“Strengths and soft spots”: reflections of undergraduate students in an interpersonal communication skills course for the helping professions

While the literature is expansive on the relationship between ‘communication’ and ‘interpersonal skills’, and the importance of ‘interpersonal communication’ skills for effective work across the helping professions, limited research exists on these skills in student cohorts and what this means for responsive pedagogy. This paper examines undergraduate student reflections on their typical ways of thinking, acting and emotional expression. Reflections were collected in response to a ‘strengths and soft spots’ exercise and were completed by cross-disciplinary students enrolled in an interpersonal communication skills course for the helping professions from 2017 to 2022. Complete response data (n = 366) retrospectively analyzed found over 75% of students reported feeling compelled to help others. Exploratory factor analysis identified two underpinning core constructs distinguishing two groups of survey items related to interpersonal communication styles described as ‘anxious’ or ‘angry’. Anxious was a more prominent factor than angry, and 5% of the sample identified as both anxious and angry. This study reminds educators that students in helping professions have different ‘strengths and soft spots’ in their interpersonal communication, likely shaped by a complex interplay of contextual and personal experiences, which need to be considered in pedagogical design and delivery to build successful interpersonal communicators.