Reflection as a Factor of the Effectivefunctioning of the Social Intelligence

Abstract

The author of this article analyzes the influence of the reflective process’ components on the level of the effective functioning of the social intelligence as a mental mechanism of establishing, maintaining and regulating the personal social relations with other persons. The researcher identifies five stages of reflection as a process of finding a method of problem overcoming: 1) perception of contradiction; 2) an analysis of the problem’scauses; 3) the search a method of the contra­dictionre­moving; 4) the problemsolving; 5) evaluation of the result, – which are provided by reflective actions (modeling, reflective analysis, anticipation, planning, voluntary control, emotional control, monitoring, awareness and evaluation). The criteria of the effective functioning of the social intelligence (adequacy, adaptability, efficiency, awareness) are proposed and operationalized bythe indicators of psychodiagnostic and research methods. The results of the correlation analysis revealed that the frequency of the reflective actions’ using, especially planning, modeling and evaluation, signifi­cantly affects the level and nature of the effective functioning of the social intelligence. It is established that an activating the actions of problem modeling and own activity monitoring contributes to the formation of a more complex representation of oneself and a more critical attitude to one’s own abilities. Excessively frequent usingthe actions of voluntary control and one's own activity monitoring affects the maturity level of personality’s experiencein a negative direction, reduces the coherence of personal history events, decreasesthe openness and dialogicalityof experience as a system. The reflective actions (planning, modeling and reflective analysis) determine theeffective overcomingsituations’cognitive uncertainty andthe rapid orienting in new and complex circumstances. The evaluation as a reflective act contributes to the activation of the personality’s metacognitive activity, which ensures the regulation and control of cognitive and emotional processes, stimulates the reproduction of past experience.