Social cognition activities for working with adults

In this article we propose four social cognition activities for adults so that users can work on how Relating with other People with people appropriately.

Social cognition activities

1. Word-Emotion Association

The first of the social cognition activities is Word-Emotion Association and is used to work on Emotion recognition.

What does it involve?

It consists of recognizing the emotions shown in photographs and matching them with the terms that define them.

What does this activity work on?

It is essential for identifying emotions in other people and for users to interact with others appropriately in their daily lives.

Additionally, vocabulary is worked on. The terms become more complex as the level progresses. The same happens with the emotions and feelings shown, which become increasingly complex.

Difficulty levels

Word-Emotion Association is a worksheet and, like all NeuronUP worksheets, is organized into five levels of difficulty:

• Basic,
• easy,
• medium,
• hard,
• advanced.

Format

Additionally, this activity to work on emotional intelligence with children can be done in both digital and paper formats.

2. Internal States

What does it involve?

This worksheet consists of explaining the Internal States of the characters in the stories shown by creating social scripts. 

What does this activity work on?

• Expression, as the main function.
• flexibility: works on flexible thinking, that is, the different interpretation of the same situation,
• reasoning,
• empathy: one must put oneself in the place of others. It helps the user realize how differently people can think without there being a single correct option.

Difficulty levels

It is organized into five levels of difficulty:

• Basic,
• easy,
• medium,
• hard,
• advanced.

Format

This social cognition worksheet is available in paper. It cannot be digitized, since the patient has to verbally explain the Internal States of the characters.

3. Correct behavior

What does it involve?

This worksheet consists of analyzing a situation, represented by an image, and deciding what would be the correct way to behave in it.

For example, in the following easy-level worksheet, Lucas must decide what is correct when Claudia offers him a bite of her cake: Take advantage and take the biggest bite he can, or thank her and try a bit.

What is worked on with this activity?

• Self-esteem,
• assertiveness,
• civility,
• basic behavior,
• constructive criticism,
• rights,
• empathy,
• hygiene,
• persuasion,
• social relationships,
• related to others,
• routines.

Difficulty levels

It is organized into five levels of difficulty:

• Basic,
• easy,
• medium,
• hard,
• advanced.

Format

This exercise is available in digital and paper format. Also, in the paper version you will find a very interesting second part to discuss with the patient about the different options to choose. Try it!

4. Find the same emotion

What does it involve?

Find the same emotion is a very interesting social cognition activity to work on Emotion recognition. Several photographs are shown and the user must indicate those that express the same emotion. 

Not everyone makes the same face to show the same emotion; that is where the complexity of the exercise lies. The user must be able to recognize the most distinctive features of that expression to better identify emotions in different types of people.

What does this activity work on?

It is a fundamental activity to help users function in their daily lives, interacting with others appropriately. If we don’t know how to identify emotions in others, we will have many social relationship problems.

Difficulty levels

This social cognition activity for working with adults is organized into five levels of difficulty:

• Basic,
• easy,
• medium,
• hard,
• advanced.

Format

Additionally, this activity to work on emotional intelligence with children can be done in both digital and paper formats.

Tip for carrying out these social cognition activities

We encourage you to carry out these social cognition activities live with the patient so you can better reason through the answers!

Emotions, their interpretation, or the way each person behaves are very different. And sometimes there is not a single correct answer, but there may be countless nuances that make us choose a different solution than the supposedly accepted one, and that is not wrong in that case.

What is important in the end is to work on reasoning and comprehension with the patient and for it to be useful in their unique circumstances.

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“This article has been translated. Link to the original article in Spanish:”
Actividades de cognición social para trabajar con adultos