Human Skills Development Issues and Challenges: (PSYC 344)

Amity Institute of Psychology and Allied Sciences
Human Skills Development

Issues and Challenges
(PSYC 344)
Manoj Kumar
Assistant Professor,
Behavioural Science Coordinator
Amity Institute of Psychology & Allied Sciences
Amity University,, Noida
Module II: Developing Soft Skills
• The power of creative thinking

• Handling Emotions Effectively
• Developing positive attitude
• Problem Solving & Critical Thinking
What are soft skills?

Soft skills are character traits, personal attributes, and other
non-technical abilities that help you work and communicate
with other people. Some soft skills you might have to study
and learn, and others might come to you naturally.
List of Soft Skills
• Time management
• Teamwork
• Communication
• Adaptability
• Ability to perform under pressure
• Listening
• Delegation
• Creativity
• Leadership
• Problem-solving etc.
How to improve your soft skills

• Take an online course
• Get feedback from others
• Get a coach
• Practice with a friend
So what is ‘thinking’?
Thinking
• Thinking is a process that enables us to find solutions to problem

by using symbolic representation of stimuli and events.
Silverman, 1978
• Thinking involves mental manipulation of concept, propositions
and images. Baron, 1992
Some Facts:
• Thinking start with problem / requirement
• Trail & Error
• All thinking is goal directed
• Thinking is a internal speech
• Thinking is a complex mental process
• Past experiences involve in thinking
Types of Thinking:
• Autistic Thinking: Express imagination thought and will eg: Huge flat,
Luxury car, Swimming Pool, Good Life partner.
• Realistic Thinking: With the help of realistic thinking try to resolve
problem e.g: Suddenly car stopped, now you start thinking about the
reasons.
• Types of Realistic Thinking:
 Convergent Thinking
 Divergent
 Evaluative Thinking
Critical Thinking:
• It is a type of thinking that helps a person in stepping aside from his own
personal beliefs, prejudices and opinions to sort out the faiths and
discover the truth, even at the expense of his basic belief system.
Examples of Critical Thinking

• A plumber evaluates the materials that would best suit a particular
job.
• An attorney reviews evidence and devises a strategy to win a case or
to decide whether to settle out of court.
• A manager analyzes customer feedback forms and uses this
information to develop a customer service training session for
employees.
6 Characteristics of Critical Thinking

• Critical thinking is reasonable and rational.
• Critical thinking inspires an attitude of inquiry.
• Critical thinking is autonomous thinking.
• Critical thinking includes creative thinking.
• Critical thinking is fair thinking.
• Critical thinking focuses on deciding what to believe or do.
The importance of critical thinking

• Critical thinking is very important in the new knowledge
• Critical thinking enhances language and presentation skills
• Critical thinking promotes creativity
• Critical thinking is crucial for self-reflection
• Good critical thinking is the foundation of science and
democracy
Critical Thinking :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iaiF9cn5I2s
Creativity
“Creativity is the process of bringing something new into being.
Creativity requires passion and commitment. It brings to our
awareness what was previously hidden and points to new life.
Brainstorming
• Brainstorming is a great way to generate a lot of ideas that you would

not be able to generate by just sitting down with a pen and paper.
• The intention of brainstorming is to leverage the collective thinking of
the group, by engaging with each other, listening, and building on
other ideas.
• Conducting a brainstorm also creates a distinct segment of time when
you intentionally turn up the generative part of your brain and turn
down the evaluative part.
Important points for Brainstorming

• Set a time limit – depending on the problem’s complexity, 15–60 minutes is
normal.
• Begin with a target problem/brief – members should approach this sharply
defined question, plan or goal and stay on topic.
• Refrain from judgment/criticism – no-one should be negative (including via
body language) about any idea.
• Encourage weird and wacky ideas – further to the ban on killer phrases like
“too expensive”, keep the floodgates open so everyone feels free to blurt out
ideas, as long as they’re on topic.
Important points for Brainstorming

• Aim for quantity – remember, “quantity breeds quality”; the sifting-and-
sorting process comes later.
• Build on others’ ideas – it’s a process of association where members
expand on others’ notions and reach new insights, allowing these ideas to
trigger their own. Say “and”—rather than discourage with “but”—to get
ideas closer to the problem.
• Stay visual – diagrams and Post-Its help bring ideas to life and help others
see things in different ways.
• Allow one conversation at a time – keeping on track this way and showing
respect for everyone’s ideas is essential for arriving at concrete results.
ICEDIP Model
• INSPIRATION, where you explore, generate ideas, have visions,
research similar projects, brainstorm and dream.
• CLARIFICATION, where you discuss your aims, focus on your
goals, research costs and assess risks.
• EVALUATION, where you assess which ideas have best potential,
and how to improve your work as it moves forwards.
ICEDIP Model
• DISTILLATION – the process of concentrating or boiling your ideas
down into a single vision.
• INCUBATION, or not thinking about your idea! This phase is about
letting go and allowing new connections to happen naturally. You
may have the occasional ponder.
• PERSPIRATION, the hard work phase where you actually put plans
into action, with determination.
Negative Attitude That Block Creativity

1. Oh no,
2. It can't be done.
3. I can't do it.
4. But I'm not creative.
5. That's childish.
6. What will people think?
Qualities of Creative People

Independent
Usually, creative people have a strong sense of independence. They enjoy
being alone with their ideas and making art out of their thoughts. In a way,
they would prefer not to work on projects with other people since it is easier
for them to dive in and take charge all by themselves.
Curious
Creative people are always curious about how certain thing, they are the
people who constantly ask questions and want to become knowledgeable
about random things. Their curiosity comes across in their work and art since
they are brave enough to question and then answer things others will not.
Deep thinkers
It should come as no surprise that creative people are deep thinkers. They dive
deep into philosophical questions and want to get to the root of everything.
They internalize their thoughts and their mind is always running. They are
intelligent and become knowledgeable about religion, politics and the
meaning of life in general.
Open-minded
Creative people tend to be very open to new ideas and new ways of
thinking since they are constantly thinking about life and things from
different perspectives.
For example, if they are a writer, they are putting themselves in each of
their characters and their mindsets when drafting their novel. So when
they are living their life, putting themselves in other people’s shoes and
thinking in a different mindset comes easily to them.
Interesting
Creative people are truly interesting individuals. They have such a vibrant
personality that can entertain and keep you occupied for hours. They
have a wide range of interests which makes talking to them about nearly
anything always a fun time.
Fun
They are fun to be around since they have such a thirst for life. They are
usually excited about new people, places, and things. They want to soak
in everything that life has to offer and then put their experiences into their
work.
Ambitious
Creative people understand that no task is too small for them to tackle.
They are ready to take on a lot of work all at once and they know they can
produce awesome results. Most of the time, they do so under an intense
deadline and plenty of stress.
Sensitive
Creative people are sensitive since they are very in-tune with their
emotions and feelings. They capture this sensitivity and use it as
inspiration for their work. They have a certain sensitivity for people,
feedback, beauty, and other aspects of their life. They have a heightened
sense of sensitivity at all times.
Active
Creative people are active people. They have no tolerance for boredom
since they always want to be creating and improving their craft. They
thrive on new and exciting experiences since it provides inspiration for
their novel, poetry, music, dance or artwork.
Spreads Happiness
Creative people share their gift and passion with the world and this, in turn,
spreads happiness. Their art evokes certain emotions and responses from
people, it also may inspire other people to become creative themselves.
Creative people may enjoy sharing their work with others because it also
makes them happy to receive great reviews of their work.
9 Ways to Improve Your Creativity
• Commit Yourself to Developing Your Creativity

• Learn Through Collaboration
• Do Something you Love
• Find Inspiration from Other Industries
• Set the Right Mood
• Ask for Advice or Feedback
• Be Willing to Take Risks
• Build your Confidence
• Brainstorm to Inspire New Ideas
• Try the "Six Hats" Technique
Try the "Six Hats" Technique

• Red Hat: Look at the situation emotionally. What do your feelings tell
you?
• White Hat: Look at the situation objectively. What are the facts?
• Yellow Hat: Use a positive perspective. Which elements of the
solution will work?
• Black Hat: Use a negative perspective. Which elements of the
solution won’t work?
• Green Hat: Think creatively. What are some alternative ideas?
• Blue Hat: Think broadly. What is the best overall solution?
Approaches To Creativity
• Psychoanalytic approach of Freud views creativity as sublimation
of drives or of wish fulfillment. According to Freud (1958),
unconscious processes play an important role in creativity. He
highlights the defense mechanisms, particularly ‘sublimation’ which
leads to creative expression.
• Freud considered sublimation a sign of maturity that allows people
to behave in civilized and acceptable ways. This process can lead
people to pursue activities that are better for their health, for
instance, or to engage in behaviors that are positive, productive,
and creative.
• Behaviouristic approach to creativity focuses on forming new

or novel connections and associations between stimuli and
responses. Insightful learning is one example of creative
thinking.
• Learning new associations helps in gaining insights or
engaging in creative thinking. Thus creativity, in line with the
behaviouristic principles, is consists of overt and observable
behaviour
• Cognitive approach focuses on the cognitive processes such

as attention, memory and flexibility in learning as playing an
important role in creativity. Studies (e.g., Wallach, 1970) have
found that broader attention enables the individual to take in a
wider range of stimuli and memory traces than focused
attention, and thus, helps in creativity.
• Cognitive approach also highlights the role of divergent
thinking in creative ideas. I
• Differential approaches to creativity focuses on the four P’s of

creativity: the person, the process, the product, and the press. This
is highlighted in the definition of creativity given by Plucker,
Beghetto & Dow (2004).
• This definition consists of the four aspects of creativity, that is, the
person, process, product, and press (environment).
• The person approach to creativity focuses on the personality traits
of the person relevant for creative behaviour. It identifies the
characteristics of creative people.
• The process approach refers to the mechanisms through

which creativity occurs. It focuses mainly on the cognitive
mechanisms underlying creative thinking and behaviour.
• The product approach to creativity puts emphasis on the final
creative product which the individual has arrived at. It tries to
identify the criteria or characteristic features of a creative
product.
• The press approach focuses on the situation or the context in
which the creative person and the creative process operate
and the creative product is generated.
Emotion
“Emotion” word is derived from Latin word “Emovere” which means – to
excite.
“By emotion we mean a subjective feeling state involving physiological

arousal, accompanied by characteristic behaviour”.
Baron, Byrne & Kantowitz: 1980
“ We will define emotion as feeling or affect, that can involve physiological

arousal, conscious experience and behavioural expression”.
Santrock: 2000
What are positive emotions?

‘Positive emotions’ doesn’t just mean feeling happy all the time. A range of other
emotions can also increase focus and success and over time improve student
wellbeing.
These emotions include:

• joy
• amusement
• hope
• pride
• interest
• compassion
• gratitude.
Components of Emotions
Physiological:
Pertain to the internal changes in our arousal level which may result to
increased heart rate, high blood pressure, and increased respiration.
Behavioural:
It is the outward signs of emotions such as facial expression, body gesture,
posture and tone of voice.
Cognitive:
It determine the types and intensity of the emotions we experienced based
on our thought, belief and experiences.
Emotional Intelligence
• Emotional Intelligence – “is the ability to monitor one’s own and
other’s emotions, to discriminate among them, and to use the
information to guide one’s thinking and actions” (Salovey & Mayer
1990).
• “Emotional Intelligence is a way of recognising, understanding, and
choosing how we think, feel, and act. It shapes our interactions with
others and our understanding of ourselves.
• Research suggests it is responsible for as much as 80% of the
“success” in our lives” (Freedman et al).
Advantages of Emotional Intelligence

• Improves relationships with human beings
• Improves communication with people
• Makes better empathy skills
• helps you to get respect from others
• To improve career prospects
• Managing change more confidently
• Enjoy the work wholeheartedly
• Feeling confident and positive in attitude
• reduce stress levels
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RTmiMTFA2i4
Emotional Intelligence Models

• In the course of last two decades EI researchers have developed three
major models they are ability, mixed, and trait models. The main
difference in these three categories is whether authors perceive their EI
as an innate human trait or a competence that can be systematically
developed over time.
Ability Model of EI includes four types of

abilities:
• Perceiving emotions — the ability to identify and interpret

emotions in faces, pictures and voices – including the ability to
identify one‘s own emotions.
• Using emotions — the ability to use emotions to facilitate
various cognitive activities, such as thinking and problem
solving. The emotionally intelligent person can be benefited in
his or her changing moods in any work.
• Understanding emotions — the ability to comprehend emotion

language and to appreciate complicated relationships among emotions.
For example, understanding emotions include the ability to be sensitive
to slight variations between emotions, and the ability to recognize and
describe how emotions grow over time.
• Managing emotions — the ability to regulate emotions in both
ourselves and in others. Therefore, the emotionally intelligent person can
tie together emotions, even negative ones, and manage them to achieve
intended goals.
Goleman : A Mixed Model of Emotional

Intelligence
• Self-awareness — the ability to read one‘s emotions and
recognize their impact while using gut feelings to guide decisions.
• Self-management — involves controlling one‘s emotions and
impulses and adapting to changing circumstances.
• Social awareness — the ability to sense, understand, and react
to others‘ emotions while comprehending social networks.
• Relationship management — the ability to inspire, influence,
and develop others while managing conflict.
The Trait EI model

Petrides et al. (2004) proposed a conceptual distinction between the ability
based model and a trait based model of EI. ―Trait EI model refers to an
individual‘s self-perceptions of his emotional abilities. This definition of
EI includes behavioral tendency and self perceived abilities and is
measured by self report. Trait EI should be investigated within a
personality framework. An alternative name for the same construct is trait
emotional self-efficacy.
Ways of Handling Emotions Effectively

• Exercise: this releases reward and pleasure chemicals in the brain
such as dopamine, which makes you feel better. Being fit also makes
you healthier, which helps in managing emotions.
• Be kind to others, because this helps stop you worrying about
yourself.
• Be open and accept what is going on around you. Learn to
appreciate what is happening and avoid excessive criticism of others or
of situations.
• It’s good to talk. Spend time with other people and enjoy their
company.
• Distract yourself. Yes, you really are that shallow. Watching a bit of

TV, reading, or surfing the internet will probably help you forget that
you were feeling a bit down.
• Don’t give in to negative thinking. If you find yourself having
negative thoughts, then challenge them by looking for evidence against
them.
• Spend time outside. Being in the fresh air, especially around nature,
is very helpful for calming the emotions. There is evidence that we
need to see horizons, so if you can go up a hill and look at the view
then do.
• Be grateful. Thank people in person for doing nice things for

you, and remember it.
• Play to your strengths. That often means doing things that
you enjoy, but it also involves doing things that are good for
you.
• Notice the good things in your life. In old-fashioned terms,
count your blessings.
How to improve your Emotional Intelligence:

• Utilize an assertive style of communicating. ...
• Respond instead of reacting to conflict. ...
• Utilize active listening skills. ...
• Be motivated. ...
• Practice ways to maintain a positive attitude. ...
• Practice self-awareness. ...
• Take critique well. ...
• Empathize with others.
Broaden-and-Build Theory
Broaden-and-build theory of positive emotions, suggests that building up

positive emotions within a person will tend to broaden that person's
creativity, openness, understanding, and behavior. Joy makes you want
to play, interest makes you want to explore etc.
The theory was originally proposed by psychology professor Barbara

Frederickson in the late 90's. Her work indicates that consistent
choices that induce positive emotions tend to build up intellectual,
social, and psychological resources.
The positive emotional state tends to produce a higher level of
knowledge over time, and social relationships grow and become richer
as others notice and enjoy a person's joy, openness, and wonder.
• Researchers concluded that the people who saw the positive movies were
much more prone to creative, expansive, possibility-oriented thoughts and
behavior than the other groups.
• They would make more friends, establish better relationships, and tend to
enjoy their lives more. They would learn more, remember more, and
generally develop more intellectual resources.
• Those who observed negative movie-induced emotions tended to adapt
behaviors that were less social, less creative, and less challenging for their
minds.
Implications
• One implication of the broaden-and-build theory is that positive

emotions may help us process the residue of negative emotions.
• For instance, when your heart rate rises after experiencing a
negative emotion, you bounce back to a calmer pace if
experiencing positive emotions.
The Benefits of Positive Emotions

The Broaden and Build theory shows that positive emotions
build:
• Scope of Cognition
• Resilience to Negative Emotions
• Better Relationship
• Attention and Focus
4 Ways to Create Positive Emotions

• Do Relaxation Techniques – Relaxation techniques includes things like
meditation, yoga, and muscle relaxation exercises. The primary positive
emotion associated with relaxation techniques is contentment. Contentment
is particularly good for reversing negative emotions and building resilience to
negative emotions.
• Find Positive Meaning – Finding positive meaning works in three different
ways:
• Reframing adverse events in a positive light (also called positive reappraisal)
• Infusing ordinary events with positive value
• Pursuing and attaining realistic goals
• Just Smile – Our brains don't know the difference between a real smile
and a fake smile, so when you fake a smile, your brain responds in the
same way (releases the same ‘happy chemicals') that it would if your
smile had been genuine. So even faking positive emotions can have a
real, positive impact.
• Do Something you Love – Some of my favorites are playing soccer,
reading, and cooking. These things relax you, make you feel good, and let
you forget about the world for awhile. Everyone's favorites will be different
and unique. Make sure you know what your favorites are and make sure
they are always close at hand.
Problem
A perceived gap between the existing state and a desired
state, or a deviation from a norm, standard, or status
quo.
Barriers to Problem Solving

The Six Step Problem Solving Model

The Six Steps
• Define the Problem
• Determine the Root Cause(s) of the Problem
• Develop Alternative Solutions
• Select a Solution
• Implement the Solution
• Evaluate the Outcome
The 5 Most Common Problems of Organizations

• Absence of clear direction. Lack of direction is one of the most
common organizational problems.
• Difficulty blending multiple personalities into a cohesive and
unified team.
• Failure to develop key competencies and behaviors.
• Poor communication and feedback.
• Lack of awareness.
Attitude
Attitude means how we perceive and evaluate the

things ( Object, Person, Situation etc.).
70
Types of Attitude
 Negative Attitude
 Neutral Attitude
 Positive Attitude
72
Result of Negative Attitude

 Low working efficiency
 Unorganized work Place
 Do not get better result
 Negative feelings
 Stress
 Uncontrolled Anger
 Low Self Esteem
 Family Problems
 Unhealthy Relationship
 Bad Image
76
Result of Positive Attitude

 Feel Happy and Live Healthy
 We inspire ourselves to do good work
 Better work efficiency and get better result
 Healthy Environment in Family
 Develop Good Etiquettes in our children
 Healthy relationship with every one
 Increase Self Confidence
 Self respects from others
 Better Image form
77
Techniques of Positive Attitude Development

 Recognize causes of Negative Attitude
 Always think Positive
 Recognize Internal Conflict
 Effective Communication
 Goal Setting
 Be Ready
 Accepting ourselves
 Accepting Truthiness
 Keep Patience
 Self Confidence
 Always ready to help others
 Give importance to spirituality
78
Positive Attitude & Pleasing Personality

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BjeKGQnZJOo
THANK YOU !

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Amity Institute of Psychology and Allied Sciences

Human Skills Development

Module II: Developing Soft Skills

• The power of creative thinking

What are soft skills?

How to improve your soft skills

• Thinking is a process that enables us to find solutions to problem

Examples of Critical Thinking

6 Characteristics of Critical Thinking

The importance of critical thinking

• Brainstorming is a great way to generate a lot of ideas that you would

Important points for Brainstorming

Important points for Brainstorming

Negative Attitude That Block Creativity

Qualities of Creative People

• Commit Yourself to Developing Your Creativity

Try the "Six Hats" Technique

• Behaviouristic approach to creativity focuses on forming new

• Cognitive approach focuses on the cognitive processes such

• Differential approaches to creativity focuses on the four P’s of

• The process approach refers to the mechanisms through

“By emotion we mean a subjective feeling state involving physiological

“ We will define emotion as feeling or affect, that can involve physiological

What are positive emotions?

These emotions include:

Advantages of Emotional Intelligence

Emotional Intelligence Models

Ability Model of EI includes four types of

• Perceiving emotions — the ability to identify and interpret

• Understanding emotions — the ability to comprehend emotion

Goleman : A Mixed Model of Emotional

The Trait EI model

Ways of Handling Emotions Effectively

• Distract yourself. Yes, you really are that shallow. Watching a bit of

• Be grateful. Thank people in person for doing nice things for

How to improve your Emotional Intelligence:

Broaden-and-build theory of positive emotions, suggests that building up

The theory was originally proposed by psychology professor Barbara

• One implication of the broaden-and-build theory is that positive

The Benefits of Positive Emotions

4 Ways to Create Positive Emotions

Barriers to Problem Solving

The Six Step Problem Solving Model

The 5 Most Common Problems of Organizations

Attitude means how we perceive and evaluate the

Result of Negative Attitude

Result of Positive Attitude

Techniques of Positive Attitude Development

Positive Attitude & Pleasing Personality

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