However, populist conceptions of social competence often assume specific outcomes, implying but not making explicit culturally based value judgements. The definition also suggests that a major part of social competence is a set of component skills or procedures applied conditionally. These might include perception of relevant social cues, interpretation of social cues, realistic anticipation of obstacles to personally desired behaviour, anticipation of consequences of behaviour for self and others, generation of effective solutions to interpersonal problems, translation of social decisions into effective social behaviours, and the expression of a positive sense of self- efficacy. However, it does not imply a predominantly cognitive model, and in particular the importance of feeling at all stages should not be underestimated. Feelings can relate to the self, other people, groups and affiliations, objects, places and activities, as well as specific events and behaviours.
Feelings can be problematic when in excess, in deficit, or distorted or inappropriate.
Feelings can stimulate, mediate and reinforce thoughts and behaviour. Feelings may need to be managed directly through the emotions, rather than circuitously through thinking and behaviour. While social competence implies intentionality, of course there might be several effective pathways to the same outcome in any context. Also, sometimes successful outcomes might be attributed by the child to random chance or external factors, validly or otherwise. Thus it is very simplistic to define social competence only in terms of specific skills or only in terms of specific outcomes, especially when the latter are valued very differently by different groups and cultures.