Assertive behavior, self-expectations, and self-evaluations in mildly depressed university women

Abstract

The present investigation examined assertive behavior, self-expectations and self-evaluations of assertive behavior as correlates of self-reported depressive symptomatology (Beck Depression Inventory) in a university population. Thirty-three female students received discrimination training in the experimenter's assertiveness rating criteria, then performed a behavioral assertiveness role-play test, wherein subjects were asked to rate their prior expectations and subsequent evaluations of their own assertive performance. A second group of 33 subjects were not exposed to the training procedure but completed the role-play test. Both groups of subjects were further subdivided into nondepressed and depressed groups with BDI scores of 0–9 and 10–19, respectively. Depressed subjects with no prior discrimination training were less assertive and reported more negative self-expectations and self-evaluations compared with nondepressed subjects. Discrimination training increased the effectiveness of assertive performance and self-evaluation ratings for all subjects, but increases in assertion due to training were much greater for depressed subjects than for nondepressed subjects. Self-evaluations of assertive performance were not very accurate in any group of subjects, even those who had received training; self-evaluations were not correlated with independent ratings of performance, and mean self-ratings of performance agreed with independent ratings on less than 35% of trials, a figure barely above chance levels. Self-evaluations were found to be a function of generalized evaluations, depressed mood, and anxiety, as well as training and assertive performance, and taken together, these factors accounted for over 50% of the variance in self-evaluation scores. These conclusions were discussed in relation to current theories of depression.