Interpersonal Skills
Introduction
Social skills (sometimes designated as social competencies or interpersonal skills) do not have a single and determined definition, since there is conceptual confusion in this regard, since there is no consensus on the part of the social-scientific community; However, they can be defined by their main characteristics, pointing out that "social skills" are a set of behaviors learned naturally (and which can therefore be taught), which are manifested in interpersonal situations, socially accepted (this implies taking into account social norms and legal norms of the sociocultural context in which one acts, as well as moral criteria), and oriented to obtaining environmental reinforcements (social reinforcements) or self-reinforcements.
Social skills are directly linked to soft skills[1] (soft skills), and these are essential for establishing quality relationships and generating relationships with different types of people.
Not in vain, they are also behaviors associated with animals, revealed in relationships with other beings of the same species. In the case of people, social skills provide the individual who possesses them with a greater capacity to achieve the objectives they seek, maintaining their self-esteem without harming that of the people around them. These behaviors are fundamentally based on the mastery of communication skills, and require good emotional self-control "Self-control (skill)") on the part of the person acting. In many mental illnesses, the area of social skills is one of the most affected, so work on psychosocial rehabilitation is important.
Origin and development of social skills
Although the diverse dimension related to social behavior has always been of concern, it was not until the mid-1970s when the field of social skills achieved its greatest dissemination and, currently, it continues to be the object of study and research. The origins of social skills date back to Salter, around 1949, who is considered one of the fathers of behavior therapy, and which he developed in his book Conditioned Reflex Therapy (six techniques for skills). Thus, various studies were born based on the beginnings of Salter's so-called behavioral therapy.
These previously cited sources were developed in the United States, while in Europe, the English Argyle and Kendon (1967) related the term social skill to social psychology, defining it as "an organized, coordinated activity in relation to an object or a situation, which involves a chain of sensory, central and motor mechanisms; one of its main characteristics is that social skills are related to the social environment.