1. Abstract
The Tromso Social Intelligence Scale (TSIS) is a widely utilized self-report psychometric instrument developed by David H. Silvera, Monica Martinussen, and Tove I. Dahl (2001) at the University of Tromsø, Norway. Designed to operationalize and measure human social intelligence as a multifaceted construct distinct from traditional general cognitive ability (g factor) and basic personality traits, the instrument comprises 21 items distributed evenly across three psychometrically validated subscales: Social Information Processing (SP), Social Skills (SS), and Social Awareness (SA). Respondents rate each item on a 7-point Likert-type scale ranging from 1 (“Describes me extremely poorly”) to 7 (“Describes me extremely well”). Confirmatory factor analyses in both original Norwegian samples and subsequent international cross-cultural validations demonstrate robust structural validity, showing that a three-factor oblique model consistently outperforms alternative unidimensional or orthogonal configurations. The instrument demonstrates solid internal consistency reliability, with Cronbach’s alpha coefficients reported across international studies typically ranging between .79 and .86 for Social Skills, .74 and .81 for Social Information Processing, and .68 and .78 for Social Awareness. The TSIS has become a primary measurement tool in social, personality, clinical, educational, and organizational psychology, providing researchers and practitioners with an empirically sound framework for evaluating cognitive, behavioral, and perceptual dimensions of interpersonal functioning.
2. Keywords
Tromso Social Intelligence Scale, TSIS, social intelligence, social information processing, social skills, social awareness, psychometrics, interpersonal competence, structural equation modeling, David Silvera
3. Authors
The TSIS was developed and standardized by faculty members and researchers in the Department of Psychology at the University of Tromsø (UiT The Arctic University of Norway), located in Tromsø, Norway:
- David H. Silvera, Ph.D. — Professor of Business Administration and Marketing, previously Associate Professor of Psychology at the University of Tromsø; recognized for his research in consumer psychology, social cognition, and psychometrics.
- Monica Martinussen, Ph.D. — Professor at the Regional Centre for Child and Youth Mental Health and Child Welfare (RKBU North), UiT The Arctic University of Norway; specialist in psychometrics, organizational psychology, and child clinical psychology.
- Tove I. Dahl, Ph.D. — Professor of Psychology, Department of Psychology, Faculty of Health Sciences, UiT The Arctic University of Norway; scholar specializing in educational psychology, interest and motivation, and social-cognitive development.
4. Purpose
The primary purpose of the Tromso Social Intelligence Scale is to provide a theoretically grounded, psychometrically sound, and easily administrable self-report tool to measure individual differences in social intelligence. Historically, although Edward L. Thorndike (1920) introduced the concept of social intelligence as the ability to understand and manage men and women and act wisely in human relations, early psychometric efforts (such as the George Washington Social Intelligence Test) suffered from severe methodological limitations. Most notably, early tests demonstrated excessive collinearity with academic intelligence and verbal reasoning tests, failing to establish adequate discriminant validity.
Silvera, Martinussen, and Dahl (2001) formulated the TSIS to overcome these historical pitfalls by decomposing social intelligence into distinct cognitive, behavioral, and perceptual-monitoring facets. The purpose of this tripartite conceptualization is threefold:
- Basic Research Applications: The TSIS allows social and differential psychologists to examine how social intelligence functions independently of general intelligence (IQ) and standard personality dimensions such as the Big Five personality traits (Extraversion, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, Neuroticism, and Openness to Experience).
- Organizational and Leadership Contexts: In industrial and organizational psychology, the scale assesses communication competencies, managerial potential, transformational leadership capabilities, teamwork effectiveness, and occupational success in interpersonal roles such as negotiation, management, and client relations.
- Clinical and Counseling Utility: Clinicians and counselors use the instrument to identify specific social-cognitive deficits associated with social anxiety disorder, avoidant personality traits, autism spectrum conditions, and interpersonal difficulties. By diagnosing whether a client’s deficits lie in decoding nonverbal cues (Social Information Processing), executing adaptive behaviors (Social Skills), or recognizing unexpected reactions from others (Social Awareness), practitioners can tailor evidence-based social skills interventions and cognitive-behavioral therapies.
5. Psychological Construct
The TSIS operationalizes social intelligence through three interrelated, yet empirically separable, latent psychological constructs:
Social Information Processing (SP)
This subscale (items 1, 3, 6, 9, 14, 17, and 19) measures an individual’s cognitive capacity to decode, interpret, and anticipate the internal psychological states, implicit intentions, and behaviors of others. Rooted in cognitive social psychology and Theory of Mind, this dimension emphasizes mentalizing ability: reading between the lines, extracting meaning from facial expressions, body language, and paralinguistic cues, and understanding the covert goals driving interpersonal interactions. High scorers report superior abilities to accurately predict how others will react to specific actions and perceive hidden interpersonal motives before they are overtly articulated.
Social Skills (SS)
This subscale (items 4, 7, 10, 12, 15, 18, and 20) captures behavioral competence, behavioral adaptability, and interpersonal self-efficacy in social environments. While Social Information Processing represents an internal, cognitive-interpretive capability, Social Skills represent overt, outward behavioral execution. This dimension measures the ease with which an individual enters new social environments, initiates and sustains engaging conversations, navigates social etiquette, establishes rapport with unfamiliar individuals, and avoids social friction. High scores indicate fluent behavioral execution, social agility, and comfort across diverse interpersonal contexts.
Social Awareness (SA)
This subscale (items 2, 5, 8, 11, 13, 16, and 21) evaluates the extent to which an individual remains attuned to feedback, recognizes social faux pas, and maintains insight into the consequences of their interpersonal conduct. All seven items in this subscale are framed negatively (reverse-scored) and capture interpersonal blind spots, feelings of social confusion, chronic surprise at how others react, and difficulty understanding why others become irritated or angry. Individuals with high social awareness accurately track social feedback loops in real time, avoiding unintended offenses, whereas individuals with low social awareness frequently find other people unpredictable and experience unexpected social alienation without comprehending the underlying causes.
6. Theoretical Framework
The conceptual foundation of the TSIS draws upon nearly a century of psychological theory concerning interpersonal cognition and adaptive social behavior:
Thorndike’s Classical Typology of Intelligences
Edward Thorndike (1920) posited that human intelligence is divided into three major categories: mechanical intelligence (the ability to manage and manipulate concrete objects), abstract intelligence (the capacity to understand and process verbal, mathematical, and symbolic concepts), and social intelligence (the ability to understand and wisely navigate interpersonal interactions). Thorndike argued that social intelligence represents a distinct cognitive and behavioral faculty that cannot be deduced purely from academic competence.
Cantor and Kihlstrom’s Cognitive Theory of Social Intelligence
In the late 1980s, Nancy Cantor and John F. Kihlstrom re-conceptualized social intelligence within a contemporary cognitive psychology framework. They defined social intelligence as an organized repository of declarative knowledge (concepts, episodic memories, scripts, and person schemas) and procedural knowledge (skills, rules, and computational strategies) used to solve everyday interpersonal problems. Silvera and colleagues integrated this model into the TSIS by distinguishing between the structural acquisition/processing of social data (represented by the Social Information Processing dimension) and the procedural application of this knowledge in living contexts (represented by the Social Skills dimension).
Sternberg’s Triarchic Theory of Intelligence
Robert J. Sternberg’s Triarchic Theory posits that intelligence comprises analytical, creative, and practical facets. Practical intelligence entails adapting to, shaping, and selecting real-world environments. The TSIS adopts this perspective by positing that social intelligence is an expression of contextual, practical intelligence applied directly to the human social matrix.
Distinction from Emotional Intelligence (EI)
Although social intelligence overlaps conceptually with emotional intelligence, theorists such as Mayer, Salovey, and Caruso (2000) have noted key differences. While emotional intelligence focuses specifically on identifying, utilizing, understanding, and regulating emotions, social intelligence encompasses a broader range of non-emotional social phenomena, including power dynamics, role expectations, strategic motivations, negotiation, conversation structuring, and group coalition building.
7. Validity
Extensive psychometric investigations have supported the construct, convergent, discriminant, and criterion-related validity of the TSIS across diverse populations and cultural settings.
Construct and Factorial Validity
In their seminal study involving 376 Norwegian university students, Silvera et al. (2001) conducted exploratory factor analysis (EFA) using principal axis factoring with promax rotation, followed by confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). The three-factor model yielded satisfactory fit indices (Goodness of Fit Index [GFI] = .90, Adjusted Goodness of Fit Index [AGFI] = .88, Root Mean Square Error of Approximation [RMSEA] = .057), outperforming single-factor and two-factor alternatives. Later structural evaluations across American, Turkish (Doğan & Çetin, 2009), Italian (Gana et al., 2023), Polish, and Chinese samples corroborated this three-dimensional structure.
Convergent Validity
The TSIS exhibits meaningful convergent associations with established psychological instruments:
- Empathy: Positive correlations have been documented between the TSIS Social Information Processing subscale and Davis’s Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI) subscales, particularly Perspective Taking ($r = .45$ to $.55$) and Empathic Concern ($r = .30$ to $.40$).
- Extraversion: The Social Skills subscale correlates moderately to strongly with Big Five Extraversion ($r = .50$ to $.65$), confirming that high social self-efficacy aligns with behavioral sociability and assertiveness.
- Agreeableness: Social Awareness and Social Information Processing correlate positively with Agreeableness ($r = .30$ to $.42$), indicating that socially perceptive individuals tend to value cooperative interpersonal interactions.
Discriminant Validity
Crucially for social intelligence measures, the TSIS demonstrates clear discriminant separation from general academic ability. Silvera et al. (2001) reported near-zero correlations between the TSIS subscales and high school grade point averages (GPAs) ($r = -.02$ to $.08$), confirming that the scale is not an indirect measure of academic cognitive capacity. Furthermore, the subscales correlate negatively or near zero with Neuroticism, with the exception of Social Awareness, which exhibits moderate inverse correlations with Neuroticism due to its focus on social friction and anxiety.
Predictive and Criterion Validity
Studies examining leadership emergence and managerial performance (e.g., Condon, 2011) have demonstrated that the TSIS Social Information Processing and Social Skills subscales account for unique variance in leadership effectiveness ratings above and beyond general cognitive tests and personality measures. In clinical contexts, low scores on the TSIS consistently predict high scores on the Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale and objective deficits in nonverbal decoding accuracy.
8. Reliability
The TSIS demonstrates strong reliability across diverse empirical studies, including evaluations of internal consistency and temporal stability.
Internal Consistency
In the original validation study by Silvera et al. (2001), Cronbach’s alpha coefficients for the three subscales were:
- Social Skills: $\alpha = .85$
- Social Information Processing: $\alpha = .79$
- Social Awareness: $\alpha = .72$
Subsequent international validation studies have shown comparable internal consistency estimates:
- In a Turkish adaptation study involving 432 university students, Doğan and Çetin (2009) reported Cronbach’s alpha values of $.83$ for Social Skills, $.77$ for Social Information Processing, and $.71$ for Social Awareness.
- In a French validation study by Gana et al. (2023), composite reliability indices ($
ho$) ranged between$.74$ and $.84$ across subscales. - Item-total correlations across studies consistently exceed the recommended psychometric threshold of $.30$, with most items demonstrating correlations between $.42$ and $.68$ with their respective subscale totals.
Test-Retest Stability
Temporal stability evaluations demonstrate that the TSIS measures stable social-cognitive traits rather than transient mood states. In an assessment of test-retest reliability over a four-week interval (Silvera et al., 2001), test-retest correlation coefficients ($r_{tt}$) were $.81$ for Social Skills, $.78$ for Social Information Processing, and $.73$ for Social Awareness, confirming the longitudinal stability of the instrument.
9. Factor Analysis
The factor structure of the TSIS has been rigorously tested using exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) across numerous independent empirical investigations.
Exploratory Factor Structure
During scale construction, Silvera et al. (2001) began with an initial pool of items derived from existing social competence literature. Principal axis factoring with oblique (promax) rotation produced a three-factor solution based on the scree test and eigenvalues exceeding 1.0. The three extracted factors accounted for approximately 43.8% of the total variance. Factor loadings for retained items were high and cleanly demarcated:
- Social Skills items loaded between $.52$ and $.79$ on their primary factor, with minimal cross-loadings ($< .20$).
- Social Information Processing items loaded between $.48$ and $.76$ on their primary factor.
- Social Awareness items loaded between $.41$ and $.71$ on their target factor.
Confirmatory Factor Analysis and Model Fit
Confirmatory factor analyses across international studies consistently demonstrate that the theoretical three-factor oblique model provides an acceptable fit to empirical data. Typical fit indices across independent validation cohorts (e.g., Doğan & Çetin, 2009; Gana et al., 2023) satisfy modern structural equation modeling criteria:
- Chi-Square / Degrees of Freedom Ratio ($\chi^2/df$): Values typically range between $1.65$ and $2.45$, well below the conservative cutoff of $3.0$.
- Comparative Fit Index (CFI): Ranges between $.91$ and $.95$.
- Tucker-Lewis Index (TLI): Ranges between $.90$ and $.94$.
- Root Mean Square Error of Approximation (RMSEA): Estimates consistently fall between $.045$ and $.062$ (with 90% confidence intervals spanning $.038$ to $.071$).
- Standardized Root Mean Square Residual (SRMR): Values remain below $.060$.
Competing models, including a unidimensional general social intelligence factor model and a two-factor model (collapsing cognitive processing and awareness into a single cognitive factor), yield poor fit indices (CFI $< .75$, RMSEA $> .11$), confirming that the three dimensions represent empirically non-redundant constructs.
10. Instrument / Measurement Tool
- Name of Instrument: Tromso Social Intelligence Scale (TSIS)
- Scale Authors: David H. Silvera, Monica Martinussen, and Tove I. Dahl (2001)
- Construct Assessed: Social Intelligence across three distinct dimensions (Social Information Processing, Social Skills, and Social Awareness)
- Instrument Type: Self-report questionnaire / psychometric rating scale
- Administration Time: Approximately 5 to 10 minutes
- Target Population: Adolescents, university students, and adult populations across non-clinical, clinical, and organizational settings
- Number of Items: 21 items
- Response Scale: 7-point Likert-type scale:
- 1 = Describes me extremely poorly
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
- 6
- 7 = Describes me extremely well
- Subscale Allocation:
- Social Information Processing (SP) (7 items): Items 1, 3, 6, 9, 14, 17, 19
- Social Skills (SS) (7 items): Items 4, 7, 10, 12, 15, 18, 20
- Social Awareness (SA) (7 items): Items 2, 5, 8, 11, 13, 16, 21
- Scoring and Reverse Coding Instructions:
- A total of 11 items are reverse-coded. The score for each reverse item is calculated as: $\text{New Score} = 8 – \text{Original Score}$.
- Social Awareness: All 7 items are reverse-scored (Items 2, 5, 8, 11, 13, 16, and 21).
- Social Skills: 4 items are reverse-scored (Items 4, 12, 15, and 20). Items 7, 10, and 18 are scored directly.
- Social Information Processing: All 7 items are scored directly (Items 1, 3, 6, 9, 14, 17, and 19).
- Subscale scores are derived by summing the (recoded) items within each subscale (yielding a score range of 7 to 49 per subscale) or by calculating the arithmetic mean (range 1 to 7).
11. Permissions & Fee and Test Year
The Tromso Social Intelligence Scale was originally published in 2001 in the Scandinavian Journal of Psychology. In accordance with the academic dissemination model used by the authors, the scale items were published directly within the seminal peer-reviewed validation paper. The instrument is considered an open-access assessment tool for academic, scientific, and non-commercial educational research purposes without licensing fees. Researchers wishing to employ the TSIS in empirical studies are free to administer the scale, provided appropriate academic attribution is given to Silvera, Martinussen, and Dahl (2001). Commercial implementations, corporate pre-employment testing batteries, or profit-generating clinical software integrations may require permission from the copyright-holding publisher (John Wiley & Sons / Nordic Psychological Associations) or the corresponding authors.
12. References
- Cantor, N., & Kihlstrom, J. F. (1987). Personality and social intelligence. Prentice-Hall, Inc.
- Condon, R. J. (2011). The relationship between self-awareness and leadership: Extending measurement and conceptualisation (Master’s thesis, University of Canterbury). UC Research Repository. https://ir.canterbury.ac.nz/handle/10092/5185
- Doğan, T., & Çetin, B. (2009). The validity and reliability of the Turkish version of the Tromso Social Intelligence Scale. Educational Sciences: Theory & Practice, 9(2), 709–717.
- Gana, K., Saada, Y., Untas, A., & Koleck, M. (2023). Psychometric evaluation of the French version of the Tromsø Social Intelligence Scale. Current Psychology, 42(15), 12789–12801. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-021-02604-w
- Mayer, J. D., Salovey, P., & Caruso, D. R. (2000). Models of emotional intelligence. In R. J. Sternberg (Ed.), Handbook of intelligence (pp. 396–420). Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511807947.019
- Silvera, D., Martinussen, M., & Dahl, T. I. (2001). The Tromso Social Intelligence Scale, a self-report measure of social intelligence. Scandinavian Journal of Psychology, 42(4), 313–319. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9450.00242
- Sternberg, R. J. (1985). Beyond IQ: A triarchic theory of human intelligence. Cambridge University Press.
- Thorndike, E. L. (1920). Intelligence and its use. Harper’s Magazine, 140, 227–235.