History Of Social Intelligence

Dr. Reuven Bar-On’s (2005) reports that social intelligence publications began appearing in 1920 with the work of Edward Thorndike. The early studies concerning emotions and behaviour focused on the description of, the definition of, and the assessment of socially competent behaviours. Edgar Doll (1935) published the first instrument designed to measure the socially intelligent behaviour in young children (Bar-On, 2005). In 1940, Wechsler described “non-intelligent” factors of behaviour, such as personality traits as well as an individual’s anxiety, persistence and goal awareness, which can also be attributed to be a reference to the construct of EI. Scholars began to shift their focused attention from describing and assessing general intellectual intelligence, to gaining an understanding of the purposeful interpersonal behaviours and the role intelligence plays in an individual’s effective adaptability (Zirkel, 2000). With this shift in concentration, came the strengthening of Wechsler’s definition of general intelligence. According to Bar-On (2005), these early characterizations of intelligence may have influenced the way that emotional intelligence was later conceptualised. In the 1960’s there was interest in an individuals’ social intelligence. Thorndike originally described social intelligence, as an individual’s ability to understand and manage other people and to engage in adaptive social interactions (Cantor and Kihlstrom, 1987). However, the interest seems to have faded with the start of the 1970’s (Salovey & Sluyter, 1997). Interest in social intelligence or other intelligences revived in 1983 when Howard Gardner introduced the theory of multiple intelligences (Brualdi, 1996; Gardner, 1993; Gardner, 1995). Gardner propos...

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...n teaching than we once believed. EI is distinguished from cognitive intelligence by its focus on feelings and behaviour rather than on facts and knowledge. EI represents a collaboration of personal and social competencies that include the ability to recognize personal feelings and emotions, and the feelings and emotions of others, and to use that information to resolve conflict, solve problems and improve interactions with others. Taking into consideration that in the workplace, where success is dependent upon teamwork, collaboration, and good interpersonal relationships, educators are uniting in their realisation that traditional concepts of intelligence are not the single-handed driving force that promotes success. According to Brown (1999), EI reflects one's ability to interact with each other in a positive manner and is often the final determination of success.