Social Competence Essay

Tri-component model is in a hierarchical form whereby the top of the hierarchy is the social adjustment level, the middle of the hierarchy is the social performance level, and lastly, the bottom of the hierarchy is the social skills level. This paper focuses on discussing five elements of social competence which include social adjustment, social performance, social skills, social sensitivity and social control and later gives reflective writing on social competence. Part A Social adjustment level known as the top level in the Tri-component model involves the attainment of goals which are right in a development (Cavell, 1990). The goals are determined by the society. These goals are various statuses, for instance, academic, health, occupational legal or socioeconomic conditions. The examples of the function`s sequence that the social skills possess include encoding of stimulus, making of decisions and enactment of reaction.

The social skills are utilized in changing individuals ` social performance to meet various demands of tasks (Orphans, 2010). The bottom hierarchy can further be categorized into three key components. They include overt behavior, emotion regulation skills and social cognitive skills. Social competence also includes social sensitivity and social control. Social norms, laws, rules and institutional, social and economic structures facilitate the attainment of social control (Argyle, 2013). The principal way via which social order is produced is through the progressive socialization lifelong process that every individual experience (Renshaw & Asher, 1983). Members of a society are taught the rules, norms and interactional as well as behavioral expectations common to a family right from birth through this process. Socialization gives teachings to the society members on how to behave and think in ways that are accepted and through that, it effectively controls the individuals’ participation in the greater society (Soares et al.

Also, the society’s environmental organization is a section of social control. When I was a kid, I was always timid. The primary reason why I was extremely fearful is that I was not raised up where many people stayed. My parents did not expose me to an environment where I could interact with a group of people leave alone my fellow kids. I am the only child, so I did not have a sibling to play with while growing up. Our compound was enclosed therefore nobody could get access to it apart from my parents and nanny. It was an embarrassment to my parents. After the visitors had gone, my parents sought help from a psychologist. The psychologist told my parents that they had been doing great harm to me.

She informed them that for a child to be socially competent, he or she must be exposed to early social interactions. The psychologist assured them that my situation could be rectified by slowly introducing me to people and with time I would get used to new faces and have confidence when interacting with others. This childhood experience is a typical example of social competence deficiency. As a child, I experienced social difficulties and thus the reason why I was unfriendly to the visitors. I lacked social skills which is the most fundamental requirement for social competence and as a result felt uncomfortable and shy around any other faces other than that of my parents. Luckily this outcome was detected early enough thus only affected my social development to a lesser extent.