Toward a conceptual definition for social competence: An exploratory study

Law, Wong and Song (2004) explain that the study of social competence has its roots in Thorndike's (1920) proposition that intelligence has three broad based components. One of three described intelligence in the social arena is the ability to understand and manage men and women, boys and girls---to act wisely in human relations (Law, et al., 2004, p. 484). Since this early work, many conceptual definitions for social competence have been forwarded.; Although social competence has been described by investigators, the field has thus far proceeded in the absence of a conceptual definition. It was Darden and Gintner (1996) who explained that within the social competence literature, many terms and definitions have been used which are often overlapping and contradictory. In addition, many current research articles in the area of social competence report a lack of an accepted conceptual or operational definition for the term (Johns, 2001; Hubbard & Dearing, 2004; Zsolnai, 2002; Smith & Travis, 2001).; This dissertation research utilized mixed methods to collect opinions from experts in the field of social competence to answer the main research question; how do experts conceptually define social competence? Experts were defined as those persons who had published an article between 2002-2007 that included the term social competence in the title. Using a three round Delphi study, the researcher collected both qualitative and quantitative data by using open as well as closed ended questions to answer the research question; how do experts conceptually define social competence?; While information processing perspectives and cultural competencies did not find much support as a conceptualization for social competence in this study, constructs such as social skills, abilities and social goals did resonate from both the qualitative and quantitative analysis of the data. Further findings suggested that social competence is a multi-dimensional construct and that experts believe that the research community should move toward consensus for a conceptual definition for social competence.