PECULIARITIES OF THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN ANXIETY AND SOCIAL INTELLIGENCE OF STUDENTS

Social intelligence is a very important factor in the formation of students‟ professionalism as it helps them understand themselves, provides the proper understanding of other people‟s acts, their verbal and non-verbal reactions, and is a significant cognitive component of the personality‟s communicative skills structure. It is social intelligence which provides the processes of social cognition, helps to predict the development of interpersonal relations, intensifies intuition, foresight, and provides the successful training of students. Although, it should be noted that there are factors which can decrease their working capacity and cause difficulties in communication and relations. One of these factors is anxiety as a significant personal quality, which explains the topicality of the research. The structural components of the concepts of social intelligence and anxiety were compared in the study. The survey was carried out in Kherson State University in 2015-2016 academic year, and involved 205 students aged from 19 to 23 who were divided into three groups according to their major (humanities, natural sciences, as well as physical and mathematical area). The following methods were used: The State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) by Charles Spielberg adopted by Yu. Khanin, The Taylor Manifest Anxiety Scale (by Janet Taylor) adopted by V. Norakidze, Social Intelligence Research by J. Gillford and M. Salliven. Significant correlations have been revealed in the group of students majoring in physics and mathematics, which shows that they dominate over other groups of students in terms of the correlation between the level of anxiety and social intelligence. According to the research results, the integrative systems of cognitive and emotional activity of psyche, which control communication processes and social behavior, depend on person‟s psycho-emotional state. Anxiety as a complex psychic phenomenon is manifested as a constructive or destructive factor of personality‟s behavior in the society. According to the research results, there is a relationship between social intelligence and anxiety level. The excessive level of anxiety manifested as general social disorganization prevents the normal development and productive interaction in the society. It should be noted that the decrease of anxiety at all levels of its activity can cause its stabilization, which in turn will provide the efficient functioning of all indicators of social intelligence.