Topic 1: Social Competences – Theoretical Background

  • Relationship management is related to competences development for interpersonal communication, including conflict resolution. In order to build these abilities, one needs to develop key social competences – competences that people use to communicate and interact with each other, verbal (through language) and non-verbal (through body language and appearance). When people have the ability to properly convey messages, thoughts and feelings to others, they also manage better to identify the experiences and feelings of the others around them.
  • The development of social skills means a person realizes how to communicate with others and how to manage relationships with others. In each communication people broadcast emotional signals that affect everyone. The more skilled people are in the art of social life, the better they control those signals.
  • Social skills start developing from a very early age. Studies have shown that early development of social skills plays a significant role for the good of the child and its welfare later when it enters into the adult world. Underdeveloped social skills lead to problems in school, affect the ability to learn and often cause aggressive behavior during childhood and adolescence. Later, this has a negative impact on social development and the ability to create social connections and interactions. Very often, disadvantaged young people have missing or poorly developed skills for sharing and relationship management. This puts them at higher risk of isolation and marginalization, which are some of the risk factors for radicalization and adoption of antidemocratic tendencies.