An Inventory of Social Skills

Abstract

A social skills inventory of 128 true-false items was constructed to assess eight hypothesized bipolar dimensions. In a series of principal component analyses, seven of the constructs plus an added concept were isolated in both college and high school men and women. Some of the factors isolated were Social Assertiveness, Directiveness, Defense of Rights, Confidence, and Empathy. Two higher order factors-Social Skill and Empathy-were also identified in several samples. Validity studies revealed strong commonalities with Riggio's (1986) Social Skills Inventory, the Horowitz Inventory of Interpersonal Problems, the Watson and Friend (1969) Social Avoidance and Distress Scale, and a set of self-ratings. These findings suggest that the Social Relations Survey (SRS) is a useful device for clinical and research application to problems involving social skills.

The Use of Skilled Strategies in Social Interactions by Groups High and Low in Self-Reported Social Skill

“…The 'Texas Social Behaviour Inventory' (TSBI) (Helmreich et al 1974) focuses on the assessment of social confidence and self-esteem. A tool which aims to provide a broader assessment of social skill is the 'Social Relations Survey' (SRS) (Lorr et al 1991); this includes factors such as confidence, empathy and social assertiveness, but has been less frequently used than other measures.…”

Generation of Interpersonal Stressful Events

“…Assertive adolescents may defend their rights rigorously but are unlikely to respond with rule breaking or antisocial behaviors. Young adolescent boys and girls with poor assertion skills are, in our view, also unlikely to get into conflict with authority figures because of their relatively timid character (e.g., Lorr et al, 1991). However, adolescents with poor self-control lack the ability to control their impulses and emotions when confronted with restrictions by adults (De Kemp et al, 2009).…”

“…Or put in other words, specific types of social skills deficits may predispose adolescents to experience specific types of interpersonal stressors (Segrin, 2001). As it is used here, a deficit in a social skill refers to being less able to engage in appropriate and effective interactions with others (e.g., Lorr, Youniss, & Stefic, 1991;Segrin, 1999Segrin, , 2001). It does not refer to a pathological characteristic.…”

“…Two kinds of social skills seem especially important to successfully traverse interpersonal situations with peers and adults during adolescence: assertiveness and self-control. Assertive adolescents have the ability to start conversations with others, express feelings and wants, and defend themselves against “unjust” demands (Lorr et al, 1991). Adolescents with good self-control skills have the ability to control impulses, alter emotions and thoughts, interrupt undesired behavioral tendencies, and refrain from acting on them (De Kemp et al, 2009).…”

Knowledge Concerning Employees’ Legal Rights at Work among Banking Employees in Malaysia

“…Hence, the use of PAF is considered to be more appropriate than other factor analytic approaches. Many studies using binary items, such as the true-false items and Likert-scale items that yield dichotomous responses have used the classical factor analytic model such as the principal component analysis or the PAF method (Templer et al 1990;Lorr et al 1991;Ward and Rothaus 1990;Wrisley et al 2004). A Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin Measure of Sampling Adequacy (KMO)=.79 was obtained exceeding the recommended 0.7 suggested by Pett et al (2003).…”