence,” closely related to social intelligence, and identified key sources for its development:

• Life experience – especially interpersonal communication, which is both social (internalized norms and values) and individual (personal psychological events).
• Art – both as creator and perceiver, enriching communicative skills.
• General erudition – a stock of reliable, systematic knowledge about the history and culture of human communication.
• Scientific methods – integrating all sources to describe, conceptualize, explain, and predict interpersonal interaction, and to develop practical tools for improving communicative competence.

Emelyanov also linked social intelligence to situational adaptation and emphasized the importance of both verbal and nonverbal means of social behavior.

A.L. Yuzhaninova’s Perspective

A.L. Yuzhaninova (1984) identified social intelligence as a third characteristic of intellectual structure, alongside practical and logical intelligence. She described social intelligence as a special social ability in three dimensions:

• Social-perceptual abilities – the capacity to adequately reflect individual and personal traits of others, understand their mental processes and emotional states, and accurately perceive their relationships with others. This also includes self-knowledge and awareness of one’s own traits and motives.
• Social imagination – the ability to model others’ characteristics based on external cues and predict their behavior in specific situations.
• Social communication technique – the practical component, including the ability to take another’s role, manage situations, and direct interactions effectively.

Yuzhaninova’s research, along with others, found that social intelligence is weakly related to general intelligence scores, supporting its status as an independent component of cognitive abilities.

Key Conclusions on Social Intelligence

• Social intelligence is an integral intellectual ability that determines the success of communication and social adaptation.
• It unites and regulates cognitive processes related to understanding social objects (people as communication partners, groups).
• Its components include social sensitivity, social perception, social memory, and social thinking.
• Social intelligence enables understanding of people’s actions, speech, and nonverbal reactions (facial expressions, posture, gestures).
• It is a crucial professional quality in “person-to-person” and some “person-to-art” professions.
• Social intelligence develops later than empathy and is stimulated by the start of formal schooling, as children’s social circles and abilities expand.
• Deficits in social intelligence can lead to asocial behavior or tendencies.

Research by J. Piaget showed that the development of decentration (the ability to take another’s perspective) is key to overcoming egocentrism, which is essential for effective communication and social intelligence.