Social Observation Essay

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Thinking about normal social interactions and normal social behaviors, I think of comfortable. When I sit down with a friend, a usual routine is followed, “Hey, how are you, what’s new?” (e.g. My turn, your turn). These questions between my friend and I include eye contact, attention, and facial expression. Usually, I feel that I give my friend my undivided attention. Other normal characteristics include: remembering what the person has just said so a comment can be made, as well as each comment is appropriate and in relation to the current topic. Moreover, the duration between each question or comment is short. Observe Social Behaviors in People with TBI Having a conversation and/or observing people with a TBI can be much different than …show more content…

I observed many residents and saw many difficulties the residents have. Some of the difficulties of the two main residents I observed included: memory and social skills. My interaction with the first resident was very interesting. I had to repeat the topic many times because the resident had trouble remembering. She was aware that her memory was not very good and apologized many times. I also spent some time with another resident that had difficulties with social skills. I had to mention that his comments were not very nice and inappropriate. Overall, behaviors of a person with a TBI are much different than with a person who does not have a TBI. These conversations can be more difficult at times, in that the person without the TBI has to practice patience and at times give cues (e.g. remind the person of the topic, remind them of something they may have forgotten, not word find for them as this can be frustrating for the …show more content…

TBIs can impact these areas in many ways, for an example, according to Spikman et al. (2013); focal prefrontal damage can result in problems with social cognition, emotional recognition, memory, and executive functioning. Difficulties in these areas mentioned previously can cause drastic effects for a person such as employment, relationships, and conversations. For a specific case, the lady that I observed at the Crumley house had adequate social skills, however, had deficits in her memory that impacted social engagement. She had trouble with her short-term memory, short-term memory is a common deficit within the TBI population (Slovarp, Azuma, & LaPointe, 2012). During our conversation together, I had to repeat the topic several times and the most recent comment I made. For an example: (ME) “I love these blueberry scones.” What’s your favorite dessert you have tried so far? (TBI Resident) “I like this brownie, what’s your favorite?” Her difficulties, I believe, are due to prefrontal lobe damage. An additional area that could be affected is the temporal lobe, more specifically deep within this lobe to the hippocampus and the amygdala. Damage to the temporal lobe can result in difficulty retaining verbal information (Ariza et al.,

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