Social Competence Prism Model: Social Competence In Lifespan

Social Competence in life-span
Social skills, social communication, emotional regulation and interpersonal skills are the main elements which are usually be included in the discussions of social competence in research and literature (Semrud-Clikeman, 2007). Therefore, social competence is such complex that no any single index or behavior are able to take the place of this (Waters & Sroufe, 1983). Rose-Krasnor(1997) provided a Social Competence Prism Model to explain the construct of social competence. Self and other domains, which are the middle level of the prism, and motivation, communication skill and problem solving skill, which are Skill Level and bottom level of the prism, will be consider as the most important element of social competence.

They should be regarded as perspective rather than as skills. Self domains consist of self-orientation, self-perception and the personal belief. It generally include anything related to autonomy such as how individuals perceive themselves or how they achieve their social goal. Other domains include good relationships with other, suitable status in a group and social behavior to fulfill expectations of society. It can generally be considered as connectedness. Although there are two different perspective, they should not be separated when achieving better social competence because they are mutually supportive. Smith Bowers, Binney and Cowie (1993) found that a child who gives priority to peer dominance goals may resort to aggressive bullying. In this case, the individual hardly considered other domains so unhealthy relationship with peer would be established. To find a balance between autonomy and connectedness is one of the important challenges in our life (Baltes & Silverberg, 1994; Connell, 1990). Best social competence as well as success can only be achieved by finding a balance between self and other domains and even obtaining a collaborative strategy. Moreover, this two perspective have emerged in almost all human behavior (Baurind, 1989). I will consider the skills mentioned before such as communication, problem solving and motivation are the ways which can help finding the balance

It was a travel in a summer holiday, I was entirely in charge of the planning and leading as my friend was quite busy to deal with the examination. In the journey, he generally accepted my planning but we still had some argument. He thought there were too many scenic spots and we should pick some worthy to visit. In my mind, it just seemed to be a challenge to my plan because he did not do anything. Although I finally accepted his plan, the atmosphere became very bad. To be honest, the argument was unnecessary. I changed my plan finally because there actually exist some problem but somehow I desired for domination and became egocentric at that moment. It seem that my self-respect and prestige were not allowed to be challenged. Fortunately I am hardly occupied by anger and am still able to think rationally. However, such feeling definitely is limitation and drawback of establishing heathy relationship with other. After having a deeper understanding of social competence, I can explain and find out the solution of my problem. Actually, my case can be explain by self and other domains. The moment I desired for domination is due to the reason that I focused too much on self domains. I tended to just caring about my orientation as well as perspective and giving priority to myself which attempt to change other to meet my needs. What I need to do is to respect