Running head: ties to adler s tasks of life
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- Bu səhifədəki naviqasiya:
- Communication Social Style
TIES TO ADLER”S TASKS OF LIFE 17
status. Can an individual have trust, intimacy, caring, and compassion towards others in their family or community? Social
Another vital component of Adlerian theory is social interest and it falls into the social life task. “Social interest is a feeling of belonging to others and not being ‘outside’” (Oberst & Stewart, 2003, p. 19). The overall social task involves “satisfying relationships with others” (Carlson et al., 2005, p. 13). Without interaction with others, the social task is often left unfulfilled and a huge hole. When determining if the task is at a satisfactory level, the answers to these questions are important: “What do you do for fun? Who is your closest friend? Why? How do you relate to your community? If you could change anything about your social life, what would you change?” (Carlson et al., 2005, p. 109).
“Adler believed all behavior is goal directed. People continue to strive for the future and what they believe is important or significant. If we can understand an individual’s goals, then it becomes possible to predict his or her behavior and responses to situations” (Carlson, 1985, p. 13). Our behavior is based on our striving to improve on our tasks of life. “Despite the myriad of different values each life-influencing variable may assume, all people must find a way to meet the inescapable requirements of life to develop a career or vocational path, to relate intimately with a spouse or partner, and to interface meaningfully and productively with others in a variety of social contexts.” (Oberst & Stewart, 2003, p. 169) The life tasks give insight into a person’s world and also areas that can or could be worked on. If an individual feels inferior, there is often a life task that needs to be addressed. TIES TO ADLER”S TASKS OF LIFE 18
“If an individual can be a good friend to all others, and contribute to them by useful work, by a happy marriage, he will never feel inferior to others or defeated by them” (Mansager & Gold, 2000, p. 165).
As previously mentioned humans are social beings and are constantly interacting with each other. The social style assessment was based off of research around behavioral psychology, patterns of behavior, interpersonal functioning, and social relationships. This research was done in the early 1960’s and was continued and revised in 2001-2003 (Mulqueen, 2012, p. 4). The difference between the social style inventory and other assessments is the social style is based on the perception of how others see the individual instead of how the individual views him/herself. Each individual has a unique “social style” and after taking the assessment, the results are broken down into four different types: driving (strong willed and more emotionally controlled), expressive (outgoing and more dramatic), amiable (easy going and supportive), and analytical (serious and more exacting). A more generalized description is: “thought person” (analytical), “action person” (driver), “people person” (amiable), and the “front person” (expressive) (Bolton & Bolton, 2009, p. 37).
When utilizing this self-assessment it is important to truly understand each type and to remember that everyone has a “dominant” type but flexes in and out of the others at any given time. A quick glance at this assessment breaks it down into two categories: more or less assertive and more or less responsive. The “driver” style is a more than average assertiveness level and less than average responsiveness and they are described as “fast-paced, speak rapidly, walk swiftly, decide quickly, and work efficiently. They are get-it-done people. They do not
TIES TO ADLER”S TASKS OF LIFE 19
agonize over decisions. They are the most results-focused of all the styles” (Bolton & Bolton, 2009, pp. 44-45).
The “expressive” style is more than average assertiveness and more than average responsiveness. Expressives “tend to be visionaries, they push people to look beyond the mere mundane and practical in order to undertake bold and imaginative goals, they can be impulsive, feelings play a great role, and they are very animated with their body language when they speak” (Bolton & Bolton, 2009, pp. 48-51).
The “amiable” style is less than average assertiveness and more than average responsiveness. These people are “very people-oriented, friendly, easy-going, and their relationships are more personal. They are especially sensitive to other people’s feelings. Amiables like to work with others and are very generous with their time. Because they are so opposed to conflict, they will often say what others want to hear just to avoid conflict” (Bolton & Bolton, 2009, pp. 54-58).
The “analytical” style is less than average assertiveness and less than average responsiveness. They are “the most perfectionistic, value exactness, prefer quality over quantity, want things to be right. They are often very hard on themselves and others and do not act impulsively. The analyticals are the most introverted and are private people and do not show their emotions. During conflict, analyticals are detached and try to use a rational approach” (Bolton & Bolton, 2009, pp. 59-62).
It can be very important to know social style, especially in the work place because in a survey about social style, results indicated that having differences in style can result in negative results; 88% of respondents reported communication breakdowns, 76% had difficult Yüklə 315,04 Kb. Dostları ilə paylaş:
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