CC BY
26
DEVELOPMENT OF A PERSON’S SOCIAL INTELLECT
IN POST-NON-CLASSICAL PSYCHOLOGY
E. Z. Ivashkevich
Post-non-classical psychology, which is oriented at studies of personality formation and development, its system of values and concepts, a person’s cognitive processes and intellect (including social), requires as a paradigm the acceptance of rationally oriented intellectual culture as one of the most essential achievements of humankind. Therefore, on a practical level, post-non-classical psychology assumes the ultimate use of this resource which is represented by balanced interaction with social entities and cultural elements. We see the solution of this issue as being very relevant because of the tasks posed before mankind in terms of sustainable development. Principally, these are new values of education. They are studied in post-non-classical psychology which deals with issue of ethic behavior. Being one of the most contradictory in the humanities for centuries, this branch has recently acquired momentum for development, research and thorough elaboration due to the creation of so-called formal models designed for application in psychology and, primarily, in its post-non-classical branch.
Post-non-classical psychology is focused on identification of essential differences in functions of perceived senses of objects and their meanings. According to G.A. Ball, a person needs perceived senses for cognitive orientation in reality. The better rendered senses of some objects represent their state, and the better the anticipated meanings forecast the future situation, the more advanced this orientation is, serving as a precondition for a more successful achievement of goals set by a person [1]. As for meanings, A. A.Leontyev indicated their general function: they provide value orientation in motivation scenarios, i. e. what particular aims a person shall pursue and what volume of personal resources shall be spent on their achievement [4]. The last statement makes the issue of moral foundations of lifelong education relevant, as a result of which the issue of the development of a person’s social intellect is important as well.
We shall hereby describe some conceptions of social intellect. In N. Cantor’s conception, social intellect is considered as a cognitive competence which allows people perceiving events and objects with a greater level of unexpectedness and maximal profit for themselves. According to the researcher, the cognitive substructure of a person’s mind is defined as a collection of declarative and procedural knowledge (which simultaneously relate to factual knowledge). A person uses the latter in interpretation of texts, events, planning for the future, and daily life. Naturally, these images and feelings as well as the rules of interpretation for texts, events, activity and behavior compose a cognitive substructure of personality to which social intellect can also be pertained. At the same time, the dynamics of use of social intellect enable a person to ultimately adapt to his or her environment. The researcher indicates general substantial elements of intellect, namely: the ability to solve practical tasks, the ability for verbal perception and reproduction of reality, social and communicative competences. Therefore,
154
N. Cantor considers social intellect, on the one hand, to be a structure responsible for integrity of factual knowledge and information (which are used for solving various situations, problems and tasks in daily life) while on the other hand, social intellect is regarded as a human ability to fully comprehend the decisions he or she makes [6, p. 464].
The concept of “unconscious conclusions” by G. Gelmgoltz is important for solving the problem we stated in this report. This concept states that psychic acts of visual perception, as well as intellectual processes, end with a conclusion about those objects perceived directly. Sensations, being messages for our conscious, become fully comprehended through a person’s intellectual activity and, in particular, social intellect. If a message is understood by a person intuitively only at the perception level, then, according to G. Gelmgoltz, such understanding shall be considered as “a false inductive conclusion” or, as we mentioned it previously, “an unconscious conclusion”, by virtue only that such a conclusion is not by any means a result of logical operations. G. Gelmgoltz indicates that an “unconscious conclusion” is inherently a simultaneous process, but the simultaneous effect of recognized perception is prepared by a person’s unconscious [3, p. 33-34]. In this case, according to G. Gelmgoltz, a person perceives a particular object, yet does not perform intellectual activity to understand it, and our perception in this case is fully meaningful thanks to social intellect. At the same time, the “unconscious conclusion” directly transforms into a logical conclusion which is interpreted into “conscious language” due to a person’s social intellect. In other words, genesis of perceptions is not conscious. Conclusion based on a person’s mnemonic experience which drives a person to understanding of reality is subject to apprehension [2, p. 138-140].
We believe that social intellect includes declarative and operative (procedural) knowledge which is applied by a person in real life for interpretation of events, plan-making and forecasting of daily actions as well as professional situations. These images, personal reminiscences and interpretation rules constitute a cognitive substructure of social intellect. Mnemonic substructure is composed of acquired experience while empathic substructure is formed by a person’s ability to use anticipation to solve various issues in social life.
C. Rogers also speaks of the formation of social intellect in psychological trainings. According to C. Rogers, during psychotherapy, perception includes 7 stages. As a rule, at the 1st stage feelings and deep personal meaning are not apprehended. No problem is considered either. At the 2nd stage a person does not feel personal responsibility for solving his or her own issues. At the same time, a person demonstrates some feelings which are not fully conscious. The 3rd stage is characterized by a person describing feelings and personal meanings which he / she would like to experience at the moment (but is not experiencing). At the 4th stage, contradictions between existential and acquired personal experiences are apprehended. The feeling of responsibility for problem-solving appears, yet it is not stable. At the 5th stage, the feelings which appear are conscious, however, their non-compliance to the previously acquired experience is also perceived. At the 6th stage, the issue and one’s own ego are further perceived. According to C. Rogers, this ego is the feeling itself in this context. At the 7th stage, any feeling becomes a process dependent on social intellect that allows a person to efficiently solve the
155
set problems and tasks [5]. We believe these 7 stages of development of social intellect allows us to consider this phenomena as the most important element of a person’s lifestyle, as well as social regulation of a person’s professional activity, which is unconditionally determinant for realization of lifelong education.
That said, many issues are still not fully studied in psychology. For example, the question of the effect of social intellect on the formation of personal intellectual gifts is arguable in psychology. Some authors believe that the level of one’s development of social intellect does not influence whether a person is gifted or not. We believe that these categories certainly have a direct correlation, and its scope shall be studied in our next empirical research projects.
References
1. Балл Г. А. Психология в рациогуманистической перспективе: Избранные работы / Георгий Алексеевич Балл. - К.: Основа, 2006. - 408 с.
2. Гельмгольц Г. О зрении / Г. Гельмгольц. - СПб., 1896. - С.138-140.
3. Гельмгольц Г. Факты в восприятии. Речь, читанная в день основания Берлинского университета 3 августа 1878 г. / Г. Гельмгольц. - СПб., 1880. - С.33-34.
4. Леонтьев А. А. Основы психолингвистики / Алексей Алексеевич Леонтьев. - М.: Смысл, 1997. - 286 с.
5. Rogers C. R. A theory of therapy, personality and interpersonal relationship as developed in the client-centered framework / Carl R. Rogers // Koch S. Psychology : A study of a science. -N.-Y. : Mc. Grawn Hill, 1959. - 59 p.
6. Kihlstrom J. F., Cantor N. Social Intelligence / J.F. Kihlstrom, N. Cantor / http://istsocrates.berkeley.edu/~kihlstrom/social_intelligence.html
Translated from Russian by Znanije Central Translations Bureau
156
