SOCIAL INTELLIGENCE IN THE STRUCTURE OF INTELLECTUAL ABILITIES OF FUTURE PENITENTIARY SERVICE EMPLOYEES

Abstract

The presented topic is important due to the peculiarities of the professional training for penitentiary service employees and an important role of social intelligence for professionals working the “human-human” area. The article purpose was to present the theoretical and empirical study on correlations among general, social and emotional intelligence in the structure of professional competence of future penitentiary service specialists in Ukraine. Results. The performed theoretical review has revealed that intelligence is generally defined in modern science as a multilevel organization of cognitive forces, covering an individual’s processes, states and properties. General (verbal and nonverbal), emotional intelligence and social intelligence are defined. Social intelligence is determined by a set of mental abilities and personality traits associated with understanding, analysis, and prediction of behaviour and can describe effectiveness of interpersonal interactions, including interactions in professional work. Direct relations were found empirically among intellectual abilities (general intelligence), social intelligence and emotional intelligence. In fact, the higher general human intelligence was, including both verbal and nonverbal abilities, the higher the social and emotional intelligence was. Moreover, there were direct relations between nonverbal and emotional intelligence and verbal and social intelligence. Conclusion. The results give us reason to conclude that, at the present stage of higher education reforming, professional training of future penitentiary employees should be aimed not only at acquisition of professional knowledge and skills, but also the improvement of intellectual abilities, including emotional and social intelligence. Key words: community, professional competence, intelligence, intellectual health, social intelligence, emotional intelligence.