Teaching social skills to psychiatric inpatients

A social skills training program was evaluated with psychiatric inpatients. The targeted social skills required an action or reaction within six component areas including Compliments, Social Interaction, Politeness, Criticism, Social Confrontation and Questions/Answers. The program used a commerciallyavailable social skills training game that features the use of response specific feedback, self-monitoring, individualized reinforcers and individualized performance criteria. A multiple-baseline design across groups demonstrated that the program increased appropriate responding in all skill areas. Two different generalization tests indicated that the Ss used their newly-learned skills outside the training setting. The program appears to be applicable to psychiatric inpatients since it targets skills in a variety of areas and employs standardized procedures to enhance replicability.