Social Skills Training
The ability to engage in meaningful social interactions in childhood with
one's peers is considered to be a basic skill, central to a wide variety
of other measures of quality of life. Recent research on this ability has
begun to describe a set of highly situationally specific, rule governed
behaviors which include both overt and covert skills (Gumpel, 1994) which
when correctly performed will lead to positive or neutral environmental
evaluations (McFall, 1982). Despite the debate in the literature regarding
the operational definition of social skills (e.g., Bryan, 1997; Chadsey-Rusch,
1992; Gumpel, 1989, 1994; Park & Gaylord-Ross, 1989; Storey, Rhodes,
Sandow, Loewinger, & Petherbridge, 1991), the anticipated positive
outcome of the appropriate use of these social skills is clear (Coie, 1990).
An accepted end-product of social behavior is peer acceptance and it's
concomitant social status.
Gumpel (1994) presented a further expansion of McFall’s (1982) and Trower’s
(1982) process approach. This six stage model of social competence differs
from its predecessors primarily in its focus on self-regulator mechanisms
(Bandura, 1986). Gumpel and Frank (1997) differentiate between two specifically
different types of social skills deficits: skill deficits as a result of
a lack of acquisition of the appropriate target skills, and skill deficits
as a result of the partial or faulty use of skills which already exist
in the individual's skill repertoire. This important distinction has clear
theoretical and applied implications. Whereas, the former describes skills
deficits and would be evidenced by the complete absence of the target skill
in the individual's behavioral repertoire; the latter describes situations
where the appropriate skill is being incorrectly used or not being used
at all. This latter case describes a situation in which the appropriate
behavior is not being appropriately activated, as may happen as a result
of sufficient stimulus control or the lack of appropriate self-regulatory
mechanisms to ensure the correct performance of a social skill. Social
learning theory (Bandura, 1977) lends clear support to the second instance.
For the first situation to be correct, it would mean that at no point can
the individual perform the appropriate behaviors; we hypothesize that such
a criterion would be nearly impossible to meet for individuals with average
intellectual functioning who have been exposed and either directly or vicariously
reinforced for appropriate social behaviors. Social learning theory (Bandura,
1977) clearly supports the second instance; for this to be true the individual
must be able to prove that the behavior is present in his or her behavioral
repertoire. To meet this criteria, the individual must have performed the
behavior at least once or must have at least been vicariously reinforced
for the appropriate use of the behavior. Clearly, this is a much easier
criterion to meet.
Our line of research in this area of social skills and social competence
deals with these issues of peer rejection, social status, self-regulatory
mechanism and skills training.
Bandura, A. (1977). Social Learning Theory. Englewood Cliffs, NJ:
Prentice Hall.
Bandura, A. (1986). Social foundations of thought and action: A social
cognitive approach. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Bryan, T. (1997). Assessing the personal and social status of students
with learning disabilities. Learning Disabilities Research & Practice,
12(1), 63-76.
Chadsey-Rusch, J. (1992). Toward defining and measuring social skills in
employment settings. American Journal on Mental Retardation, 96(4),
405-418.
Coie, J. D. (1990). Toward a theory of peer rejection. In S. R. Asher &
J. D. Coie (Eds.), Peer rejection in childhood (pp. 365-401). Cambridge,
England: Cambridge University Press.
Gumpel, T. (1989, Spring). Social skills training with mentally retarded
adults: A reformulation of a construct. Paper presented at the Council
of Exceptional Children, Toronto, Canada.
Gumpel, T. (1994). Social competence and social skills training for persons
with mental retardation: An expansion of a behavioral paradigm. Education
and Training in Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities, 29(3),
194-201.
Gumpel, T., & Frank, R. (in press). An expansion of the peer-tutoring
paradigm: Cross-age peer tutoring of social skills among socially rejected
boys. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis.
McFall, R. (1982). A review and reformulation of the concept of social
skills. Behavioral Assessment, 4, 1-33.
Park, H. S., & Gaylord-Ross, R. (1989). A problem-solving approach
to social skills training in employment settings with mentally retarded
youth. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 22, 373-380.
Storey, K., Rhodes, L., Sandow, D., Loewinger, H., & Petherbridge,
R. (1991). Direct observation of social interactions in a supported employment
setting. Education and Training in Mental Retardation, 26, 53-63.
Last Update: 16/03/99
