Everyone's existence is not isolated, whether it is daily life or work and study, in fact, it is a process of interpersonal communication.
Positive interpersonal networks are one of the indicators of well-being and mental health.
One of the important developmental tasks of adolescents is to establish harmonious relationships with classmates, friends and family around them.
The quality of interpersonal relationships depends in part on an individual's interpersonal skills or interpersonal behavior.
Considering that every person has interpersonal needs and the importance of interpersonal communication to the mental health of individuals, the concept of interpersonal quality was born.
Interpersonal qualities have two types of definitions, the first definition is based on an individual's interpersonal personality qualities.
Some psychologists define interpersonal qualities from the perspective of personal qualities and personality traits, and believe that interpersonal qualities refer to the personality traits required by individuals to establish good interpersonal relationships with others through interpersonal communication.
Interpersonal quality is not a single interpersonal personality trait, but a composite of five personality traits: gregariousness, kindness, altruism, empathy and friendliness.
In addition, considering the importance of interpersonal communication to individual development and adaptation, interpersonal qualities are now more inclined to be regarded as a basic and essential personal quality for individual mental health.
Interpersonal quality includes interpersonal communication, interpersonal regulation and interpersonal attitude, that is, when discussing interpersonal quality, it focuses on emphasizing the individual's interpersonal skills, which belongs to the second type of definition.
So, what exactly are interpersonal qualities?
Interpersonal quality refers to the ability of an individual to establish good interpersonal relationships, perceive the needs of others' interpersonal communication and actively communicate with others in the process of interpersonal communication with others.
Interpersonal qualities affect the quality of an individual's interpersonal relationships and the satisfaction of interpersonal needs.
No man is an island, and everyone has the basic motivational need for interpersonal attachment and social belonging, so there is a universal motivation to form and maintain more lasting positive relationships.
Interpersonal qualities are conducive to promoting individuals to maintain stable interpersonal bonds in daily interpersonal social communication and gain more social support.
American psychologist Freud believes that motivation comes from sexual impulses, but also mentions the basic needs of interpersonal communication in a variety of ways.
He places relationship attribution needs in the middle of the motivational hierarchy.
That is, the need for a relationship will not arise until basic needs such as food and security are met, but it still takes precedence over the need for self-esteem and self-actualization.
Individuals need to constantly adjust their interpersonal performance or interpersonal attitude in the communication situation according to the actual quality of interpersonal relationships and the degree of satisfaction of communication needs, so as to further improve interpersonal quality to achieve the purpose of establishing stable interpersonal bonds and social relationships.
From an evolutionary perspective, forming and maintaining human bonds is good for individual survival, reproduction, and care for offspring.
When faced with some survival tasks, such as hunting large animals or maintaining defensive vigilance against carnivorous enemies, it is best done through interpersonal communication and cooperation with others, which seem to increase the need to be with others and emphasize the protective value of group members.
In real life, adults with good interpersonal networks and interpersonal attachment relationships also gain certain advantages in interpersonal support and so on.
In addition, competition for limited resources may also be the driving force behind the individual's tendency to form interpersonal social relationships with others, and resources can be shared within the group when resources are scarce, and the dilemma of one person being weak is not faced when competing.
Thus, the tendency to form and maintain social relations is able to protect oneself and one's own resources from external threats.
The result of this evolutionary selection may be a series of internal mechanisms that guide individuals into social groups, develop their own interpersonal qualities, and establish lasting relationships.
Individuals with poor interpersonal qualities may experience feelings of deprivation of social relationships and tend to experience emotional pain.
Individuals in positive and stable social relationships can feel happy and satisfied, and this emotional mechanism promotes the cultivation of individuals' interpersonal qualities through positive reinforcement and social relationship deprivation punishment.
In addition, the quality of interpersonal relationships is also one of the goals of individuals to cultivate interpersonal qualities.
In a relationship, social contact with long-term close people brings some satisfaction and sense of belonging that cannot be obtained in the process of interacting with strangers or new acquaintances.
Interpersonal qualities can help individuals build a durable, stable, and more intimate social relationship.
From the perspective of the need to belong, the need to belong should stimulate those goal-oriented behaviors aimed at satisfying it, while the establishment of interpersonal behavior needs to promote the cultivation of the individual's own interpersonal qualities.
The formation of interpersonal bonds is also accompanied by emotional fluctuations, more precisely, positive emotions tend to arise from the formation and consolidation of social bonds, while negative emotions should arise when relationships are broken, threatened, or rejected.
If belonging to establish interpersonal relationships with others is indeed a basic need, then the reaction to losing interpersonal belonging due to reasons such as low personal quality should not be limited to negative emotions.
Instead, stress, psychopathology, and maladaptive behavioural and mental health problems can occur as a result of social relationship deprivation.
Therefore, the higher the interpersonal quality and the better the interpersonal relationship, the more frequently the individual can interact and contact with others.
Ideally, these interactions should be positive and enjoyable.
The most important thing is to keep individuals in interpersonal interactions from deprivation, conflict, and negative emotions, followed by the pursuit of further self-development.
When people realize that there is an interpersonal relationship characterized by stability, emotional care, and continuity for the foreseeable future.
This motivates them to further refine their interpersonal qualities, and this awareness perception is essential for the satisfaction of interpersonal qualities and relationship belonging, and also provides a relational context for interpersonal interactions.
Interpersonal quality is not only the individual's own requirements, in interpersonal communication, this kind of interpersonal pleasantness and care and cooperation should be mutual, so that both parties can have a more satisfactory feeling experience in communication.
Studies have shown that the relationship produced by the framework of common concern for each other with high interpersonal qualities is qualitatively different from the social exchange relationship based on low interpersonal qualities such as selfishness.
Therefore, the need for relationship belonging is not a simple relationship need, but a relationship need for intimacy, emotional care and warmth.
Frequent contact with people with low interpersonal qualities who are not supportive, indifferent, and disrespectful not only cannot establish good and harmonious interpersonal relationships, but also does not help the satisfaction of belonging to interpersonal relationships.
On the contrary, if it can be characterized by high interpersonal qualities and strong attachment, intimacy and commitment, the interpersonal belonging needs of both parties in daily interpersonal interaction contact can be satisfied.
In summary, the cultivation of interpersonal quality has certain practical significance in establishing interpersonal relationships and social support systems, meeting the needs of interpersonal relationship belonging, and adapting to the external environment.
In actual interpersonal communication, we will also find that personal beliefs and psychological adaptation also affect the level of communication of individuals.
Beliefs are concepts about the nature, causes, and consequences of people, events, processes, which are part of the structure and culture of society and guide the socialization of those who share that culture.
It can be seen that beliefs affect the socialization and adaptation process of individuals, and are also related to the social and national background culture of individuals.
An individual's belief in society and national culture reflects his assumptions or identification with the norms, values, attitudes, and behaviors that are unique to the society and the state and originate from a common origin culture that has been passed down from generation to generation.
An individual's belief in adversity is a concept about the nature, causes, and consequences of adversity, and of course, the cultural background of the different countries in which the individual lives needs to be considered in the process of studying adversity beliefs.
In summary, the belief in adversity in the context of Chinese culture in this paper refers to the way individuals perceive adversity, including the individual's understanding of adversity itself and subsequent behavioral tendencies and coping strategies.
Whether it is cognitive behaviorism, individual constructivism, or Lazarus's theory of cognitive evaluation, their basic claims are consistent that people are not disturbed by things themselves, but by their interpretations of things.
The positive effect of adversity beliefs on positive psychological traits such as individual well-being and adaptation.
Adversity beliefs in the context of Chinese culture can be divided into two categories, namely positive adversity beliefs and negative adversity beliefs.
On the one hand, positive adversity beliefs emphasize the positive value of adversity and people's ability to overcome adversity, and this cultural belief is basically formed by Chinese Confucianism, which strongly upholds people's inner strength and virtues, such as perseverance and tolerance.
These beliefs are reflected in proverbs such as "Man is better than man when he suffers" and "Man is the master of his own destiny."
On the other hand, under the influence of Buddhism and Taoism, superstition and emphasis on destiny are inherent characteristics of traditional Chinese culture.
Thus, negative adversity beliefs emphasize the negative effects of adversity, the belief that people cannot change adversity.
Examples of such beliefs include the sayings "good ugliness is born" and "people are poor and short-minded".
Regarding the influence mode of adversity belief, it mainly plays two aspects: first, the individual's confidence and efficacy in overcoming difficulties; The second is the individual's perception of the positive/negative value of adversity.
From the first point of view, if the individual is confident in overcoming adversity, it can bring a series of positive experiences to the individual, such as self-esteem, self-efficacy, etc., which is of great significance for the individual to overcome difficulties and achieve good adaptation and development.
From the second point of view, this involves the individual's construction of the meaning of adversity, and if adversity is seen as an opportunity for personal development, which is ultimately beneficial to the development of the individual itself, then it is easier to accept the current dilemma.
On the other hand, if adversity is seen as God's punishment, retribution, or reincarnation, then it is difficult for the individual to accept it.
In short, belief in adversity in a culturally relevant context provides people experiencing adversity with the cognitive basis for understanding their current adaptation to events and developing coping behaviors.
Mental adaptation
Adaptation originated from the field of evolutionary biology, adaptation and personal survival and development are closely related, it can be simply understood as physiological or behavioral changes, and this change is closely related to survival.
Evolutionary psychologists believe that few concepts are as problematic but so important as adaptation.
First of all, the first problem is that adapting it can be both a verb and a noun.
As a verb, it refers to the process by which individuals change to become more adaptable to their environment, a process that includes changes in individuals over time, or systematic changes in the history of the species as a whole.
Adaptation as a noun has two basic forms, and some evolutionists define adaptation as any attribute that contributes to the survival and reproduction of an individual in the present.
For example, learning a new skill, or learning to eat a new food, can be considered an adaptation if it can increase your health.
Most evolutionists define adaptation as the end product of history in the evolutionary process.
In the field of psychology, the concept of adaptation is more concerned with the adaptive behavior and coordination process of individuals, such as light and dark adaptation to light or human emotional adaptation, social adaptation and learning adaptation.
It is generally believed that the psychological adaptation process has two characteristics: psychological adaptation is a dynamic time process; Individual internal factors play an important role in the psychological adjustment process.
As individuals adapt to the outside world, they may go through some form of "final adjustment" such as denial, anxiety, anger, and acceptance, which reflects another common feature that more distal responses are based on experiencing more proximal responses.
In addition, the process of psychological adaptation may involve the interaction of intrinsic psychodynamics, because psychological adaptation involves a process of changing the evolution of the self to reconstruct the self and thereby adapt to changes or losses that occur in the body and the external environment.
Psychological adaptation is not a single event, but a series of processes that recur as individuals encounter and respond to new changes.
It can be understood as a process of reaching a new level of order, stability and adaptation, a model of autonomous organization within the structure of the individual, creating and renewing the self by adjusting the interaction of its own processes with its surroundings.
From this perspective, psychological adaptation is the regulation of the self to achieve structural coupling with the environment.
In the face of the same external changes, some people may have particularly obvious adverse reactions and even take a long time to return to a balanced state, while some people can adapt quickly, reflecting individual differences in psychological adaptation, which also reminds us that we need to understand individual psychological adaptation in combination with specific contexts and constraints.
The study of psychological adaptation seeks to understand the skills and internal resources of individuals who can best adapt.
Buss et al. point out that evolutionary psychology is actually a human adaptivist project, that is, the identification of all the mental adaptation processes that make up human nature.
Although identifying and exploring the mechanisms of human psychological adaptation is a difficult problem, psychologists have received some help inspired by related theories.
For example, inclusive adaptation theory can lead evolutionary psychologists to study individual psychological adaptation through various types of families, which can help people understand how psychological adaptation manifests.
That is to say, people can form a certain understanding of psychological adaptation through the research of psychologists on adaptation, such as psychological adaptation may have various positive effects and functions for individuals, which can be conducive to people's survival and development.
Evolutionists generally believe that adaptation will manifest as functional behavior, and many evolutionary psychologists also believe that individual adaptations will appear in specific domains, with modularity.
That said, adaptations tend to be relatively discrete, each with its own unique domain scope and function.
Based on the epistemological perspective of occurrence, Piaget believed that psychological adaptation is an intrinsic function produced by the interaction and coordination process between subject and object, and is a dynamic process of "assimilation" and "conformity".
When the environment changes, individuals increase the amount of information and schemas they have through assimilation; New cognitive processing methods are carried out through adaptation, and new cognitive schemas are produced.
Under the two effects, the purpose of achieving equilibrium with the external environment is constantly achieved.
When the environment changes again, this dynamic process continues to appear repeatedly, and this series of changes from balance, imbalance to balance is psychological adaptation.
Psychological adaptation can provide explanations for the cognitive and intellectual development of individuals, which is the essence and root cause of children's intellectual development.
Psychological adaptation also often appears in the field of discussing individual mental health, and from this perspective, psychological adaptation is accompanied by a series of dynamic processes in behavior, cognition and attitude of individuals.
Specifically, it is manifested in regulating self-knowledge, controlling self-emotions, adjusting response attitudes and adaptive behaviors, etc., and various psychological traits and qualities related to this are closely related to the psychological adaptability of individuals.
Psychological adaptation has the following characteristics:
Psychological adaptation is the subject's response to the object;
Psychological adaptation aims to pursue a state of equilibrium with the environment;
Psychological adaptation can be explained by a combination of assimilation and compliance.
These characteristics favor our understanding of psychological adaptation.
However, from a system perspective, there are still the following points that need to be further explained:
First of all, psychological adaptation presupposes changes in the external environment or body and mind.
If there is no change, it does not matter whether to adapt or not to adapt.
It is precisely because the natural, psychological and social environment in which the individual is located is constantly changing, so the problem of adaptation is of practical significance to everyone, and everyone may have adaptation problems, and there will be a need to constantly adapt to the new environment.
In this way, adaptation is actually a phased development task that each individual will face in the process of growth, and different levels of psychological adaptation will lead to differences in individual development levels.
Secondly, based on the view of balance theory, psychological adaptation aims to pursue a coordinated state between the individual and the external environment, and balance is the direct goal and main task of psychological adaptation.
However, balance is relative and phased, while imbalance is absolute and whole.
The existence of contradictions is the driving force of the development of individuals and things, if it is only to maintain balance, and ignore the dynamic effect of contradictions caused by imbalance on individual development, it will hinder the development of individuals.
It can be seen that balance is the direct goal of psychological adaptation, and individual development is the ultimate goal of psychological adaptation.
Finally, assimilation and adaptation do not fully explain psychological adaptation.
Assimilation reflects the change of "quantity", which is the process by which individuals incorporate external stimuli into their own existing schemas; Conformance reflects the "qualitative" change, which is the process of individual adjustment to himself and establishing a new schema to adapt to the new object change.
It can be seen that assimilation and adaptation are both processes of the subject's response and regulation to the external environment.
It should be emphasized here that assimilation and conformity as regulatory processes are mainly governed by the subject's self-consciousness and are achieved through the action of the self-regulatory system.
One of humanity's most laudable qualities is its ability to adjust and recover no matter what setbacks or adaptations it faces.
When individuals face adaptive pressure, they mainly improve their psychological adaptation through three aspects:
The first is to find the meaning of adapting to events.
Because the exploration of the meaning of adaptation events involves the individual's understanding of the causes and effects of current environmental changes and adaptation crises.
One way to interpret meaning is through causal attribution.
After some setbacks, attributions are made to help them understand, anticipate, and control the environment they face.
By understanding the reasons for adapting to events, one can also begin to understand the meaning of the event and its symbolism of personal life.
When an individual understands positive meaning from the adaptation process, it tends to show better psychological adjustment ability and psychological adaptability.
Therefore, the challenge of external environment and individual physical and mental changes is also considered to be a catalyst that can prompt individuals to reconstruct their lives and psychological states along more meaningful routes by transforming and improving themselves.
The second is to gain a sense of control.
When individuals believe that they have good psychological adaptation potential, as long as they continue to adjust and respond positively, they will be able to successfully overcome the adaptation problem.
When promoting the growth and development of the self, a "positive illusion" will be formed to enhance the sense of control of the self in the adaptation process, which in turn will help the adaptation process.
It's worth noting that there is a potential problem with this delusion, and when it is the exact opposite of what it really is, delusion-based cognitive beliefs can easily be dismissed.
What happens when this illusion is challenged or destroyed?
This is an important issue in social cognition, especially when it comes to mental control.
Although there are many benefits to psychological control, there is a growing suspicion that when the effort of control is applied to an environment of existential control, the effort of control will not lead to worse or less successful adjustments, but as long as the sense of control is not destroyed, it still has a positive effect on psychological adaptation.
Finally, there is the process of self-esteem and self-improvement, because many adaptive stressful events tend to lower the individual's self-esteem, and when there is no way to find a way to make yourself feel good again, the self can be helped to achieve good adaptive results by improving the cognitive evaluation and self-esteem level of the self.
In summary, cognitive adaptation theory is to make efforts in cognitive adaptation when individuals face adaptive events, so that they can recover or exceed their previous level of mental functioning.
This adaptive process involves finding meaning, trying to gain a sense of control, and trying to improve oneself.
Meaning is achieved by finding causal explanations of experience and reconstructing cognitive processes that adapt to meaning; Mastery includes efforts to gain control of adaptive events by believing that you have control and exerting behavioral control over the adaptive event.
Self-improvement is achieved by explaining the level of self-esteem and positive self-perception gained from the experience.
When faced with serious event challenges and losses, the construction and exploration of the meaning of the event may play the most obvious role.