The measurement of social intelligence

Abstract

A report of a study of the George Washington University Social Intelligence Test as a measure of "social intelligence defined as ability to deal with people." The test is described in detail, the parts analyzed, the reliability and validity determined. The scores are found to correlate about 0.50 with abstract intelligence scores for college students; 0.22 with mechanical intelligence as measured by the O'Rourke Mechanical Aptitude Test and 0.11 as measured by the MacQuarrie Mechanical Ingenuity Test. There seems to be no definite increase in social intelligence with age; there is a sex difference, women testing, on the average, 5 points higher than men. Norms are given for different school levels of ability and for different industrial groups. The correlation between the tests and scholarship for the 3 groups studied was 0.47, 0.49, and 0.42. It is suggested that the test might be useful in vocational guidance. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)