Social emotional skills examples Characteristics importance types development

According to Duckworth and Yeager, socio-emotional skills are those non-cognitive skills that influence efforts aimed at achieving goals, healthy social relationships, and decision-making . These skills predict academic, economic, social, psychological and physical well-being. Some authors consider them to be characteristics associated with personality traits, but increasingly, others understand them as skills that can be developed throughout life, through upbringing, formal education and cultural patterns. In this article we will provide you the social emotional skills with examples.

In the beginning, they were considered as fixed personality traits. However, in recent years, investigations have changed the way of understanding them, considering them as skills that can be incorporated and improved with intervention directed at family, educational and social levels.

For many years, personal and social success was predicted from the IQ . This index was used as a predictor of the personal achievements of students and adults in their careers. However, a few decades ago, different authors highlighted how other factors were that better allowed the vital development of people: Gardner spoke of ” interpersonal intelligence and intrapersonal intelligence” and Goleman, based on Gardner’s work, coined the term ” emotional intelligence “.

These new concepts, along with others defined later, began to constitute the so-called socio-emotional skills, which could predict vital achievements much better than cognitive intelligence tests.

UNESCO has organized “21st century skills” into three categories:

1. Personal skills : those personal characteristics that allow the individual to act effectively in his life.
   
2. Social skills : Facilitate satisfying and positive personal relationships.
3. Learning skills : allow people to acquire meaningful and useful knowledge for their lives and for society.

What are the main socioemotional skills?

Comprising a series of skills, socio-emotional skills can be stimulated and improved throughout life. The main objective is to provide the cognitive basis for a healthy social life and relationships, whether professional, personal or academic.

In this sense, to achieve the goals of education, it is essential to know the main socio-emotional skills, and thus work on the development of each competence for complete human evolution. See what they are!

Empathy

Empathy means the ability of the individual to put himself in the situation in which the other finds himself. Acting with empathy contributes to having more responsible decisions that do not harm oneself or others, circumventing adversities without generating conflicts.

Happiness

Happiness is contagious and capable of making a more pleasant environment, improving human relationships. Therefore, good humor is a socio-emotional competence that opens doors and promotes lighter relationships, easing the tensions of everyday life.

Self esteem

Building self-esteem is essential to having confidence and self-worth. It is an important skill to gain motivation, positivity and flexibility to deal with changes and everyday situations in the best possible way.

ethic

It consists of society‘s standards and values ​​regarding what is right and wrong. It can be said that ethics is a basic requirement for personal and professional relationships, and should be part of human conduct.

Patience

This is one of the pillars of socio-emotional development, as it contributes to well-being and optimizes personal relationships. In education, it is a virtue that facilitates learning and generates admiration, becoming an example for pleasant socializing.

Self knowledge

To deal with other people in a correct and productive way, you need to get to know yourself better. This socio-emotional skill provides the necessary balance to know how to react to situations, always with confidence and respecting the limits of your body and mind.

Confidence

Being confident means believing in your own ability to overcome obstacles and achieve personal goals. This characteristic should always be encouraged, as it is decisive for the success of any person, whether in education, profession or personal life.

Responsibility

Another very important socio-emotional skill, which directly influences the social life of every individual. Understanding rights and duties and adopting responsible habits should be common to every student, citizen and professional.

Autonomy

Autonomy consists of a person’s ability to self-manage, that is, to have free will to make decisions and responsibilities. It is the fact of being aware and acting according to personal values, aware of the consequences of each choice.

Creativity

Finally, creativity is essential to have dynamic and productive relationships, capable of stimulating the evolution of other people. Therefore, it is a very important socio-emotional skill for education, regardless of age group.

The researchers from the Ayrton Senna Institute – a partner of the social-emotional education program My Life, a brand of Conexia Educação – organized the skills into five macro-fields to be developed at school.

To understand the connection and dynamics of application together with socio-emotional skills, you also need to know each of them!

• engagement with others – social initiative, assertiveness and enthusiasm.;
• kindness – empathy, respect and trust;
• openness to the new – curiosity to learn, creative imagination and artistic interest;
• self-management – ​​determination, organization, focus, persistence and responsibility;
• Emotional resilience – stress tolerance, self-confidence and frustration tolerance.

How to develop socio-emotional skills are developed

How to help students to have social-emotional ability?

The role of every educator is to develop in himself and in the students the socio-emotional skills necessary for training. Although the family environment is important, it is in school education that the individual learns to deal with social life and with his own emotions.

Therefore, the educator can perform face-to-face or distance tasks to stimulate socio-emotional skills, such as:

• educational activities that stimulate creativity;
• teamwork to encourage empathy and relationship;
• sharing ideas;
• challenge promotion;
• activities that encourage student participation;
• strategies to include everyone;
• appreciation and recognition of advances;
• logical reasoning activities;
• proposals with music and art.

Conexia has the My Life brand of socio-emotional education in partnership with Instituto Ayrton Senna, and works with the adolescent healthy life project. The program offers full support for the development of socio-emotional skills with proven excellence, contributing to the student’s personal and professional success.

As you have noticed, socio-emotional skills are indispensable for the evolution of the human being and should be a priority for educators. In addition to contributing to building healthy relationships, they are a great differentiator for the student’s future, both as a professional and as a citizen.

Examples of socioemotional skills