www.ccsenet.org/ass Asian Social Science Vol. 7, No. 10; October 2011 Published by Canadian Center of Science and Education 241 Social and Emotional Intelligence in School Environment PaedDr. Zuzana Birknerová, PhD. Department of Managerial Psychology, Faculty of Management University of Prešov in Prešov, Konštantínova 16, 08001 Prešov, Slovakia E-mail: zbirknerova@unipo.sk Received: April 19, 2011 Accepted: June 7, 2011 Published: October 1, 2011 doi:10.5539/ass.v7n10p241 URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.5539/ass.v7n10p241 The research is financed by Grant - VEGA 1/0831/10: “Social intelligence and perception of a teacher in the school social context“ Abstract The article focuses on the problem of social and emotional intelligence in school environment, as this aspect of social psychology has never been researched in detail from the pedagogical viewpoint. The main objectives of the research were to find out whether headmasters, teachers and students are socially and emotionally skilled, whether social and emotional intelligence are viewed differently according to gender and whether there are any connections between the mentioned aspects and the age of respondents. In the first part of the analysis we tried to find differences between the position within an organisation and social and emotional intelligence. The second part focuses on the differences between gender and social and emotional intelligence. The third part describes the connections between the age of respondents and social and emotional intelligence. The research was carried out by means of the TSIS and TEIQue-SF questionnaires on the sample of 569 participants. Keywords: Social intelligence, Emotional intelligence, School environment 1. Social intelligence When predicting and interpreting human behaviour, a specific area is created by interpersonal situations and behaving of a person in such situations, in other words, managing and solving problems where an important role is played by the factor of social contacts of people. One of the significant characteristics used when describing and predicting such behaviour is social intelligence. An increase in professional interest in the broad issue of social intelligence can be observed in the period of the second half of the 20th century. A dramatic increase of reports involving this issue has been recorded in the last 30 years. Although social intelligence is a real individual characteristic (Silvera, et al., 2001) and the beginning of efforts to measure it date back to Thornedike (Kihlstrom, Cantor, 2000), when trying to distinguish it more precisely we encounter certain difficulties (Silvera, Martinussen, Dahl, 2001). One of the reasons for these difficulties is connected with distinguishing social intelligence from other similar constructs, such as academic intelligence, emotional intelligence or practical intelligence. When defining social intelligence we emphasize how individuals understand and interpret their own behaviour and behaviour of other people, and also, depending on this interpretation, how they can effectively regulate their behaviour. Developing social intelligent behaviour of an individual predicts improvement of self-reflection, reflection of social processes, reflection of the subjective sense and interpretation of behaviour, social competence training (Orosová, et al., 2004). When defining social intelligence, various components are emphasized. Some definitions accentuate rather perception, cognitive-analytical dimension, or an ability to understand other people (eg. Barnes, Sternberg, 1989). Other definitions concentrate more on behaviour, or an ability to successfully affect other people (eg. Ford, Tisak, 1983), and emphasize rather behavioural aspect. Social intelligence is characterized also from the point of view of the classic three-component model with differentiation of perception, cognitive, and behavioural components (Bjorkqvist, 2000). Multidimensional feature of the social intelligence construct is unquestionable. At the same time, as it was noted by Silvera, Martinussen and Dahl (2001), some of its dimensions are closely connected to academic intelligence, others more to personal features. As we observe basic lines of social intelligence study in literature, essentially, two main tendencies represented by psychometric or personal approach (Kihlstrom, Cantor, 2000) can be set apart.