Social Justice Activism

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S Social
Justice Theory
memory also necessarily is involved in social intelligence;
it allows for storing and recalling social information.
This type of memory typically is
(operationalized) as a memory for name and faces
but may cover a broader range of contents (Kosmitzki
and John 1993). Social intelligence also involves social
knowledge, which involves the “procedural” social
memory associated with memory and understanding
(Weis and Süß 2007). Added to these aspects of social
memory would be the ability to deal with people and
use appropriate social techniques in interactions with
others. These more developed definitions continue to
address Thorndike’s (1920) differentiation between
a cognitive component (involving understanding social
relationships) and behavioral component (involving
the management of relationships) of social intelligence.
Despite the significance of social intelligence to
social functioning, research in this area has not developed
considerably. Nor has this area of study focused
much on the period of adolescence or considered fully
the developmental components of what would constitute
social intelligence. Rather than focus on social
intelligence itself, the study of adolescence has focused
more on related areas such as social skills, selfregulation,
and interactions with peers and family
members. These areas of research are all related closely
to social intelligence, but they do not address it directly
to develop, for example, measures that would assess
social intelligence in a way that intelligence is assessed,
which is what the field of social intelligence has
attempted to do but mainly with adults. This area of
research remains a potentially fruitful one if it would
specifically focus on adolescents and youth to understand
better the developmental roots, changes, and
nature of social intelligence.
Cross-References
▶ Emotional Intelligence
References
Kloep, M. (1999). Love is all you need? Focusing on adolescents’ life
concerns from an ecological point of view. Journal of Adolescence,
22, 49–63.
Kosmitzki, C., & John, O. (1993). The implicit use of explicit
conceptions of social intelligence. Personality and Individual
Differences, 15, 11–23.
Spear, L. P. (2000). The adolescent brain and age-related behavioral
manifestations. Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews, 24,
417–463.
Thorndike, E. (1920). Intelligence and its uses. Harper’s Magazine,
140, 227–235.
Weis, S., & Süß, H. (2007). Reviving the search for social intelligence-
A multitrait-multimethod study of its structure and construct
validity. Personality and Individual Differences, 42, 3–14.
William, D., Killgore, S., & Yurgelun-Todd, D. A. (2007). Neural
correlates of emotional intelligence in adolescent children.
Cognitive, Affective & Behavioral Neuroscience, 7, 140–151.
Social Justice Theory
SALLY M. HAGE, ERIN E. RING, MELANIE M. LANTZ
Division of Counseling Psychology, University at
Albany, Albany, NY, USA
Overview
The intent of this essay is to provide a concise overview
of the relevance and implications of social justice theory
to adolescence. To begin, a description of what is
meant by the term “social justice” is presented. Next,
the relevance of social justice theory to adolescence is
described, and relevant research addressing critical
social justice issues in adolescent populations is explicated.
Finally, future research directions and the implications
of a social justice approach to work with
adolescents are discussed.
Introduction
For several reasons, social justice theory is important to
consider in the context of adolescence. Research has
shown that the effects of social injustice are deleterious
in the adolescent population. Poverty and family dysfunction
serve as risk factors for a number of setbacks
in adolescence, including mental, emotional, and
behavioral disorders, delayed cognitive development,
and poor physical well-being (O’Connell et al. 2009).
Furthermore, these negative effects disproportionately
affect the lives of children and adolescents. The rate of
children and youth living in poverty in America has
been consistently higher than that of adults for decades,
more than 1½ times higher, and this rate continues to
increase. For example, the percentage of adolescent
children (ages 12–17) living in low-income families
increased from 33% in 2000 to 36% in 2008 (Wight
and Chau 2009).