The ability to be adaptive and behaviorally flexible is the cornerstone of intelligence. But being adaptive has to be understood in the context of two recurring challenges in people’s lives, connecting and striving, and the balance between the two.

Connecting and creating supportive social connections entails developing and using social intelligence skills, but also developing and applying executive cognitive skills. A collection of social skills will not guarantee connecting, as such skills have to be selected, controlled, and coordinated.

Effective social connections facilitate striving, allowing individuals to lead, innovate, and create options. However, in order to strive, improve, and get ahead, individuals and groups must use social intelligence skills and also apply executive cognitive skills to exert self-control, plan, and stay focused.

For us in the ASC lab, the adaptive and successful person, group, or organization will learn how to wisely balance and manage the need to connect with the need to strive, understanding that both needs rely on integrating two general classes of skills.

The ASC lab is situated at the University of Michigan and organizes research that is carried out both in the Psychology Department and the Research Center for Group Dynamics, ISR. Oscar Ybarra, Professor of Psychology, directs the lab.

Definitions

social intelligence skills: knowledge of how we judge others, awareness of cognitive and emotional biases and self-other differences in perception, willingness to approach others, ability to empathize, respect for others, and the ability to negotiate and communicate effectively.

executive cognitive skills: general cognitive resources such as working memory, inhibition, and executive attention, but also self-control skills and processes such as strategy formulation, goal definition to improve implementation, and shortfall recognition.

contact us at: oybarra@umich.edu

Copyright held by Oscar Ybarra