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AN INVESTIGATION OF ADJUSTMENT LEVELS OF TURKISH UNIVERSITY STUDENTS WITH RESPECT TO PERCEIVED COMMUNICATION SKILL LEVELS

Social Behavior and Personality, 2006 by Ceyhan, Aydogan Aykut

This study aimed to determine whether the adjustment levels of university students differ according to their perceived communication skill levels. The research was carried out with 277 Turkish university students. Data were collected through The Communication Skills Assessment Scale (Korkut, 1996) and the Hacettepe Personality Inventory (Özgüven, 1992). The findings of the study revealed that personal, social, and general adjustment levels were significantly related to perceived communication skill levels. Students who have high perceived communication skill levels had significantly higher personal, social, and general adjustment levels. Results are discussed in relation to their implications for effective communication skills of university students.

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Keywords: adjustment, communication skill, university students.

University students are in a transitional period between adolescence and adulthood. This period has been called emerging adulthood, and includes the years between the late teens into the twenties, generally the ages of 18-25 years (Arnett, 2000). In this stage of life, individuals are faced with specific developmental tasks which are peculiar to this period, such as taking responsibility for oneself, making independent decisions, having a job, preparing to set up a family, establishing and maintaining meaningful close relationships with others, establishing friendships, and so on. Thus, the young person is expected to be adult. In this stage, being unsuccessful in setting up intimate relationships or experiencing role confusion may prevent the youth from attempting to establish close relationships with others, and the young person may isolate him- or herself from others, or may be shunned by others. Therefore, it becomes difficult for some young people to share their emotions that are similar in nature with others and to get along with them (Kilicci, 1989).

University students living in emerging adulthood can expreience stress in some ways and they may experience several difficulties (Lafreniere & Ledgerwood, 1997; Vollrath, 2000; Ye§ilyaprak, 1986). These problems may involve accommodation, nutrition, and economic problems, distress related to establishing and maintaining close relationships, anxiety for the future (Karasar et al., 1999), adjustment difficulties as a result of encountering new environments and circumstances, preparing themselves for professions, and spending their free times in the best way, difficulties of making independent decisions, loneliness, hopelessness, and so on. Moreover, university students also face the global problems of today's societies, like inadequacy in following rapid changes in technology, and unemployment. In the university years, the obstructions originating from self and environment in achieving these concerns drive the emerging adult into depression (Kihcci, 1989). Consequently, like individuals in all stages of life, emerging adults encounter various concerns and it is necessary for them to learn to live with these situations and to cope with these difficulties, to be in a process of continuous improvement and change, and to achieve developmental tasks. To accomplish all these goals, it is essential to have effective communication skills.

The most important human social behavior is communication. Communication means an exchange or communion with another (Fenson, 2000). Individuals need good communication skills to establish interpersonal relations and to communicate effectively in their daily lives. In the communication process, the degree of the skill possessed by the persons who give and take messages determines the quality of communication. Effective communication requires skills in making a reply and reflecting the speaker's feelings and thoughts, asking open nondirective questions, exploring nonverbal cues, responding truthfully to messages, willingness to listen, establishing eye contact, focusing on understanding, giving corrective feedback, responding with "I" messages, self-disclosure, demonstrating empathie understanding, responding positively to criticism, demonstrating assertive behaviors, managing conflicts and solving problems appropriately, and showing unconditional acceptance.

In society, university graduates are expected to possess skills in communication, to be good at interpersonal relations, self-management, creativity, decision making, and problem solving (Sawyer, Tomlinson, & Maples, 2000). Their communication skills may have powerful effects on their relations, academic performance, and development, because, emerging adults who have effective communication skills may be more successful at establishing social interactions with their environments, and in self-development and adjustment. Nowadays, a great deal of importance has been given to the effects of interpersonal relationships on individuals' personal and social adjustment, and individuals' adjustment and maladjustment have been thought of as resulting from their established relations (An, 1989).

AN INVESTIGATION OF ADJUSTMENT LEVELS OF TURKISH UNIVERSITY STUDENTS WITH RESPECT TO PERCEIVED COMMUNICATION SKILL LEVELS

Social Behavior and Personality, 2006 by Ceyhan, Aydogan Aykut

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