Assessing Adults

Abstract

In assessing the social skills of adults, many of the same factors in assessing social skills among children and adolescents will influence the resulting data. Issues such as single versus multiple prompts, standardized or individualized scenarios, and molar versus molecular ratings all impact the use and validity of social skills assessments with adults, adolescents, and children alike. However, the assessment of social skills in adults also holds some potential difficulties not typically seen when working with children and adolescents. In this chapter, particular methodological considerations in social skills assessment of adults will be covered. Major assessment methods, including clinical interviews, self-report, and observation, will be surveyed and particular method variations used with adults will be highlighted. For assessing the social skills of adults, a variety of useful self-report and analogue observational methods have been developed and empirically evaluated. The range of structured and unstructured, as well as standardized and ideographic, observational schemes affords the clinician assessment tools to meet most clinical situations. Clinical interview methods also appear promising, although they have not been subjected to psychometric evaluation. Despite this, concerns about the validity of social skill assessment methods exist. Several studies have shown poor congruence between naturalistically observed behavior and behavior displayed in analogue interactions. Instructions, client characteristics, role-play partner characteristics, observer training, and the specific role-played scenarios, can all have impacts on the resulting data. Self-report and clinical interviews are likewise subject to sources of considerable error including, but certainly not limited to, client unawareness of their skill deficits, socially anxious perceptions of skill deficits, impression management, floor and ceiling effects, and reading level or comprehension difficulties. Given these limitations, a comprehensive multi-modal assessment strategy is strongly recommended. Standard self-report questionnaires could be administered as a screen, with clinical interview, behavioral observation, and additional self-report questionnaires being administered if the screening or clinical intuition suggests potential skill problems. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)