Gender, Age, and the Social Evaluation of Assertion

Abstract

Lack of assertiveness has been characterized as a social skills deficit amenable to assertiveness training. Recent research suggests, however, that assertion may sometimes be negatively evaluated. This study examined the effects of gender and age on perceptions of assertion. Females and males in two age groups rated the behavior of a female or male model who exhibited one of three types of assertion. Judgments of the model's assertion were affected by the age and gender of the subject and by the interaction of model gender, subject gender, and age. These results are discussed in relation to studies using only college-student samples, and it is suggested that further attention to the interpersonal context of assertion is warranted in evaluating its effectiveness.