SKILLS
Psychology is a universal agreement on the basic assumptions about human nature and the role of a psychologist in different settings. It is generally assumed that psychologists have interest in people, their abilities and temperaments.
A psychologist from any field is required to have interest in other people and exhibits a willingness to provide help by using her/his knowledge of the discipline. One can find active involvement of a psychologist in obtaining the client's history, her/his socio-cultural environment, assessment of her/his personality and also on other important dimensions.
The term ‘skill’ may be defined as proficiency, facility or dexterity that is acquired or developed through training and experience. The Webster dictionary defines it as “possession of the qualities required to do something or get something done”.
American Psychological
Association(1973) in their task force constituted with the objective to identify skills essential for professional psychologists recommended at least three sets of skills.These are: assessment of individual differences, behaviour modification skills,and counselling and guidance skills.
The basic skills or competencies which psychologists have identified for becoming an effective psychologist fall into three broad sections, namely,
(a) General Skills,
(b) Observational Skills, and
(c) SpecificSkills
GENERAL SKILLS
These skills are generic in nature and are needed by all psychologists irrespective of their field of specialisation. These skills are essential for all professional psychologists,whether they are working in the field of clinical and health psychology,industrial/organisational, social, educational or in environmental settings, or are acting as consultants. These skills include personal as well as intellectual skills. It is expected that it will not be proper to provide anyform of professional training (in clinical or organisational fields) to students who don't possess these skills. Once a student has these skills, subsequent training in her/his area of specialisation would only refine and further hone these skills required by a professional within her/his field of specialisation.
OBSERVATION SKILLS
A great deal of what psychologists as researchers and practitioners do in the field is to pay attention, watch and listen carefully. They use all the senses, noticing what is seen, heard, smelt, tasted, ortouched. A psychologist, thus, is like an instrument that absorbs all sources of information from the environment.
A psychologist engages in observing various facets of surroundings including people and varying events. To begin with,a psychologist may begin with carefully scrutinizing the physical setting in order to capture its “atmosphere”.
The following points are taken into consideration while making an observation.
Observe patiently;
Pay close attention to your physical surroundings — who, what, when,where, and how;
Be aware of people’s reactions,emotions, and motivations;
Ask questions that can be answered while observing;
Be yourself, give information about yourself, if asked;
Observe with an optimistic curiosity and
Be ethical, you have to respect privacy,norms of people you are observing, take care not to disclose any information to anyone.
Naturalistic Observation is one of the primary ways of learning about the way people behave in a given setting. Suppose,you want to learn how people behave in response to a heavy discount provided by a company while visiting a shopping mall. For this, you could visit the shopping mall where the discounted items are showcased and systematically observe what people do and say before and after the purchases have been made. Making comparisons of this kind may provide you with useful insights into what is going on.
Participant Observation is the variation of the method of naturalistic observation. Here the observer is actively involved in the process of observing by becoming an active member of the setting where the observation takes place. For Instance, for the problem mentioned above,an observer may take a part-time job in a shopping mall showroom to become an insider in order to observe variations in the behaviour of customers. This technique is widely used by anthropologists whose objective is to gain a first hand perspective of a system from within which otherwise may not be readily available to an outsider.
Advantages and Disadvantages of Observation
•Its major advantage is that it allows behaviour to be seen and studied in its natural setting.
•People from outside, or those already working in a setting, can be trained to use it.
•One disadvantage of it is that events being observed are subject to bias due to the feelings of the people involved as well as of the observers.
•Generally day-to-day activities in a given setting are fairly routine, which can go unnoticed by the observer.
•Another potential pitfall is that the actual behaviour and responses of others may get influenced by the presence of the observer, thus,defeating the very purpose of observation.
SPECIFIC SKILLS
These Skills are core/basic to the field of psychological service. For example,psychologists working in clinical settings need to be trained in various techniques of therapeutic interventions, psychological assessment, and counselling. Similarly,organisational psychologists working in the organisational context need to have skills in assessment, facilitation and consultation, behavioural skills to bring about individual, group, team and organisational development besides research skills, etc. Though, specific skills and competencies are required for a very specialised professional functioning,nonetheless, all skill sets do overlap quite a bit. They are not exclusive to an area.Relevant specific skills and competencies can be classified as follows:-
(a)Communication Skills
•Speaking
•Active listening
•Body language or non-verbal skills
(b)Psychological Testing Skills
(c)Interviewing Skills
(d)Counselling Skills
•Empathy
•Positive regard
•Authenticity
Communication Skills
The skills we are going to discuss may appear abstract. You will, however,understand them better when you engage in exercises related to them. Let us understand the basics of the communication process and see what role it plays in fostering relationships and personal effectiveness. Learning how to be an effective communicator is not just an academic exercise. It is one of the most important skills you will need to succeed in life.
Communication is a conscious or unconscious, intentional or unintentional process in which feelings and ideas are expressed as verbal and/or non-verbalmessages that are sent, received, and comprehended.
Characteristics of Communication
Communication is dynamic because the process is constantly in a state of change. As the expectations, attitudes, feelings, and emotions of the persons who are communicating change, the nature of their communication also changes.
Communication is continuous because it never stops, whether we are asleep or awake we are always processing ideas or thoughts. Our brain remains active.
Communication is irreversible because once we send a message we cannot take it back.Once we have made a slip of tongue, given a meaningful glance, or engaged in an emotional outburst, we cannot erase it. Our apologies or denials can make it light but cannot stamp out what was communicated.
Communication is interactive because we are constantly in contact with other people and with ourselves. Others react to our speech and actions, and we react to our own speech and actions, and then react to those reactions. Thus, a cycle of action and reaction is the basis of our communication.
The process of communication can be accidental (having no intent), expressive(resulting from the emotional state of the person), or rhetorical (resulting from the specific goal of the communicator).
Human communication occurs on the intra-personal, interpersonal, and public levels.Intrapersonal involves communicating with yourself. It en-compasses such activities as thoughtprocesses, personal decision making,and focusing on self. Interpersonal communication refers to the communication that takes place between two or more persons who establish a communicative relationship. Forms of interpersonal communication include face-to-face or mediated conversations, interviews and small group discussions.
Public communication is characterised by a speaker sending a message to an audience. It may be direct, such as face-to-face messages delivered by the speaker to an audience, or indirect,such as messages relayed over radio or television.
Components of Human Communication
When we communicate, we communicate selectively. That is, from the wide range of repertoire of words, actions, etc. available to us, we choose that which we believe is best suited for the idea we wish to express.When we communicate, we encode (i.e.,take ideas, give them meaning and put them into message forms), and send theidea through a channel. It is composed of four primary signal systems based on our senses (i.e., seeing, hearing, tasting,smelling, and touching). The message is sent to someone who receives it using heror his primary signal system. S/he decodes (i.e., translates message into understandable forms). For example, you may say that you heard a bell or an object that feels soft. These are examples of verbal communication which express how you understand the signals your senses have received.
Communication is broader; it involves a relationship among two or more people in which they attempt to share meaning so that the intent of the message received is the same as the intent of the message sent.
Speaking
One important component of communication is speaking with the use of language. Language involves use of symbols which package meaning within them. To be effective, a communicator must know how to use language appropriately. Because language is symbolic, it is necessary to be as clear and precise as possible when using words. Communication takes place within a context. So one needs to consider the other's frame of reference, that is, the context used by the sender to say something. Also whether s/he shares your interpretation. If not, it is important to adjust your vocabulary level and choice of words to fit the level of the listener. Remember that slang expressions, words unique to a culture or region, and euphemisms can sometimes become obstacles in good communication.
Listening
Listening is an important skill that we use daily. Your academic success, employment achievement, and personal happiness, toa large extent, depend upon your ability to listen effectively. At first, listening may appear to you as a passive behaviour, asit involves silence. But this image of passivity is far from true. Listening Requires a person to be attentive. S/he should be patient, non-judgmental and yet have the capacity to analyse andrespond.Hearing and listening are not the same.Hearing is a biological activity that involves reception of a message through sensory channels. It is only a part of listening, a process that involves reception, attention,assignment of meaning, and listener's response to the message presented.
Reception
The initial step in the listening process is the reception of a stimulus or message. Amessage could be auditory and/or visual. The hearing process is based on a complex set of physical interactions that take place involving the ear and the brain. In addition to using the hearing mechanism, people listen through their visual system. They Observe a person’s facial expressions, posture, movement, and appearance,which provide important cues that may not be obvious merely by listening to the verbal part of the message.
Attention
Once the stimulus, i.e. the word or visual,or both, is received, it reaches the attention stage of the human processing system. In This phase, the other stimuli recede so that we can concentrate on specific words or visual symbols. Normally your attention is divided between what you are attempting to listen to, and what is happening around you, and what is going on in your mind. Consider, you are watching a movie. Theperson in front of you is constantly whispering to her/his friend. There is abuzz in the sound system. You are also worried about the forthcoming examination. So your attention is being pulled in different directions. Divided Attention makes it difficult for you to receive signals or messages.
Paraphrasing
How would you know that someone has been listening? Ask her/him to restate what you had said. The person doing this does not repeat your exact words.S/he makes a summary of the ideas just received and provides you with a restatement of what s/he understands. This is called ‘paraphrasing’. It allows you to understand how much s/he understood what was communicated. If someone cannot repeat or write down a summary of what was said, then s/he probably did not get the whole message or did not understand it. We can keep this in mind when we are listening to our teacher in the class or to others.
Assignment of Meaning
The process of putting the stimulus we have received into some predetermined category develops as we acquire language. We develop mental categories for interpreting the message we receive. For Instance, our categorising system for the word ‘cheese’ may include such factors as a dairy product, its peculiar taste and colour, all of which help us to relate the word ‘cheese’ to the sense in which it is used.
Role of Culture in Listening
Like the brain, the culture in which we have been brought up also influences our listening and learning abilities. Asiancultures, such as India, emphasize on listening by being a silent communicator when receiving messages from seniors or elders. Some cultures focus on controlling attention. Buddhism, for instance, has anotion called ‘mindfulness’. This means devoting your complete attention to whatever you are doing. Training in 'mindfulness’ which starts in childhood can help to develop longer attention spans and therefore, lead not only to better listening but also to sympathetic listening. However, in many cultures, such listening enhancing concepts are not present.
Body Language
Do you believe that when you communicate with another person, your words communicate the complete meaning of the message? If your answer is yes, then you are mistaken. We all know that it is possible to communicate a great deal even without using verbal language. We are aware that non-verbal acts are symbolicand closely connected to any talk inprogress. Such non-verbal acts are part of what is called ‘body language’.
Body language is composed of all those messages that people exchange beside words.
Some Tips to Improve Your Listening Skills
•Recognise that both the sender as well as the receiver have equal responsibility in making effective communication.
•Refrain from forming an early judgment about information that is being communicated. Be open to all ideas.
•Be a patient listener. Do not be in a hurry to respond.
•Avoid speaking ego. That is, do not talk only about what you want to talk about. Give Consideration also to others and to what they say.
•Be careful to the emotional responses which certain words are likely to bring about.
•Be aware that your posture affects your listening.
•Control distractions.
•If in doubt, try to paraphrase. Also check with the sender whether s/he has been correctly understood by you.
•Visualise what is being said. That is, try to translate the message in the form of a concrete action.
THANK YOU
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