The effect of communication skills training on university students' self-monitoring and optimism levels

Problem Statement: Communication skills play an important role in the interaction and communication process between man, a social creature, and his environment. The individual equiped with effective communicative ability can adapt to both himself and his environment. In this way he learns how to adjust himself and pays attention to the code of conduct where necessary. Thus he can develop an optimistic point of view towards situations and future. Purpose of Study: The purpose of this study was examine whether the communication skills training program offered to university students have an effect on their levels of self-monotoring and optimism. In other words, the effect of communication skills training on self-monitoring and optimism levels of university students was investigated. Methods: This research is an experimental one based on control-grouped pre-test and post-test design "Control-Grouped Pre-test Post-test Design" was used in this study (Kaptan, 1991). The population of this study comprises 90 students who attend Ondokuz Mayis University and take the elective course of Interpersonal Relations and Communication. The sample of the study includes 20 students who attend Ondokuz Mayis University and take the elective course of Interpersonal Relations and Communication. The independent variable of the study is the communication skills training conducted between the application of pre-test and post-test. The communication skills training was conducted on all 10 students in the experiment group throughout the 10 sessions. In order to collect data about the students' level of optimism, the "Optimism Inventory" developed by Balci and Yilmaz (2002) was used. And the data about the students' level of self-monitoring were collected using the "Self-Monitoring Scale" adapted into Turkish by Bacanli (1990). The data obtained were analyzed with the help of SPSS 10.0 software program. The pre-test and post-test scores of the students in the experiment and control groups from the optimism and self-monitoring scales were arranged so as to test the hypothesis of the study. Mann Withney U test (Gamgam, 1998) was used in order to test whether the training program on Communication skills have a significant effect on the dependent variable cited above (the level of optimism and self-monitoring). And Wilcoxon Signed-Rank Test was used in order to test whether there is a significant difference between the control and experiment groups with regard to optimism and self-monitoring levels (whether the groups are equivalent). In testing the significance of the differences between means, probability value was calculated as p<.05 in all the analyses. Findings and Results: The Mann Whitney U test used to test whether there is a significant difference between the control and experiment groups with regard to their levels of optimism. and self-monitoring (whether the groups are equivalent) revealed that no significant difference exists between two groups. The findings indicated that while the difference between average post-test scores concerning self-monitoring of the students attending and not attending communication skills training program was significant (p<.05), the difference between average post-test scores concerning optimism was not significant (p<.05). The findings indicated that while the difference between average pre-test and post-test scores concerning optimism levels of the students in the experiment group was not significant (p<.05), the difference between average pre-test and post-test scores concerning self-monitoring levels was significant (p<.05). Thus, while communication skills training increased the students' level of self-monitoring, it made no difference in the students' level of optimism. This finding partly supports the hypothesis of this study. It was found that no significant difference exists between the average pre-test and post-test scores concerning the self-monitoring and optimism levels of the students in the control group (p<.05 Conclusions and Recommendations: Findings suggest that while communication skills training program had a significant effect on the students' level of self-monitoring, it had no effect on the students' level of optimism. The reason why communication skills training had no effect on the students' level of optimism may be the fact that studies intending to improve the students' level of optimism are not represented in the curriculum. Moreover while a significant difference was obtained between the pre-test and post-test scores concerning the self-monitoring level of the students participating to communication skills training program, no significant difference was found between the average pre-test and post-test scores concerning the optimism level of the students. The training offered has been effective in increasing only the self-monitoring levels of the students. Based on the results obtained the following can be suggested: It may be necessary to offer the students training about cognitive coping methods and to include relevant activities into the curriculum. Moreover it may help include certain activities intending to increase the level of optimism.