Social Competence and Adjustment

Abstract

A research programme is described that is concerned with the general issue of adjustment, but focuses more specifically on social competence, viewed as a manageable and measurable component of adjustment. At first, the subjects of the research were psychiatric patients and it was found that better adjusted ones have a larger repertoire of social skills and use these more appropriately than more poorly adjusted patients. Correlations found between the social skill of parent and patient offspring suggest it is the family that is responsible for this component of adjustment. Research then shifted to normal subjects and it was greatly expedited by the development of a self-report scale to measure social competence. Many differences have been found between high and low social-competence people in the way they behave with others and in the impact they have upon them.