Abstract
Starting from the theory of David Brooks considering life abilities (see The Social Animal;
Keywords: Life abilitiesrelationshipinsecurity
Introduction
We live a social fluidization, we are overwhelmed by information, rumours and, as a consequence,
we develop Xerox behaviours and we indulge in formal, depthless relationships. In this world, our
students seem to live in a paradoxes world.
We are surrounded by technology meant to facilitate our communication, and still we have
difficulties to communicate efficiently; in a society focused on entertainment, young people are
complaining that are bored and tired; in a society that worships diploma, students have so many
possibilities to study (from face to face classes to e-learning, e-counselling, blended learning etc.), the
schools and universities’ offers are various and numerous, and the criteria for selection are less harsh, and
still the students have the tendency to abandon their studies.
In this context, in a university with a large campus, with a library and subscription for databases,
with a hall for students’ club etc. we have noticed that our students are permanently unsatisfied about their
activities and their social lives. They are complaining that they are bored, that their voice is not heard, that
the university do not offer them enough spaces and possibilities to communicate to each other and to
develop extracurricular activities together.
Why are they so unsatisfied? Why is so difficult for them to find interesting occupations, to fill
their lives? Is it their social abilities? Or, better said, is the low level of these abilities?
As we have already mentioned, many of our students confessed their concerns about their future,
about their possibility to find a job that satisfy their needs, their interests and society demands / offers. So,
we were interested to analyse the measure they possess the abilities that allows them to efficiently
integrate to social life (personal and professional relationships etc.), starting from the supposition that the
lack of social abilities prevents them for fulfil social and professional life.
Theoretical Framework
First of all, we have found that specialty literature / studies have approached different aspects of
life abilities issue. Also, we have noticed three different concepts analysed in these studies: (social)
engl. skill).
There are also other concepts in this area. For example, David Brooks (2014) proposes a reflection
on two lives story “of two people with successful careers, which have wined friends’ respect and
contributed significantly to their living community, country and world.” (Brooks, 2014). He makes a
review of different publications about possible explanations for the success of some people: he’s talking
about a non-cognitive aptitude, or life school, or an interior eye trying to emphasize the idea that “human
being is not – essentially – the result of his conscious thinking” (idem). So, he pays attention especially to
the effect of unconscious information processes on our lives.
Psychology Dictionary (Șchiopu, 1997) define aptitude as “a complex of relative stable traits of
personality that are conditioning accomplishing (over the average) different intellectual, artistic
(professional), scientific, organizational, sportive, technical or manual activities etc. The aptitude is
expressed through a raised of efficiency and of quality for a small number of exercises – so, it is
associated with an unusual facility for learning and developing skills”.
Individual competence becomes a particular case of “capacity” or “implicit knowledge”, or, if it
has a high level, specialists are talking about “expertize” (Dragomir, Zamfirescu, 2006). The ability is
“the acquired competence that leads to high levels of performance in the achievement of an attribution or
a category of attributions” (idem). Ph. E. Vernon (cited by Șchiopu, 1997) describe ability as activities
that allow to a person to make an activity rapidly, precisely, easily, efficiently (both in aspects quantitative
and qualitative), with reduced consume of nervous and psychic energy. U. Șchiopu adds that “the ability
is present in manual activities, for work, self-service, satisfaction of needs’ cyclically, and also in
sportive, artistic, intellectual, ideational, cultural that correlates with general intelligence and ingenuity”
(idem).
Considering social aptitudes, the author mentioned above notices that “there is a large category of
abilities involved in social accepted behaviour, connected by social roles and statutes, and also by
behaviour in small groups, in official social relations, familial relations, preserving traditions etc.”
(Șchiopu, 1997).
We were also interested to identify the difference between ability and aptitude in specialty
literature. There are specialists which consider that the aptitudes “have a large hereditary component, but
they are not directly determined by it, as they organize progressively into “operational systems” for
activity and learning and develop at different qualitative levels (Popescu-Neveanu, 1978)” (apud Dumitriu
s.a, 2014).
“The term ability is less use to qualify an intellectual competence.” (Dragomir, Zamfirescu, 2006).
In everyday activities or in technic, artistic, sportive activities (that are based on practical exercise of
action), the hierarchy of individual is based essentially on their level of ability.
U. Șchiopu (1997) also specifies that the ability is the result of activity and learning. So, the
aptitude indicates the possibility of human being to achieve, to develop, through training, what nature has
offered. Aptitudes have to be trained to become abilities. Through training and experience we could
develop skills, and the quality of being able to do something is the ability.
Skill is “a sequence of activity or an activity that become through exercise an automatized
component of the activity. (…) The skills are the foundation for the activities involved especially in
primary socio-cultural integration” (Șchiopu, 1997).
Concerning social skills, for example, Eileen Kennedy-Moore (2011), PhD, clinical psychologist,
defines them as “the abilities necessary to get along with others and to create and maintain satisfying
relationships. (…) Social skills are about being able to flexibly adjust our behaviour to fit a particular
situation and our personal needs and desires”. The author considers that “there are three main processes
that children (and adults) use to navigate the social world: Seeing, Thinking, and Doing”.
If we consider the profile of nowadays world, dominated by technology, fact that is reflected also
on social relationships, it’s easy to notice that, from the three processes proposed by Eileen Kennedy-
Moore as important for “navigation” through social world, dominant is the process of
involve reflection (or information offered by environment it’s already “processed” by others and ready to
be taken) and doing, socially speaking, suppose meeting people, involving in relationships, accepting risks
to deal with different people, with different education level and different conceptions about life and
problems solving etc.
“Doing” in social relations, for us, is interacting face to face, but, today, seems that technology
have offered so many possibilities for “doing” things without face to face interaction: telephone,
computer, internet etc.
An interesting study (see Moise, 2013) in this direction indicate that adolescents are using SMS as
socialization environment and the effect on interpersonal relationships is to grow individual selectivity, to
develop a relation and not to extend social contacts. So, again, seems that nowadays society develop a
model / pattern of relationship on distance, without involving necessarily the presence, physical presence
of the others – both on social and professional / work relationship and could be a sign for insecurity that
people feel for social relationships, insecurity sustained by the
other details see Schrenk, 2010).
An interesting remark about the consequence of the lack of social skill development we have found
in a study, made in Iran, concerning the influence of life skills on students’ life quality prediction. They
get to the conclusion that: “Life skills refer to those personal and social skills essential for children and
teenagers to be exemplary-behaved, regarding themselves, others, and the society (Tavish, 2000). In the
absence of these skills, one facing challenge and stress turns to inefficient and aberrant behaviours
(Taromian and his colleagues, Sell 2006, Gorman 2005)” (apud Ahmadi Gatab s.a., 2011).
As a conclusion for all the abundance of concepts in this area, we choose to focus on abilities for
our analysis and not on competence because our study does propose to analyse especially social
implications of the issue.
Methodology
Purpose of the Study and Participants
Our study proposed to analyse the level of life abilities of our students in order to demonstrate their
need to develop these abilities. We have started from the hypothesis that students feel un-satisfaction and
insecurity about their lives, and these feelings are demonstrated by their lack of life abilities (concerning
their everyday life, their insecurity for finding a job and developing a career, and, especially for planning /
managing their money).
For this purpose, we have involved in our study 29 students, with high academic achievement
level, aged between 18 and 26th years old, students with different specializations (Education Sciences,
Economics, Philology) from Petroleum-Gas University of Ploiesti.
Research Methods and Instruments
The main research instrument for our research was an adapted version of
skills, knowledge, and awareness in seven areas: Daily Living, Self-Care, Relationships and
Communication, Housing and Money Management, Work and Study Life, Relationships and
Communication, Career and Education Planning, and Looking Forward.
For the reasons mentioned above, we have been focused for this study on three of these areas:
Daily Living, Housing and Money Management, and Work and Study Life.
In order to complete / clarify research findings, a second research method we have used was focus
group interview.
Results and Discussions
Daily Living Skills
From the results of Daily Living issue (Casey Life Skills Assessment) and focus group interview,
we mention few significant aspects like:
•
of our subjects, most of them have indicated a high rate of computer use for daily living: getting access to
the internet, using e-mail, finding information, creating, sending, and printing documents. Also, the
majority have confessed that they are aware of the danger / risks that are exposed to the experience of
meeting people on the internet, hurting someone by exposing details about that could affect his / her
image. Still, unfortunately, some of them, during focus-group interview, have demonstrated that they are
not quite aware of the risks that they are exposing to making public pictures about their private life; for us,
this is a clue for their lack of reflection about the information that they are receiving (during education
process) – they have received information about the risks, but they do not put in practice these
information.
• Keeping connection with trustful adults that could offer help. In spite of their intention to
demonstrate autonomy, most of our subjects have declared that they mostly appeal to an adult that could
help them in case of emergency. We consider this confession as a proof of their reflection on their
autonomy (they have admitted their need for help), a recognition of their limits.
•
using a fire extinguisher). These items that have been focused our subjects’ autonomy. Here we have
found differences between our subjects’ answers according to their age. The subjects aged between 17 to
19 years old have mentioned many problems (in the order of their rank): they do not use a list for
shopping, do not know how to use a fire extinguisher, are not preoccupied about the influence of food on
their health (do not know to read / do not read a food label, do not know to make meal with / without a
recipe) or about washing laundry or keeping clean their living place. Starting from 20 to 26 years old, “the
list” of their problems is shorter: they have also the problem with rational shopping (do not use a shopping
list), making meals, thinking about eating healthy food (being aware about food’s influence on health,
reading and understanding labels’ information). This indicates that irrational behaviour as consumer is
still a problem even after 20 years old.
Housing and Money Management
We have found in this area the most problems of our subjects. A possible explanation could be the
lack of practical financial education in schools for our subjects (born in 90’s, when educational system
was doing its first steps on reform), and the fact that they are living in an irrational consumer society. The
results indicates that all young subjects, aged between 17 and 19 years old, and the most of other
categories (subjects aged between 20 and 26 years old) have difficulty on these items. Another
explanation for these results is the cultural model of Romanian society that still promotes mostly
traditional relations: young people, unmarried (and sometimes even couples, married or not) are living
with their parents and prefer to use their incomes for “entertainment”, travelling, spending them with
riends. Still, the model of living in parents’ house is still embraced by many Romanian young people, but
most of them are using parents’ money / financial and moral support for “living alone”.
From the results about Housing and Money Management, we mention few significant aspects like:
-
disadvantages of a credit card, what is a credit score, making economies, asking an adult for financial help
if he / she needs). From our subjects’ answers, we have found that most of them declare that do not
possess enough information about loans and credits, do not know the advantages / disadvantages of using
credit cards, do not have / use savings accounts, but know and appeal to the aid of an adult for financial
support. Our youngest subjects (17 to 19 years old) have mentioned the longest list with problems to the
mentioned issues – concerning financial balance / managing efficiently the incomes.
-
rental application, finding emergency help for paying a bill, paying assurance, planning / estimating
monthly costs, including a car costs). We have found here a paradox: they declare that are “mature
enough” to live out of the parents’ house, but still are not able to win enough money / balance their
incomes that allow them to pay their expenses.
Working and Study Life
The results indicate that our subjects consider that they are able to manage with CV, application for
a job, preparing for an interview, but there are serious gaps considering employees’ rights, getting
protection against harassment and discrimination (although they declare that they know the sense of these
concepts, they do not know the procedure for these situations and there are a lot of media signals that a
dangerous phenomenon – “workaholic” / “work dependency” – is growing in companies in Romania).
Maybe legislation classes could be useful for some of them; we consider useful to familiarize the
graduated with the role / function for different institutions that could offer legal advice, social protection
etc.
Another problem, partially explainable, is that they do not possess abilities to understand the
information from a salary document, to complete / understand income tax forms. We consider
“explainable” in the context that most of our students involved in the study do not have economic studies
(although they study Economy – seems that only theoretically – since high school).
If getting help about changing school, for school work, preparing exams do not represent a
problem for them, some students indicated as a problem for them respecting deadlines, getting for school /
work on time; and also they do not have the practice to verify their work – looking over for finding
mistakes. This could be a problem of abilities for time management.
Unfortunately, counselling services in Romanian schools are not so valued, or, at least, are not
supported by authorities (including policy makers). Although many students said that they know and
appeal in need to mental health services in schools, during interview they do not demonstrated too
familiar with counselling services. In Romania, counselling is a mental health service that exists in
schools / universities, but is too little promoted for pupils / students and also there is assigned a reduced
number of hours and counsellors.
Conclusions and Recommendations
Present research had started from the aim to identify the level of life abilities of our students
concerning their everyday life, insecurity for finding a job and developing a career, and, especially for
planning / managing their money.
An important finding of our study was that students demonstrated that they have a low level of life
abilities in spite of high level of academic achievements, result that could be explained either by
dysfunctions in students’ curricula or in the lack / low level of these abilities in adults (parents, teachers)
or in education errors of adults (which are not conscious enough about the importance of these abilities for
their children / students’ success). Obvious, low level of life abilities on students – in the context of a
society characterized by profound and rapid changes – generates difficulties in their socio-professional
integration, and implicit an emotional disequilibrium in their personal life.
More, from our investigated subjects’ answers we have found their preference for virtual world
both for meting a person and for solving work / professional tasks. Some specialists indicate this as a
culture of fear amplified by media – an insecurity in social contacts that become a vicious circle that
involve generations after generations.
Another important and worry finding for us is the lack of financial education for investigated
subjects, and that make us to recommend: even if new curricula support / encourage developing
knowledge / information about financial issues, maybe practical courses would be efficiently). It is a
paradox: young people wish autonomy, including financially, but demonstrate also irrational behaviour as
consumer, maintaining traditional model of living with their parents at least until finishing studies /
getting married (and move into another place) and frequently appeal to parents’ money to pay bills, find
difficult to find and maintain a job, to find / select / rent a house.
Based on the results of our study, we also recommend to policymakers and educative and cultural
institutions / organizations: •to develop young’s abilities for life by making partnerships that encourage young people to be in contact with various social categories of persons (rich and poor, managers and rough employees, young and old people, Romanian or foreigners etc.);
to involve them in educative projects meant to develop a rational consumer behaviour;
to encourage voluntary activities.
Voluntary activity is an important activity, specific to non-formal / informal education that allow
to the students to discover abilities and, especially, to build and develop life abilities. We think that,
through voluntary activities, students could discover what they like to work for living, and also if what
they like to do fit with they are able to perform (if interests, aptitudes and abilities met). We intend that in
our future studies to analyse the image of our students about voluntary activities (benefits, risks) and the
correlations with their life abilities.
References
- Ahmadi Gatab, T., Shayan, N., Medizade Tazangic, R., Taherid, M. (2011). Students' life quality prediction based on life skills. Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, 30, 1980-1982.
- Brooks, D. (2014). Animalul social (The Social Animal. The Hidden Sources of Love, Character, and Achievement). București: Publica.
- Dragomir, S., Zamfirescu, V. D. (editors, 2006). Larousse - Marele dicționar al Psihologiei (Larousse – Grand Dictionnaire de la Psychologie). Bucuresti: Trei.
- Dumitriu C., Timofti, I. C., Dumitriu, G. (2014). Communicative Skill And / Or Communication Competence? Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, 141, 489-493.
- Kennedy-Moore, E. (2011). What Are Social Skills?, https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/growing-friendships /201108/what-are-social-skills, accessed in September 2016.
- Moise, R. (2013). SMS-ul adolescentin: practici și reprezentări culturale (Adolescents SMS: practices and cultural representations). București: Editura Universității din București.
- Schrenk, J. (2010). Arta exploatării de sine sau minunata lume nouă a muncii (The Art of Self – Exploitation or the Wonderful New Labor World). București: Humanitas.
- Șchiopu, U. (coord.) (1997). Dicționar de psihologie (Pshychology Dictionary). București: Babel. http://www.performwell.org/index.php?option=com_mtree&task=att_download&link_id=493&cf_id=24, accessed on September for Casey Life Skills Assessment, 2016.
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Publication Date
25 May 2017
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Educational strategies, educational policy, organization of education, management of education, teacher, teacher training
Cite this article as:
Eftimie, S., & Mărgărițoiu, A. M. (2017). Students Life Abilities’ Need in an Insecure World. In E. Soare, & C. Langa (Eds.), Education Facing Contemporary World Issues, vol 23. European Proceedings of Social and Behavioural Sciences (pp. 1614-1621). Future Academy. https://doi.org/10.15405/epsbs.2017.05.02.198