Validity of Greenspan's models of adaptive and social intelligence

Abstract

Study 1 assessed the construct validity of Greenspan's 1979 and 1981 models of adaptive and social intelligence. Seventy-five adolescents with mental retardation completed four measures of conceptual intelligence, a general measure of adaptive behavior (practical intelligence), and seven measures of social intelligence. A factor analysis of all measures yielded three factors that were obliquely rotated and labelled Practical-Interpersonal Competence (defined by a subset of social intelligence and adaptive behavior measures). Verbal Intelligence, and Accuracy of Inference. An analysis of the seven measures of social intelligence found no evidence to support the hierarchical organization of variables that is proposed in Greenspan's model of social intelligence. The criterion validity of the Practical-Interpersonal Competence construct identified in this study was then assessed in Study 2 (N = 20). Factor scores were calculated from nine measures that were selected to represent the Practical-Interpersonal Competence, Verbal Intelligence, and Accuracy of Inference factors, and correlated with three criterion measures of practical and interpersonal competence. Two of the three criterion measures validated both the Practical-Interpersonal Competence and Verbal Intelligence Factor scores but did not discriminate between the two. The criterion validity of the Practical-Interpersonal Competence construct, therefore, has yet to be established.