Social Skills Training

This book is a theoretical and practical guide in the field of social skills and social competence, based on decades of experience gained by the authors as researchers and professionals in psychology. The book was written for students and professionals who are involved in some way improving individuals´ social skills in different contexts, such as clinical, educational, organizational and community settings. The authors present the conceptual foundations, procedures, techniques, strategies and practical guidelines for planning and conducting effective programs aimed to social skills and social competence.
In the first part of the book, key concepts and fundamentals on the area are presented, as well as the basic behavioral classes of social skills and their non-verbal and paralinguistic components. The authors also propose a portfolio for the assessment of clients’ social skills deficits and strengths to thereby define the aims and procedures of interventions.

The second part focuses on guidelines to select and use procedures and techniques for promoting social skills and social competence. The authors present experiential activities that they created in previous interventions and that were tested in their research, showing evidence of effectiveness. Suggestions on how to evaluate participants’ repertoires and how to use these ideas in intervention planning are also described.

Finally, in the third part of the book, the authors go further presenting practical guidelines for planning and conducting programs and sessions to promote social skills and social competence, in either group or individual settings.

jimenez c., navia-osorio p.m. & diaz c.v. (2010) Stress and health in novice and experienced nursing students. Journal of Advanced Nursing66(2), 442–455.jimenez c., navia-osorio p.m. & diaz c.v. (2010) Stress and health in novice and experienced nursing students. Journal of Advanced Nursing66(2), 442–455.AbstractTitle. Stress and health in novice and experienced nursing studentsAim.  This paper is a report of a study conducted to identify the differences in novice and experienced nursing students’ reports of stress and health.Background.  Stress from clinical practice and its impact are international yet culturally mediated phenomena. Nursing students are under considerable stress during clinical practice periods, putting their education and health at risk. However, there is little or no empirical evidence about the stress suffered by nursing students and its impact on their health throughout clinical practice.Methods.  We performed cross-sectional research using standard information gathering tools. This study was carried out with 357 students from all 3 years of a nursing diploma programme at a Spanish nursing college (71% response rate). The data were collected over an 8-month period in 2004–2005.Findings.  We identified three types of stressors (clinical, academic and external) and two categories of symptoms (physiological and psychological) linked to clinical practice. Factor analysis identified six major sources of stress and six important symptoms. Students perceived clinical stressors more intensely than academic and external stressors, and showed psychological symptoms more frequently than physiological symptoms. Nursing students from all 3 years perceived moderate stress at similar levels. Experienced students perceived more academic stressors than novices. Although the students were healthy, second year students were the most vulnerable to somatic and psychic anxiety, and common symptoms.Conclusion.  We suggest informing students about possible stressors associated with their profession, and introducing interventions to support development of professionalism, social skills and coping capacity for clinical practice.Title. Stress and health in novice and experienced nursing studentsAim.  This paper is a report of a study conducted to identify the differences in novice and experienced nursing students’ reports of stress and health.Background.  Stress from clinical practice and its impact are international yet culturally mediated phenomena. Nursing students are under considerable stress during clinical practice periods, putting their education and health at risk. However, there is little or no empirical evidence about the stress suffered by nursing students and its impact on their health throughout clinical practice.Methods.  We performed cross-sectional research using standard information gathering tools. This study was carried out with 357 students from all 3 years of a nursing diploma programme at a Spanish nursing college (71% response rate). The data were collected over an 8-month period in 2004–2005.Findings.  We identified three types of stressors (clinical, academic and external) and two categories of symptoms (physiological and psychological) linked to clinical practice. Factor analysis identified six major sources of stress and six important symptoms. Students perceived clinical stressors more intensely than academic and external stressors, and showed psychological symptoms more frequently than physiological symptoms. Nursing students from all 3 years perceived moderate stress at similar levels. Experienced students perceived more academic stressors than novices. Although the students were healthy, second year students were the most vulnerable to somatic and psychic anxiety, and common symptoms.Conclusion.  We suggest informing students about possible stressors associated with their profession, and introducing interventions to support development of professionalism, social skills and coping capacity for clinical practice.

Studies have highlighted the difficulty of conducting interventions with parents when what motivates
them to seek therapy is a behavioral problem of a child. As a way of preventing and treating this
complaint an intervention procedure was prepared and applied with school children, with the aim of promoting better social interactions between the children and their peers. The aim of the study was to verify whether the social skills learned by the children during the intervention were generalized for the school and family environments. A total of 7 children participated in the study, who were enrolled in the second year of elementary school and presented behavioral problems at a clinical
level in the school and family environments. To evaluate the results the following instruments were used: CBCL, TRF, SSRQ-parents, SSRQ-teachers, RE-SHE-P, and an observation protocol. The intervention procedure had a duration of 8 sessions in which the teaching of social skills was performed, the themes of which were: To greet, to initiate conversations and civility; to thank, to say
good things and express opinions; to make friends, to help, play and share things; to wait their turn
and control themselves; to make, answer requests and to thank; to name feelings and empathy; to
compliment, kiss and hug; to admit mistakes, apologize and listen to criticism. The results indicated
that, based on the reports of the parents and teachers, there were improvements in the behavior of
the children, although not to the point of leaving the clinical level, however, from the observation protocol the parents and children presented a high frequency of skilled behaviors and a low frequency of unskilled behaviors.

The aim of this study is to determine whether a social skill instruction program, prepared according to the cooperative learning method, is effective for children with hearing disability in learning the basic social skills, starting and continuing a relationship, conducting a work with a group, and the generalization of these skills. Nine learning groups, that is, three groups for each three different skills, are formed because the three target social skills should be applied on different students. To determine the teaching efficiency, multiple probe model with probe conditions across subject is used. Result showed that this program is affective for hearing impaired students who can learn some social skills.

The video-game industry has become a significant force in the business and entertainment world. Video games have become so widespread and pervasive that they are now considered a part of the mass media, a common method of storytelling and representation. Despite the massive popularity of video games, their increasing variety, and the diversification of the player base, until very recently little attention was devoted to understanding how playing video games affects the way people think and collaborate across cultures. This paper examines the recent literature regarding the impact of video games on players from an intercultural perspective. Sixty-two studies are identified whose aim is to analyze behavioral-change, content understanding, knowledge acquisition, and perceptional impacts. Their findings suggest that video games have the potential to help to acquire cultural knowledge and develop intercultural literacy, socio-cultural literacy, cultural awareness, self-awareness, and the cultural understanding of different geopolitical spaces, to reinforce or weaken stereotypes, and to some extent also facilitate the development of intercultural skills. The paper provides valuable insights to the scholars, teachers, and practitioners of cultural studies, education, social studies, as well as to the researchers, pointing out areas for future research.

Del Prette, Z. A. P., & Del Prette, A. (2000). Treinamento em habilidades sociais: Panorama geral da área. In: Haase, V. G., Rothe-Neves, R. C. Käppler, Teodoro, M. L. M., & Wood, G. M. O. (Eds.), Psicologia do Desenvolvimento: Contribuições Interdisciplinares (pp. 249-264). Belo Horizonte: Health.

ABSTRACT. This paper presents a general introduction to the theoretical and practical field of social skills, based in texts that explicate some aspects of its constitution, the main concepts, the predominant approaches and the procedures to evaluate and to enhance the social skills repertoire. The analysis points to the lack of a conceptual framework integrating the contributions of those approaches and indicates some research and practical directions in this area, emphasizing its importance to Psychology and Education. Key-words: Social skills, social competence, Clinical Psychology, Clinical Psychology, Developmental Psychology, Education.

RESUMO: Este artigo apresenta uma introdução geral ao campo teórico-prático das habilidades sociais, através de uma revisão de textos que permitem explicitar aspectos de sua constituição, os principais conceitos, as abordagens predominantes e os procedimentos de avaliação e de promoção do repertório de habilidades sociais. A análise aponta para a falta de um referencial conceitual que integre as contribuições daquelas abordagens e indica algumas direções de pesquisa e de atuação na área, enfatizando a sua relevância para a Psicologia e para a Educação. Palavras-chave: Habilidades sociais, competência social, Psicologia Clínica, Psicologia Social, Psicologia do Desenvolvimento, Educação.

The main issue of this article is the cause of development and growing of social skills within the teaching and learning process in formal education using a series of teaching techniques. The common and profound social and political upheavals create new contexts for a man's social and political adaptation. As a part of this social context, the school is decisively affected by all these changes. However, as one of the most dominant institutions for the socialization of a young person and aiming to his multifacing development, the school needs to prepare him to be capable to manage his social interaction and adjustment factors and to help him adapt and be active citizen in the future social context. This paper attempts to contribute to this effort, by providing an additional asset to the teachers, aiming to the development and growing of social skills to the students of today and the citizens of tomorrow.

RESUMEN. Las profesiones que se dan a través de relaciones interpersonales requieren unaactuación social competente que puede ser decisivo para el éxito profesional. Estetrabajo presenta un «Programa de Desenvolvimiento Interpersonal Profesional» (PRODIP) que tuve el objetivo de desarrollar habilidades interpersonales relaciona-das con el ejercicio de la Psicología. El grupo PRODIP (trece alumnos) y un grupode control (23 alumnos) fueron evaluados al inicio y al final de una intervenciónorganizada en dos módulos con quince horas cada uno. El primer fue teórico/in-formativo a través de discusiones y clases expositivas. El según fue práctico/vivenciala través de un entrenamiento grupal, con dos sesiones semanales de aproximada-mente una hora y media cada una, aplicándose procedimientos y técnicas de en-trenamiento comportamental, reducción de ansiedad, reestructuración cognitiva ysolución de problemas. Los resultados evidenciaron la adquisición de habilidadessociales en el grupo PRODIP, con diferencias significativas del grupo de control. Sediscuten cuestiones prácticas y de investigación relativas a la formación del psicó-logo y a las posibilidades de aplicación del campo de las habilidades sociales. PALABRAS CLAVE: Habilidades sociales, competencia social, formación del psicólogo.

ABSTRACT. «Human services professions» that involve interpersonal interactions require arepertoire of effective social skills to achieve success. This study presents aProfessional Interpersonal Development Intervention Program [Programa de Des-envolvimiento Interpersonal Profesional - PRODIP] aimed to improve someinterpersonal skills that are directly or indirectly related to the requirements of apsychologist. The PRODIP group and a control one (13 and 23 Psychologyundergraduates) were evaluated at the beginning and at the end of the interventionperiod, arranged in two 20-hour blocks. The first block was theoretical/informative  with lectures and student seminars. The second, practical, was accomplished inbiweekly behavioral training sessions, each lasting an hour and half. These sessionswere conducted in a structured group setting using cognitive and behavioraltechniques. The results showed a statistically significant improvement in the socialskills of the PRODIP group and no change in the social skills of the control group.Practical and research questions concerning the education of psychologists are raisedand the potential applicability of social skills training to other contexts is discussed.KEY WORDS: Social skills, social competence, educational psychologist.

Young people attending schools face numerous social-emotional challenges requiring the development of social-emotional capabilities and skills (SECS) in schools.  This review examines how Outdoor Education and Recreation (OER) could be a viable option for inclusion in school curricula to aid in the development of SECS. In this narrative literature review, empirical studies were identified, summarised and synthesised to understand the extent to which the literature presents OER as an effective means to aide in the development of SECS for young people. While there were inherent limitations identified within the papers, overall the evidence indicates that OER has substantial practical potential to develop SECS in young people, in a range of different contexts and among young people from varying demographics. Consequently, this review calls for further research to address limitations within the literature and supports the implementation of OER in schools to assist in building SECS in young individuals.

Internship report, developed in the mental health field in Mental Health Hospital of Acre - Hosmac, located in the district Sobral. This is about a case study of a female patient aged 32 who is institutionalized for 15 years in a mental health institution, HOSMAC, without contact with the family until 2014 of and with definitive labor disability.

Este trabajo describe y presenta los resultados de un programa de intervención psicopedagógica cuyo objetivo fue mejorar la autoestima y de las habilidades sociales de una adolescente de 12 años que cursa 1.º de ESO y que sufrió un episodio de acoso escolar en un instituto de la ciudad de Alicante. El programa estuvo compuesto por 5 sesiones de 60 minutos en las que se pretendió dotar a la alumna de herramientas para mejorar su autoconcepto y la valoración de sus características personales, cambiar su patrón de pensamiento negativo por otro positivo, adquirir asertividad y conciencia sobre sus propios derechos para que pueda defenderlos, identificar las situaciones en las que se vulneren y enseñarle estrategias que mejoren su comunicación interpersonal. La eficacia del programa, que duró 2 meses, se evalúa comparando los resultados de los pretests y los postests (Escala de Autoestima de Rosenberg y Escala de Habilidades Sociales de Gismero), a través de la observación del profesorado y de los padres de la estudiante y de la satisfacción reportada por ésta tras la intervención. Los resultados indican que el programa se mostró eficaz, puesto que la alumna presenta evidentes mejoras en su patrón de pensamiento, autoestima, conducta asertiva, comunicación y relaciones interpersonales, estado de ánimo y en su rendimiento académico.

RESUMEN. Este ensayo examina la cuestión de las prácticas psicológicas basadas en la evidencia en lo que se refere a programas de Entrenamiento en Habilidades Sociales (EHS) y, de manera más específica, los programas vivenciales propuestos
y testados por los autores en los últimos años. En la primera parte, se discuten los diferentes modelos de programas de EHS y se presentan las principales características del modelo vivencial: uso de vivencias como contexto y apoyo a los  procedimientos y técnicas conductuales; base conceptual fundamentada en las dimensiones éticas e instrumentales de la competencia social; énfasis en la promoción de las habilidades mediadoras o de proceso; énfasis en la variabilidad de la conducta; exposición y sensibilidad a las contingencias; enseñanza del análisis funcional y auto-monitoreo; inclusión del modo genérico en el procedimiento de tareas para casa. Al término, se presentan algunas características de los programas de EHS realizados en Brasil, con evidencias de efectividad, indicándose nuevas cuestiones para investigaciones futuras.  Palabras clave: habilidades sociales, vivencias, prácticas psicológicas basadas en evidencia, competencial social, ética, sensibilidad a las contingencias.

ABSTRACT. This essay examines the question of the evidence based psychological practices applied to the Social Skills Training (SST) programs and, more speciFIcally, the experiential SST programs, as proposed and tested by the authors in the last years. First, we discuss the different models of SST programs. Then, we present the main characteristics of the experi-ential method, which are: structured situations of experiential training as the context and the support to apply behavioral  procedures and techniques; conceptual base directed by both the instrumental and the ethical dimensions of the social competence; emphasis on the promotion of intermediary process skills; focus on the behavior variability; exposition and sensibility to the environment contingencies; functional analysis and self-monitory as supplementary goals; inclusion of generic task in the procedure of home tasks. Finally, we present some characteristics of the experiential SST programs driven in Brazil with evidences of effectiveness, as well as new questions for future research.  Key words: social skills, experiential methods, evidence based practices, social competence, ethics, sensibility to the contingencies.

Bez obzira šta mi činili, drugi ljudi nam mogu prouzrokovati problem za problemom. Mnogi od nas imaju uvjerenje da je život sa međuljudskim problemima dan za danom nezdrav i neprirodan način života. Nije tako! Drugi ljudi i život pred nas neprekidno postavljaju probleme. To je potpuno prirodno. Pa ipak, veoma često možete osjećati da vaši međuljudski odnosi i ovaj život sa tolikim problemima u tim odnosima nije vrijedan življenja. Većina ljudi razvije ovakvo samoodmažuće uvjerenje. Ali to nije rezultat toga što imamo probleme u našim odnosima sa drugim ljudima, već je rezultat naše neadekvatnosti u izlaženju na kraj sa našim problemima i sa ljudima koji ih predstavljaju. Medjutim, ne samo da je prirodno da očekujemo da ćemo imati probleme u odnosima sa ljudima, već je prirodno i očekivati da mi svi imamo sposobnost da se sa njima adekvatno nosimo. Naši preci su se razvili i preživjeli, ne uprkos problemima, već zahvaljujući njima!

Ovaj priručnik predstavlja kompilaciju radova različitih autora koji su se bavili teorijom i tehnikama asertivnog treninga i mojih ličnih iskustava iz privatne psihološke prakse u primjeni ove kognitivno-bihejvioralne metode. Asertivnost podrazumijeva izražavanje sopstvenih misli, osjećanja i uvjerenja, na direktan, iskren i adekvatan način koji uvažava prava drugih ljudi. Priručnik je namjenjen za internu upotrebu klijenata „Savjetovanja Krnetić,” radi lakšeg razumjevanja asertivnih prava i efikasnijeg ovladavanja asertivnim vještinama.

Prvi dio odnosi se na opis i kratko objašnjenje ljudske asertivnosti i neasertivnosti, a drugi na objašnjenje asertivnih prava. Treći dio pruža detaljan opis asertivnog treninga, od vježbanja asertivnih vještina tokom individualnih savjetodavnih razgovora ili grupnih treninga, do njihove upotrebe u svakodnevnim životnim situacijama. Priručnik je u prvom redu namjenjen praktikovanju (a ne teorijskom razmatranju) asertivnog razmišljanja i ponašanja. Zbog toga je naglasak upravo na trećem djelu koji je najobimniji i potkrepljen velikim brojem primjera.

Na kraju priručnika nalazi se dodatak „Kako biti asertivan sa asertivnim (nemanipulativnim) ljudima.”

The effectiveness of a social skills training group for adolescents with Asperger syndrome and high-functioning autism (AS/HFA) was evaluated. Parents of six groups of adolescents (n = 46, 61% male, mean age 14.6) completed questionnaires immediately before and after the 12-week group. Parents and adolescents were surveyed regarding their experience with the group. Significant pre- to post-treatment gains were found on measures of both social competence and problem behaviors associated with AS/HFA. Effect sizes ranged from .34 to .72. Adolescents reported more perceived skill improvements than did parents. Parent-reported improvement suggests that social skills learned in group sessions generalize to settings outside the treatment group. Larger, controlled studies of social skills training groups would be valuable.

A relação entre habilidades sociais e transtornos de personalidade pas-sa, necessariamente, pela questão da qualidade das relações interpessoais, em geral comprometidas em pessoas que apresentam transtornos de perso-nalidade. Essa relação remete também a considerações sobre os processos terapêuticos e educativos junto a essas pessoas, que buscam restaurar re-lações mais saudáveis e satisfatórias ou prevenir o aparecimento e o agra-vamento do transtorno, bem como de seus desdobramentos nas relações interpessoais. Este capítulo aborda tais questões a partir dos pressupostos e recursos do campo teórico-prático das habilidades sociais. Como en-fatizado em outras publicações (Del Prette & Del Prette, 1996, 2001a), esse campo é multifacetado em termos das abordagens conceituais que contribuíram para a sua consolidação, destacando-se as abordagens com-portamental, cognitiva e social-cognitiva. Neste texto, são apresentadas algumas contribuições do campo das habilidades sociais na compreensão, prevenção e tratamento de pessoas com transtornos de personalidade que apresentam dificuldades interpessoais.

Employee training is essential for any industry/organization for its future growth. The researcher has made a research study at Ramco Cements Ltd., Ariyalur. This cement industry is giving importance to training and development and spending huge amount of money to train its employees mainly in technical and behavioural skills. It is being done in order to encourage its employees to becoming confident enough to operate complex technology easily. The researcher made a research study on 40 out of 417 employees (with the 9.6 percent) following random sampling method specifically from the employees of mechanical, electrical and instrumental departments. The result revealed from the inter correlation matrix between training need analysis and overall training effectiveness that both are with their significance level of 0.894 each with the value of 0.01 level which is close to the table value (p) 0.0 level with high level of significance.

Relatório de estágio elaborado no 4º ano da Licenciatura em Criminologia - avaliado com 20 valores (Julho de 2017) . Descrição geral das atividades  realizadas como técnico de intervenção comunitária com especial ênfase na conceção, implementação e avaliação dum programa de treino de competências sociais para crianças: "Cercados de Alternativas".