A social skills analysis in childhood and adolescence using symbolic interactionism

Support is obtained from the literature about the need for advances in the conceptualization of social skills. There is agreement that much is known about how to improve social skills, but less attention has been given to what to change or improve. The present article outlines a model of social skills in childhood and adolescence using the concepts and literature on symbolic interactionism in an attempt to provide a possible conceptual framework for social skills. The proposed model is organized around the concepts of role-taking, role-making, definition of the situation, and self. Each concept is taken in turn and how it could contribute to the analysis or understanding of social skills in childhood and adolescence is shown. The article concludes with a discussion of ways in which the proposed scheme might be used in one area of social skills — friendship making. Some possible difficulties and limitations in the model are noted.Received his Ph.D. from University of Adelaide in 1971. Research interests are behavior disturbances in children, and parent-child relationships.