Predicting Actual Social Skill Expression from Personality and Skill Self-Concepts.

Area of Science:

• Psychology
• Social Sciences
• Behavioral Science

Background:

• Social skills are vital for personal and professional success.
• Traditional self-report questionnaires may not accurately reflect actual social behaviors.
• Existing measures assess global self-concepts rather than specific skill expressions.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the relationship between self-concepts of social skills and their observed expression.
• To compare a novel skill questionnaire (BESSI) with a personality inventory (BFI-2) in assessing social skills.
• To differentiate between self-perceptions and behavioral observations of social skills.

Main Methods:

• Utilized a behavior-based assessment approach with short interpersonal simulations.
• Collected self- and observer ratings for agency, communion, and interpersonal resilience.
• Administered the Big Five Inventory 2 (BFI-2) and the Behavioral, Emotional, and Social Skills Inventory (BESSI).

Main Results:

• Both personality and skill self-concepts predicted self-rated skill expression.
• The BESSI demonstrated incremental validity over the BFI-2 for self-rated skill expression.
• Self-concepts correlated significantly with observer-rated agency, but not communion or interpersonal resilience.

Conclusions:

• Self-concepts, particularly from the BESSI, are valuable for understanding self-perceived social skills.
• Observed social skill expression, especially agency, aligns with self-concepts.
• Distinguishing between self-concepts and actual skill expression is theoretically and practically important.