Interrelation Between Personal Ego-Competence and the Ability to Understand Another Person in Adolescence

Introduction. The paper presents the results of the study of interrelation between personal ego-competence (synonymous to self-competence) and the ability to understand another person in adolescence. The novelty of the research lies in its complex approach to studying the association of personal ego-competence with the following parameters of communicative abilities: personal communicative potential of the subject of cognition, understanding of another person's state by his/her nonverbal behavior, accuracy of predicting the development of an interpersonal communication situation, and self-rating of the ability to understand others. The paper investigates the levels of communicative development of young boys and girls with high and low indices of personal ego-competence, where the study participants are considered to be the subjects of interpersonal cognition. Methods. The study used the following diagnostic tools developed by V. N. Kunitsyna: (a) the Parables test; (b) the Communicative and Social Competence survey (COSCOM); (c) the technique for revealing Stability, Tolerance, and Altruism in interpersonal relations and other personality traits (STAL); (d) the survey for identifying Self-regulation and Success of Interpersonal Communication (SSIC); (e) and the Self-Appraisal test. The study also employed the Expression test, a modified version of the Expression Grouping subtest in Six Factor Test of Social Intelligence by J. Guilford and M. Sullivan, and the Sixteen Personality Factor Questionnaire (16PF). Students from Magnitogorsk State Technical University (n = 125) formed the study sample. Results. The results indicate that the parameters of personal ego-competence in adolescence have positive associations with the personal communicative potential and self-rating of the ability to understand others. No statistically significant associations were found between ego-competence and either understanding of another person's state by his/her nonverbal behavior, or accuracy of predicting the development of an interpersonal communication situation. Discussion. The findings of the study suggest that adolescents' ego-competence has ambiguous associations with particular components of the ability to understand others. Ego-competence is associated with respondents' high estimates of their ability to understand others, but is not always accompanied by success in understanding of another person's state by his/her nonverbal behavior and the accuracy of predicting the development of an interpersonal communication situation.