Rl. Rosnow et al., INTELLIGENCE AND THE EPISTEMICS OF INTERPERSONAL ACUMEN - TESTING SOME IMPLICATIONS OF GARDNERS THEORY, Intelligence, 19(1), 1994, pp. 93-116
Gardner (1985) theorized a developmental trajectory leading to qualita
tive changes in the ability to read motives or intentions, which we vi
ewed as implying stages (or levels) of interpersonal acumen in adults.
To test this idea, we conceptualized graduated levels of action-inten
tion combinations ranging from least to most cognitively taxing accord
ing to particular end-state skills described by Gardner. In a set of s
tudies using varied formats, we found that, if adult subjects mastered
one combination in the hierarchy, they also tended to master combinat
ions implying more primitive skills; if they failed a task, they gener
ally failed at combinations implying more complex skills. We were able
to find no substantial relationships between task performance and sur
rogate indices of verbal and mathematical IQ or standard tests of inte
rpersonal reactivity, interpersonal trust, need for cognition, and sel
f-monitoring. Although tentative, this finding was consistent with Gar
dner's view of interpersonal intelligence as independent of g-ocentric
facets of intellectual potential and different from personality. We i
solated a set of self-described markers of high and low scorers, which
also seemed consistent with Gardner's intuitions. We conclude by noti
ng some limitations of this investigation.