Social Skills

Question 0

What is social competence?

Answer 0

• ability to elicit positive social responses and avoid negative ones in a variety of contexts
• have a repertoire of socially appropriate behaviour and cognitive capacity to use them
• self regulation/monitoring, affect regulation
• have social opportunities, modelling

Question 1

What can result from poor social skills/relationships?

Answer 1

Various psychopathology including: depression, conduct disorder, social phobia, ADHD, LD, ASD, early onset schizophrenia.

Question 2

What is friendship? What are its benefits?

Answer 2

• partnerships, mutual activities, help, trust, support

- benefits: enhance social status, increase sense of belonging, increase self esteem

Question 3

What is observed in peer relations of preschoolers?

Answer 3

• focus on shared activities, pretend play
• better in pairs
• practice social skills, short and unstable relationships with frequent fighting
• successful: sustain attention, positive affect, willing to participate
• unsuccessful: don’t recognize others, don’t want to play

Question 4

What is observed in peer relations of middle childhood?

Answer 4

• focus: shared activities, groups, exclusive relationships
• lots of activities with rules
• more stability of friendships (best friends)
• less contextually bound (not stuck at daycare, school)
• behavioural expectations begin to emerge
• gossip (not a bad thing- reference someone not present)
• successful: friendly/helpful/supportive
• unsuccessful: aggressive/disruptive, poor sport, immature, dependent

Question 5

What is observed in peer relations of adolescence?

Answer 5

• focus: communication/self disclosure, reciprocity, increased social awareness and acceptance
• conflict around relational issues, rivalry
• spend almost 2/3rds of waking hours with peers
• successful: sensitive to norms, associate with similar peers
• unsuccessful: social withdrawal, exclusion, breaking norms, deviant groups?

Question 6

What is Berndts Support Model for adolescent relations?

Answer 6

Friends provide 4 types of support:

• informational
• instrumental
• companionship
• esteem

Question 7

What is sociometric status?

Answer 7

Whether or not a child is liked.

• rating or nomination
• popular, rejected, neglected, controversial, average (most common)
• tells nothing of quality of relationship

Question 8

What factors are assessed for quality of friendship?

Answer 8

• frequency and intensity of “good friend” behaviours
• affection
• intimacy
• benevolence
• trust

Question 9

What are the two largest influences on a child’s social functioning?

Answer 9

• family influences (discipline, attachment, parental behaviours)
• social cognitions (deficiencies in functioning, impulse control, attention, distorted social info processing)

Question 10

What is Social Skills Training?

Answer 10

• instructions, modelling, rehearsal, feedback/reinforcement, interpersonal problem solving
• reduce inhibiting and competing behaviours
• ex Skillstreaming