Social overture

Post Reply New Topic

For some stupid reason I'm having a difficult time understanding just exactly what social overture is.

Extrapolate please!

i have never heard that phrase before. i googled it and most of the hits are definitions of 'overture' . i did find one thing about autistic adults and adolescents but it's a pdf and it's 24 pages long.

If you're a host at a party, you perform "social overtures" when you welcome each individual guest by saying hello (and a few other words) to them.

If you offer your seat on a bus/train, to a person who obviously needs the seat more than you do, that's a "social overture" IMHO.

Level 1 ?Requiring support?
Social Communication
Without supports in place, deficits in social communication cause noticeable impairments. Has difficulty initiating social interactions and demonstrates clear examples of atypical or unsuccessful responses to social overtures of others. May appear to have decreased interest in social interactions.

Is that it? I think most of us can do that?

The first overture would involve some "small talk," with which people with ASD's express difficulty.

The second is merely a nice thing to do--doesn't involve "small talk."

Merely going up to somebody and saying hello would be a social overture, actually--especially if that person is a stranger in a room full of family members.

If a friend of yours is plainly sad about something, going up to the friend and patting him on the back would be a social overture. It wouldn't be appropriate to do that to a total stranger, though--even though, to do so, would actually be a social overture.

Even holding a door for a woman could be classified as a social overture.

I understand it to mean that if someone, say, in a checkout line, or at school, tries to talk to you, that's a social overture. It could be someone "hitting on" you at a party, but doesn't need to have any sexual intent or content at all. They just want to get to know you. "Social" as in "socializing" with you (though they probably haven't talked to you before: after the first time, it's probably not an "overture".

It's not that many people with ASD's don't know how to perform social overtures:

it's that many people with ASD's find them to be rather superfluous things; they don't see the use in them. They believe that social overtures are so much fluff, not enough substance.

http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/us/de ... h/overture

includes the line
(usually overtures) An approach or proposal made to someone with the aim of opening negotiations or establishing a relationship: Coleen listened to his overtures of love

Now that makes sence. Thank you. I thought stuff like that is alot of fluff with no substance? However it is nice to give an elderly person your seat on the bus, and open a door for a lady. Or welcome someone. Those things to me have substance. But I don't think that is social. It is more like cordial. I think being cordial has substance.

"Social" in its widest sense just means anything to do with relationships or communication with other people. Even how you get along with your family is "social".

Cordiality is a big part of being social.

Well then. That's just great! At least I'm not totally socially inept. Even if I draw blanks after I do something nice for someone.

Sometimes, it might SEEM like you "draw blanks." Maybe people are shy, and are wary around strangers.

I'm sure most people appreciate one who is cordial.

My ability to provide social overtures usually ends up as me saying:

"Want a beer?"

It seems to go over well.

Nice. More cordiality . So having unsuccessful responses to social overtures must mean not saying sure, and thank you, and not talking about beer when someone offers you one right? I think we can do all of that too. Or does beer somehow=the neighbors dog?

I'm beginning to wonder if there are very many psychologists, and psychiatrists who understand exactly what this is supposed to mean. I thought I understood, and now I'm lost in a cloud of fog again.