Social and academic intelligences: a multitrait-multimethod study of theircrystallized and fluid characteristics

The purposes of the present study were: (1) to replicate previous research on social intelligence that shows social intelligence to be multidimensiona l in nature and distinguishable from academic intelligence, (2) to extend p rior research by assessing whether the crystallized/fluid distinction commo nly discussed in the academic intelligence literature was applicable to the domain of social intelligence, and (3) to explore whether a hierarchical m odel of social and academic intelligences was consistent with the data. One hundred and sixty-nine university students completed verbal, pictorial and self-report measures of four constructs: social knowledge (hypothesized to reflect crystallized social intelligence), social inference (hypothesized to reflect fluid social intelligence), crystallized academic and fluid acad emic intelligences. In addition, other-report measures were collected for t hese constructs in this multitrait-multimethod study. Confirmatory factor a nalyses replicated previous research, documenting that the four trait const ructs showed convergent and discriminant validities. Similar analyses also extended prior research by showing that the crystallized/fluid distinction might be applicable in the social intelligence domain (although the evidenc e was stronger for crystallized social intelligence than fluid social intel ligence) and that a hierarchical model fits the data well. (C) 2000 Elsevie r Science Ltd. All rights reserved.