Can social intelligence be measured? Psychometric properties of the Tromsø Social Intelligence Scale – English Version

Despite its intuitive appeal as a construct relevant to a number of psychological outcomes, adequate operationalisation of social intelligence has been problematic for researchers. This research aimed to extend the understanding of the measurement of social intelligence by investigating the psychometric properties of the English version of Tromsø Social Intelligence Scale by Silvera, Martinussen and Dahl. Factor analysis (N=328; Maximum Likelihood with Promax rotation) revealed three clear factors that paralleled the original Norwegian measure: social skills, social information processing and social awareness. Construct validity was also examined (N=116). As predicted, social intelligence was strongly and significantly related to political skill, emotional intelligence (EI) and empathy in both males and females. In addition, as predicted, there were weak relationships with social desirability; however, for males, there was no relationship between social intelligence and social desirability. Internal reliability was adequate to good, and temporal stability over a 2-week interval was excellent. It is concluded that the English version of the scale has sound psychometric properties, that the factor structure of the Tromsø Social Intelligence Scale is stable in the English version and that the relationships evident with political skill, EI and empathy suggest that the measure is successfully capturing the nature of social intelligence. While social intelligence remains a difficult construct to operationalise, consideration of the construct within a developing nomological network is indicated. The Tromsø Social Intelligence Scale – English Version may be a useful tool for researchers aiming to operationalise trait or typical social intelligence in an easy to administer, self-report format in English-speaking samples