People are constantly learning, there is not a day that goes by that we go to bed without learning something new. These learnings allow that, the next time we have the opportunity to put into practice what we learned, we can do it without difficulties or, at least, with less difficulty than the first time.
Through this learning, different skills are developed throughout our lives, which are improved from experience. However, many times we do not know what it is really to have a skill. For the same reason, in Psychology-Online we want to explain to you from examples and definitionswhat are the skills and what they consist of.
As we find defined, the skill refers to the skill, talent or aptitude that people have to effectively carry out a task. It can be said that when we say that someone is skillful, we mean the ability that he has to achieve success in the task that he is carrying out thanks to his skill.
Skills can be considered both innate like learning, as some of them are only acquired through trial and error.
A distinction of skills can be made into three large groups:
- Cognitive habilyties: all of which are involved mental processes, that is, memory, logic and the use of formal languages as in the case of mathematics. This article collects 20 cognitive skills.
- Social skills: dealing with others and relevant communication with them are involved in these. Here you will find the types of social skills.
- Physical abilities: within these are those that require coordination of the body.
According to the RAE, we define the ability as the circumstance or set of conditions, qualities or aptitudes, especially intellectual, that allow the development of something, the fulfillment of a function or the performance of a position.
For its part, the fitness as the innate ability to acquire certain types of knowledge and to function adequately in a subject from childhood. It can be said that they are all the conditions that a "base" person has to meet specific objectives.
The talent itself is the "special" brainpower to learn things easily and skillfully develop a specific activity. Talented people excel only in the field in which they have facilities. They tend to excel in this activity when compared to the rest. It's about a innate gift with which you are born. While it is true that over time it can develop, the person who has it will perform the activity naturally and effortlessly even without having to practice.
After analyzing the four definitions individually, it can be said that we are not talking about the sameHowever, all the concepts are interrelated with each other. That is, to develop a skill it is necessary for the person to innately present a certain aptitude for it. Furthermore, in order to develop the necessary capacities to carry out an action, it is not enough to have a ability to do so, but also requires prior knowledge on how to carry out said activity.
If a person is capable of performing an action, he has the necessary ability to do it, however if he is not capable, but if he has the potential to learn to do it, we speak of ability.
The term talent is the one that is more separated than the rest when it comes to defining itself, because it is about doing something in a special way without previous experience, study or training, while the skill would be the ability to perform such action through a learning.
Here is a list of skills that people can develop throughout their lives. I want to emphasize the first 10 which are, according to the WHO, those that all people should develop.
- Self-knowledge: ability to be aware of ourselves and to know what our strengths and weaknesses are, as well as to recognize our own feelings. In the following article you will find How to achieve self-knowledge.
- EmpathyKnowing how to put yourself in the place of others is completely necessary to be able to make appropriate decisions that do not affect the rest of the people around us. Here you can read How to practice empathy in my life.
- Assertive communication: refers to the ability of a person to express their opinion appropriately, defending her point of view, but always respecting the opinion of the rest. Even if you don't agree with it. Known techniques to develop assertive communication.
- Relationships: being able to create and maintain relationships with those around us. It does not refer only to relationships with close people, but also to work relationships, daily, etc.
- Decision making: being able to make decisions from reasoning and experience will help you not to rush and make decisions that you may later regret. Here you will find a method of solving problems autonomously and responsibly.
- Problem and conflict management: It is very important not to block yourself at times when a problem occurs. Therefore, being able to handle these situations by making the best possible decisions will allow the person not to enter a stressful situation. In the following article you can see How to Assertively Resolve a Conflict.
- Creative thinking: this skill offers us a way to approach situations from a renewed perspective, so that we can contribute new ideas and solutions.
- Critical thinking: ability to evaluate things and situations through objective assessment and analysis, that is, without being carried away by opinions.
- Managing emotions: being able to understand our own emotions and learn to manage them is a capacity that is in continuous learning, but that allows improving interpersonal relationships. Know these 12 techniques of emotional control.
- Managing tensions and stress: being able to control stressful situations and not let them affect our effectiveness when carrying out a task.
- Flexibility and adaptation: all areas of society are in continuous change (technology, science, ...) so being able to learning and adapting flexibly to new changes will allow us to confidently face new ones challenges.
- Resolving ability: life is full of problems, so being able to create batteries of proposals to solve them will help us in our performance.
- Ability to work in a team: we have to live and interact with other people on a daily basis, especially in the workplace. So possessing this skill will help us achieve efficient and satisfying work.
- Motivation and confidence: to achieve a goal you have to visualize it and believe in yourself with confidence and conviction. These thoughts will allow us to increase our motivation and therefore we will try harder to achieve it.
- Know how to work under pressureGetting used to handling stress and pressure helps the person with this ability to come out ahead in the best possible way. Always keeping calm.
- Proactivity: taking the initiative and anticipating the events that may happen will help the person to function in a safer way, without the uncertainty of not knowing what is going to happen.
- Communication: being able to express yourself is a fundamental skill to be able to interact in any area of our life.
- ProfessionalismDeveloping good work habits will allow us to organize ourselves and perform the tasks assigned to us efficiently.
- Attention: it is a practically unconscious ability, because even though we evade, our senses are still paying attention to what surrounds us.
- Memory: There are people who are surprising due to their high memory capacity, however, we all have this ability developed, since each learning that we carry out is stored in our memory.
- Reasoning: we have the ability to draw conclusions from the reality that surrounds us and as a result of this act accordingly.
- Association capacityThis is considered the basis of any learning, because without the association of action-consequence, we would not be able to understand the causal events that surround us.
- Force: some more and others less, but we all have the ability to exert muscular tension in order to overcome a resistance that is presented to us. In the following article you will find How to have willpower and tips to increase it.
- Endurance: this ability refers both to the one included within the physical and the one included in the social one. It is about the ability of a person to maintain an effort for a long period of time.
- Active listeningHearing is very different from listening, so being able to pay attention to other people and listen to what they tell us is really important for our social development.
- Patience: as they say in my area, it is the mother of science. Patience is a skill which helps you to be relaxed and avoid getting into situations of continuous stress. In the following article you will find How to be more patient.
- Metacognition: refers to the ability to assess from one's own cognition, that is, having the ability to analyze the information that we lack in order to optimize and improve our abilities.
- Inhibition: it is about being able to ignore those stimuli that surround us and that are irrelevant which could create interference in the development of a task.
- Velocity: within physical abilities we refer to the ability to make one or more movements in the shortest possible time. But in cognitive skills, we refer to the ability to respond or think in the shortest time possible.
- Handling people: be able to understand the personalities of the people around you and adapt your interaction with them to their needs.
This article is merely informative, in Psychology-Online we do not have the power to make a diagnosis or recommend a treatment. We invite you to go to a psychologist to treat your particular case.
