Social Skills Training in Practice
| DOI | 10.1177/026455058803500302 |
| Author | Barbara Hudson |
| Published date | 01 September 1988 |
| Date | 01 September 1988 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
85
Social
Skills
Training
in
Practice
Barbara
Hudson
Barnett
House,
University
of
Oxford
It
is
easy
to
see
why
probation
workers
have
embraced
social
skills
training
with
offenders.
It
isn’t
difficult
to
learn
and
seems
to
provide
a
means
to
help
clients
and
address
their
offending
behaviour.
But
does
it
work?
The
author
concludes
that
we
can
present
only
a
modest
case
for social
skills
training
with
certain
offenders.
Unfortunately
for
researchers
and
indeed
for
anyone
trying
to
have
a
sensible
conversation
about
social
skills
training,
the
term
’social
skills’
can
denote
at
least
three
different
sets
of
behaviours:
1.
In
the
social
psychology
and
behaviour
therapy
journals,
the
term
usually
refers
to
discrete
behaviours
in
social
interchange,
such
as
appropriate
gaze
and
posture,
’meshing’
a
conversation,
and
(to
a
lesser
extent)
their
’interior’
accompaniments,
such
as
know-
mg
the
social
rules,
picking
up
the
other
person’s
messages
or
makmg
short-term
plans
foe
an
en-
counter.
I
will
call
these
’social
skills
m
the
strict
sense’.
2.
Problem-solving
skills
are
sometimes
included.
The
skills
involved
in
clarifying
a
problem
and
deciding
what
to
do
about
it
after
systematically
weighing
the
arguments
for
and
against
different
potential
solutions.
3.
’Survival
skills’
refers
to
a
wide
range
of
activities
such
as
shopping,
cooking,
using
public
transport,
or
applying
for
social
security
benefits.
Social
workers
and
psychologists
who
use
behavioural
or
cognitive-behavioural
appro-
aches-apply
a
limited
and
clearly
defined
group
of
procedures
in
teaching
skills
to
their
clients.
The
methods
of
training
the
skills
under
(1)
are:
explaining
the
skills,
with
a
small
amount
of
discussion;
modelling
the
skills;
practice
or
role
play
or
rehearsal;
feedback
(video
and/or
ver-
bal)
and
positive
reinforcement;
and
repetition
of
all
these
until
the
client
has
mastered
each
skill.
Cognitive-behavioural
’problem-solving
training’
is
used
for
(2).
Work
on
(3)
is
not
usually
described
as
social
skills
training
in
the
behavioural
literature,
although
there
are
many
cognitive-behavioural
training
procedures
which
are
used
to
deal
with
these
behaviours.
Probation
officers
are
more
familiar
with
the
Priestley
and
McGuire
Social
Skills
and
Per-
sonal
Problem
Solving
approach
than
with
the
methods
of
the
cognitive-behaviourists.
Priestley
and
McGuire
are
concerned
to
tackle
a
much
larger
number
of
skills
and
they
also
aim
explicitly
for
improvement
in
self-
awareness
and
self-esteem
(which
are
not
skills).
Their
procedures
are
much
more
numerous,
too:
they
add
paper
and
pencil
ex-
ercises
intended
to
promote
self-awareness;
talks
and
discussions;
outings;
projects;
brainstorming;
relaxation
training;
and
more
besides.
In
contrast
to
the
narrowly
based
inter-
ventions
described
in
the
behavioural
literature,
which
do
sometimes
seem
to
demand
a
great
deal
of
clients
in
return
for
possibly
trivial
out-
comes,
the
Priestley
and
McGuire
approach
evidences
both
a
sympathetic
understanding
of
the
needs
and
a
realistic
appraisal
of
the
capacities
of
this
disadvantaged
group
of
clients;
and
it
emphasises
feelings
and
attitudes.
Rationale
for
Social
Skills
Training
Social
skills
training
has
had
demonstrable
success
in
helping
many
different
kinds
of
clients
to
improve
their
social
skills:
children,
elderly
people,
psychiatric
patients,
and
people
who
ask
for
help
with
assertiveness
problems.
What
of
offenders?
For
a
more
thorough
answer
to
this
question,
consult
the
reviews
by
Henderson
and
Hollin,
and
Howells.’
Meanwhile,
consider
the
findings
of
some
well-designed
outcome
studies.
To continue reading
Request your trial