ABSTRACT
This chapter presents the Social Skills Inventory (SSI). Drawing on a basic communication model, the SSI framework breaks down basic communication skills into three types: skill in encoding; skill in decoding; and skill in regulation, or control, over communication. The SSI Emotional Control (EC) scale is an assessment of ability to monitor and control one's own emotional expressions. The Psychometric Properties of the SSI includes: scale reliability, scale intercorrelations and sex differences, factor structure, and convergent and discriminant validity. The SSI has been used widely in research on nonverbal behavior. The research on the SSI can investigate the role of nonverbal behavior skills in leadership and in contributing to effective management in work organizations, as well as additional research on how specific nonverbal and social skills impact relationship formation and relationship quality. Thus, researchers of nonverbal behavior and interpersonal processes may be interested not only in the nonverbal skill scales of the SSI but also in the entire scale.
