Life Skills Ready Reckoner Lecture Notes

Vocabulary flashcards covering the definitions of core life skills, psychological concepts, communication theories, and training methodologies found in the 'Life Skills Ready Reckoner'.

Skill

An ability to perform an activity in a competent manner; a learned ability to do something well through practice and patience.

Life Skills

Abilities for adaptive and positive behaviour that enable individuals to deal effectively with the demands and challenges of everyday life (WHO, 1997).

Psychosocial Skills

The nature of life skills, where 'Psycho' is related to the mind and 'Social' to society (interacting with others and living in a group).

Psychomotor Skills

Technical skills that are mostly physical in nature, such as employability, livelihood, vocational, and language skills.

Critical Thinking

The ability to analyze information and experiences in an objective manner to recognize factors influencing attitude and behavior.

Creative Thinking

A way of looking at problems or situations from a fresh perspective and coming up with something new, original, and purposeful.

Problem Solving

The ability to deal with problems in our lives in a constructive manner.

Decision Making

The ability to choose from varied options based on existing knowledge while keeping in mind positive or negative consequences.

Self-awareness

Being aware of 'self', including our strengths, flaws, desires, likes and dislikes, beliefs, and abilities.

Empathy

The ability to be sensitive to another person's situation and to take perspective of and feel the emotions of another person.

Interpersonal Relationship

The ability to relate in positive ways with family and others, including making, keeping, and ending relationships constructively.

Effective Communication

The ability to express oneself verbally through spoken or written language and non-verbally through gestures and body movements in culturally acceptable ways.

Coping with Emotions

The ability to be aware of emotions, realizing how they influence behavior, and responding to them appropriately.

Coping with Stress

An ability that helps in identifying sources of stress, recognizing how it affects the body and mind, and learning how to manage it.

Generic Skills

Skills that are transferable from one domain to another and have applicability in various settings, such as communication or teamwork.

Material Self

According to William James, this includes one’s body, closest possessions, relatives, wealth, and lifelong endeavors.

Social Self

The components of self as recognized by others; James notes a person has as many social selves as there are individuals who recognize them.

Spiritual Self

A person's inner or subjective being, including psychic faculties or dispositions taken concretely.

The Looking-Glass Self

A concept by Charles Horton Cooley (1902) stating that a person's self grows out of society's interpersonal interactions and the perceptions of others.

The 'I' and the 'Me'

George Herbert Mead’s terms where 'Me' is the socialized aspect (learned in interaction) and 'I' is the individual’s response to the 'Me'.

Self-concept (Self-schema)

The organized structure of cognitions or thoughts we have about ourselves based on experience.

Congruence

A state identified by Carl Rogers where a person's self-concept matches up fairly well with reality.

Incongruence

A state where reality does not match up to a person's self-concept.

Self-esteem

The personal evaluation of ourselves and the resulting feelings of worth associated with our self-concept; how much you value yourself.

SWOT Analysis

A technique for understanding Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats (or Challenges) used for career or goal attainment.

Johari Window

A four-paned model (Open, Blind, Hidden, Unknown) by Joseph Luft and Harry Ingham to describe human interaction and personal awareness.

Open Quadrant (Johari Window)

Information about yourself that both you and others know (e.g., your name and interests).

Blind Quadrant (Johari Window)

Things others know about you that you are unaware of, such as aggressive behavior or hidden talents.

Hidden Quadrant (Johari Window)

Things you know about yourself that others do not know, such as fears, secrets, or hidden agendas.

Unknown Quadrant (Johari Window)

The 'Dark Area' containing abilities or repressed incidents that neither you nor others know about.

Self-talk

The internal way we speak to ourselves; it can be positive (motivating) or negative (pessimistic and critical).

Thought Stopping

A technique used to introduce positive thoughts and eliminate negative ones by using cues like saying 'park it' or visualizing a red stop sign.

Destructive Criticism

Negative feedback that is often delivered in anger or frustration, characterized by absolute and harsh statements (e.g., 'Posture was awful').

Constructive Criticism

Feedback focused on improvement and delivered politely (e.g., 'You may look more confident by standing with shoulders square').

Pro-social Behaviour

Actions performed with the goal of benefiting another person, regardless of the motive.

Altruism

Unselfish concern or devotion to the welfare of others, helping even if it involves a cost to the helper.

Volunteerism

Spending one's time on a worthy cause, often over a long period, typically involving a commitment to help someone in need.

Lasswell’s Communication Model

A method describing the communication process via the 'Five W’s': Who, Says What, Which Channel, To Whom, and With What Effect.

The 7 C's of Communication

Completeness, Conciseness, Consideration, Concreteness, Courtesy, Clearness, and Correctness.

VAPER

An acronym for the five dimensions of vocal messages: Volume, Articulation, Pitch, Emphasis, and Rate.

Passive Communication

A style where individuals avoid expressing opinions or feelings, protecting rights, or meeting their own needs, often resulting in slumped posture.

Aggressive Communication

A style where individuals advocate for their needs in a way that violates the rights of others, often involving loud, overbearing voices and piercing eye contact.

Passive-Aggressive Communication

A style where individuals appear passive on the surface but act out anger in subtle, indirect ways such as sarcasm or sabotage.

Assertive Communication

A style based on high self-esteem where individuals clearly state opinions and needs without violating the rights of others.

Refusal Skills

A combination of life skills used to say 'NO' effectively in high-risk or harmful situations.

Exchange Relationships

Interpersonal associations governed by the need for equity and an equal ratio of rewards and costs.

Communal Relationships

Associations where the primary concern is being responsive to the other person's needs, without keeping track of contributions.

Four Pillars of Teamwork

Collaboration, Communication, Conflict, and Change.

Tuckman's Stages of Team Development

Forming, Storming, Norming, Performing, and Adjourning.

Levinger's Model of Relationship Development

A five-stage model: Acquaintance, Build-up, Continuation, Deterioration, and Termination.

Perceptual Thinking (Concrete Thinking)

The simplest form of thinking based on the interpretation of actual objects and events via sensation.

Conceptual Thinking (Abstract Thinking)

Thinking that uses generalized ideas and language rather than actual objects; regarded as superior to concrete thinking.

Bloom’s Taxonomy

A classification of learning domains (Cognitive, Affective, Psychomotor) and cognitive levels: Knowledge, Comprehension, Application, Analysis, Synthesis, and Evaluation.

Lateral Thinking

A term coined by Edward de Bono (1967) for seeking solutions via unorthodox methods or seeing things from a new angle.

Vertical Thinking

Using logical processes and traditional patterns based on past information; selective rather than generative.

Divergent Thinking

Producing many different ideas or possibilities starting from one point; 'outside the box' thinking used by inventors.

Convergent Thinking

A type of thinking that converges on a single correct answer using logic and previous knowledge; common for mathematicians.

Incubation

A stage in the creative process where collected facts are churned in the mind, often leading to unusual connections while away from the problem.

Illumination

The 'Aha' moment in creative thinking when the thinker experiences a sudden appearance of the solution.

Functional Fixedness

An attitude that blocks creative thinking by limiting the use of an object to its traditional purpose.

Algorithm

A step-by-step procedure that guarantees a correct solution to a problem (e.g., rules of multiplication).

Heuristics

Mental rule-of-thumb strategies based on experience that simplify complex problems but do not guarantee a correct solution.

Means-end-analysis

A heuristic where a person determines the difference between the current situation and the goal, then tries to reduce that difference.

Fishbone Diagram (Ishikawa Diagram)

A cause-and-effect tool that identifies many possible categories of causes for a specific problem to structure brainstorming.

Hurson’s Productive Thinking Model

A six-step structured framework for solving problems creatively: What is going on?, What is success?, What is the question?, Generate answers, Forge the solution, and Align resources.

IDEAL Method

A problem-solving method: Identify the problem, Define/Describe solutions, Explore strategies, Act, and Learn/Look back.

Irreversible Decisions

Choices that, once made, cannot be unmade and have long-term repercussions.

PMI (Plus, Minus, Interesting)

A simple but powerful technique to weigh an idea by listing its good points, bad points, and areas of curiosity without immediate judgment.

Covey’s 4 Quadrants

A time management tool organizing activities by Importance and Urgency: 1) Important & Urgent, 2) Important but Not Urgent, 3) Not Important but Urgent, 4) Neither Important nor Urgent.

FOCUSED Coping

Appraisal-based coping drawing on religious, spiritual, or existential beliefs and goals to sustain well-being.

Problem-focused Coping

Strategies used to tackle a stressor directly to remove or reduce its cause (e.g., information seeking, taking control).

Emotion-focused Coping

Strategies used to handle feelings of distress rather than the actual problem (e.g., praying, distracting, letting off steam).

Subjective Wellbeing (SWB)

The formal term for Happiness, involving a preponderance of positive thoughts and feelings about one's life domains.

Stress

The psychological and physical strain generated by circumstances that are difficult to manage; the body’s 'fight-or-flight' response.

Eustress

Positive stress that motivates, focuses energy, and improves performance (e.g., the excitement before a competition).

Distress

Negative stress that causes anxiety, feels unpleasant, and can lead to mental and physical problems.

Hyper-stress

Negative stress occurring when an individual is unable to cope with an excessive workload, often leading to emotional breakdowns.

Hypo-stress

Stress that occurs when a person is constantly bored or unmotivated due to having nothing to do.

Participatory Training

An approach where the trainer acts as a facilitator and participants take greater responsibility for their learning through active interaction.

Facilitative Training

An intensive form of participatory training where the group plays the major role and takes responsibility for realizing programme objectives.

Instructional Design Process

The framework for analyzing training situations, defining outcomes, presenting content, and evaluating effectiveness.