Social Skills, Emotional Intelligence And Self-esteem
From the moment we are born, the social component is integrated into our daily lives.
The first interactions occur with the mother in the womb, and once the birth occurs these will occur through the skin, above all. The main attachment figures are the first context in which social skills will be developed and shaped, starting with the looks between parents and babies, the smiles, the vocalizations and the words. Later, school will become another of the main contexts for the development of these skills.
It is important to highlight the importance of the cultural and social framework and the temperamental characteristics of the individual, which will determine whether two people behave differently in the same situation.
Social skills They could be described as the ability of a person to relate to another through effective communication. Among these we would find qualities such as: greeting when we arrive at a place, assertiveness, inference of the states of others, the expression of feelings, thoughts, opinions and desires, and orientation towards conflict resolution.
Through social behaviors The individual becomes aware of the limits, which will favor their ability to self-regulate in the future The ability to regulate our behavior and our emotions constitutes a fundamental part of what we know as emotional intelligence; Therefore, social skills are closely related to this, and this, in turn, to self-esteem. On the other hand, deficits in social skills are related to psychopathological disorders, such as anxiety disorders and mood disorders.
Emotional intelligence is defined as the ability to perceive, identify and manage the emotional states of oneself and others
Goleman (1995) divides emotional intelligence into two: intrapersonal and interpersonal emotional intelligence. In the intrapersonal, we find emotional self-awareness, and the ability to communicate with oneself to regulate one’s own emotional states. This positively affects our security and confidence in ourselves. Interpersonal would include social skills and empathy, with the objective of recognizing and managing the emotions of others, which is related to charismatic people who have a desire for leadership.
As we can observe, In emotional intelligence, the expression and management of language are important, used in order to regulate internal and external states Possessing good emotional intelligence fosters the ability to build healthy relationships with others, which greatly influences our self-esteem.
The self-esteem
Self-esteem is a concept heard very frequently in everyday life, but what is it? Refers to the feelings of worth that a person has toward themselves These feelings are stable over time, and remain throughout different situations.
It is common to confuse high self-esteem with narcissism: an inflated image of oneself, characterized by feelings of superiority, which is not realistic, but rather unstable and fragile. Healthy self-esteem incorporates awareness of one’s own limits, authenticity, recognition of mistakes and virtues, and self-acceptance
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How do these psychological elements interact?
These three concepts are related to each other. Without the development of sufficient social skills, our emotional intelligence would be diminished; Thus, also our self-esteem, since it is affected, in part, by interactions with other people, where we find direct or indirect feedback about us, which shapes our self-concept.
Through interaction with our environment we increase knowledge about ourselves reflection on our behaviors and states, and the ability to manage, modify and adjust our emotions and attitudes to the demands of the environment.
People with more empathy (a quality of emotional intelligence) are more capable of perceiving the emotions of others (a characteristic of social skills), which makes them more socially accepted and evaluated positively.
Promoting these qualities from childhood is essential so that boys and girls have optimal psychological, social, and even academic development, which will favor, in the future, adaptation to multiple situations, and coping with them, in a proactive and decisive manner.
