Adolescence involves dramatic changes in social and emotional functioning (Spear 2000). During adolescence, youth focus more on social relationships and bonds with their peers as they gradually detach from their parents (Kloep 1999). Social and emotional development are accelerated during adolescence, and this phase is believed to be especially important in the emergence of social and emotional intelligence (William et al. 2007).

Social intelligence is a multidimensional mental ability distinct from other forms of intelligence (Weis and Süß 2007). The concept of social intelligence, first introduced by Thorndike (1920), refers to the field of social understanding, action, and interaction. Social life demands not only active but also reactive individuals in the construction of knowledge; it requires the ability to recognize other individuals’ mental states in order to respond in ways appropriate for the interpreted situations. This ability to form representative thought that allows one to put oneself in the position of others, and then the ability to respond to that thought, serves as the foundation of social intelligence.

There exists no generally accepted definition of social intelligence, but a few components are well accepted. A key aspect of social intelligence is social understanding, the ability of a person to properly understand and interpret social stimuli that is communicated by various means (Weis and Süß 2007). Social memory also necessarily is involved in social intelligence; it allows for storing and recalling social information. This type of memory typically is (operationalized) as a memory for name and faces but may cover a broader range of contents (Kosmitzki and John 1993). Social intelligence also involves social knowledge, which involves the “procedural” social memory associated with memory and understanding (Weis and Süß 2007). Added to these aspects of social memory would be the ability to deal with people and use appropriate social techniques in interactions with others. These more developed definitions continue to address Thorndike’s (1920) differentiation between a cognitive component (involving understanding social relationships) and behavioral component (involving the management of relationships) of social intelligence.

Despite the significance of social intelligence to social functioning, research in this area has not developed considerably. Nor has this area of study focused much on the period of adolescence or considered fully the developmental components of what would constitute social intelligence. Rather than focus on social intelligence itself, the study of adolescence has focused more on related areas such as social skills, self-regulation, and interactions with peers and family members. These areas of research are all related closely to social intelligence, but they do not address it directly to develop, for example, measures that would assess social intelligence in a way that intelligence is assessed, which is what the field of social intelligence has attempted to do but mainly with adults. This area of research remains a potentially fruitful one if it would specifically focus on adolescents and youth to understand better the developmental roots, changes, and nature of social intelligence.

Cross-References