Negative Assertion Research Articles

Interpersonal Communication Competence: The Role of Sex, Parenting Styles, and Attachment Styles

An individual’s capability and capacity for interpersonal communication is heavily dependent on environmental, personal, and social factors. This study explores the effects of sex, parenting styles experienced, and attachment styles on the interpersonal communication competence of adolescents. A sample of 240 senior high school students from De La Salle University Integrated School Manila was selected through convenience sampling. Results reveal that adolescent senior high school students are above average in overall interpersonal communication competence. They are excellent in the emotional support dimension of ICC and above average in the initiation, negative assertion, disclosure, and conflict management dimensions. Sex, parenting styles of mothers and fathers, and attachment style have no significant effect on the initiation and negative assertion dimensions of ICC. However, sex has significant effects on the emotional support and conflict management dimensions of ICC. Data show that females are significantly better at emotional support and conflict management regardless of attachment style, except for adolescents with an anxious attachment style, where males are better than females at emotional support and conflict management. On the other hand, only sex has a significant effect on the overall ICC of adolescent senior high school students.

Anymore, this feature varies: An experimental study of non-polarity <i>anymore</i>

The non-polarity “positive” anymore construction (NPAM; e.g., I write letters anymore, ‘I write letters nowadays’) is a vernacular feature found in the Midland dialect region. Analyses have suggested that while its negative polarity counterpart (I don’t write letters anymore) is associated with a positive presupposition and a negative assertion, NPAM contributes a negative presupposition and a positive assertion. This paper presents an experiment testing this hypothesis. The results provide initial support for the negative presupposition—positive assertion analysis of NPAM, but suggest that regional exposure is not necessary to know this feature does not share the same meaning as NPI-anymore.

Short version of the Scale for Interpersonal Behavior: Slovak translation and psychometric analysis.

Assertiveness is a social communication skill and is related to the effectiveness of expressing oneself while respecting others. A lack of assertiveness is associated with various mental illnesses; hence the importance of being able to measure it reliably. The aim of the study was to translate the short version of the Scale for Interpersonal Behavior (s-SIB) into Slovak and subsequently test its factor structure and other psychometric properties. Our convenience sample consisted of 590 respondents from Slovakia, 22.71% of whom were men and 77.29% women. The data analysis consisted of a descriptive analysis, reliability analysis, factor structure analysis, Mokken analysis, and percentile norms. The scale showed good psychometric properties. Unlike the 4-factor solution for distress and performance in the original work, our findings showed that the general factor loadings were very good and that the bifactor model had the best fit in both cases (distress and performance). Mokken analysis indicated that the total scores for distress and perfromance and their constituent subscales can be used as proposed. In conclusion, the Slovak version of the s-SIB can be used as to measure the total score for assertiveness as well as the separate factors - Positive Assertion, Negative Assertion, Expression of and Dealing with Personal Limitations, and Initiating Assertiveness.

The freedom of crime: property, theft, and recognition in Hegel’s System of Ethical Life

ABSTRACT The section on “The Negative, or Freedom, or Crime” is considered by many to be the most important part of Hegel’s 1802/3 System of Ethical Life, the one in which Hegel begins to become specifically Hegelian. The reason why this section is so important is because it comprises Hegel’s first attempt at systematically integrating ‘negativity’ or conflict and difference into his framework as an essential, dynamic element, instead of dismissing it as a threat to some alleged ethical unity. But why does Hegel identify freedom with ‘the negative’, and why are both associated with crime? This paper seeks to answer that question by analysing the roles of possession and property in the System of Ethical Life, the relation to Kant and Fichte’s theories of right, and the ‘system of need’ in general. Among other things, I argue that theft represents a negative assertion of freedom against the abstract norms of recognition governing the exchange of property, an act which ultimately enables more normatively complex modes of interaction to develop.

Controlled Evaluation of a Sport-Specific Performance Optimization Program in a Biracial Black and White Athlete Diagnosed with Social Anxiety Disorder and Agoraphobia

There are a very limited number of sport-specific mental health and sport performance interventions available for athletes of color. This study examined The Optimum Performance Program in Sports (TOPPS) in a biracial adolescent athlete who was diagnosed with Agoraphobia and Social Anxiety Disorder. A multiple-baseline across behaviors case trial design was used to evaluate outcomes. A battery of psychological measures specific to mental health and sport performance was administered at baseline, post-intervention, and a 3-month follow-up. Social skill sets (i.e., positive assertion and negative assertion) were systematically targeted sequentially in a virtual format using HIPAA compliant video-conferencing technology to safeguard against contracting COVID-19. Results demonstrated improvement in negative and positive assertion skills when targeted by the intervention. Severity of concurrent symptoms associated with Social Anxiety Disorder and Agoraphobia Symptoms, general psychiatric functioning, relationships with coaches, teammates and family, and factors interfering with sports performance improved from pre- to post-intervention. These improvements were maintained at the 3-month follow-up. Athlete ratings indicated their satisfaction with TOPPS was high, and intervention components were implemented with high integrity.

Interpersonal Competences and Attitude to Online Collaborative Learning (OCL) among Future Pedagogues and Educators—A Polish and Portuguese Perspective

Interpersonal competences in relationship building, collaboration and teamwork are essential both in F2F education and in distance or hybrid styles of education. In the face of the COVID-19 crisis, as well as previous trends, some or all of the higher education didactics were transferred to the online environment. In this context, the Online Collaborative Learning (OCL) model, now known as collaborativism, is gaining importance. This research aims to diagnose and compare the level of interpersonal competences and attitude in the OCL model among students preparing for the profession of an educator, pedagogue or teacher in the autonomous region of Madeira and in Poland. Quantitative studies were conducted using the Interpersonal Competence Questionnaire by D. Buhrmester, W. Furman, M.T. Wittenberg and H.T. Reis—as adapted by Poland and Portugal. In addition, the respondents expressed their views on OCL in the self-written questionnaire. According to the research findings, the highest level of competence in the Portuguese group was achieved by the respondents in terms of: Emotional Support (EW), Conflict Management and Resolution (RK) and Negative Assertion—Asserting Influence (AO). In the Polish group, EW was the lowest. The highest level of interpersonal competences was observed for Conflict Management and Resolution (RK), Disclosure (US) and Initiation (IR). The largest group of the surveyed students in both countries expressed a positive attitude towards implementing OCL in their courses of study and declared their willingness to be a member of a group that learns online together.

Interpersonal stress, interpersonal competence, and gender matter for adolescents’ depressive symptoms: Considerations for counselors

AbstractGender differences in adolescents’ depressive symptoms associated with interpersonal stress and competence were examined in a sample of 2157 high school students in the southeastern United States. How interpersonal competencies directly influenced depressive symptoms, and moderated associations among interpersonal stress and depressive symptoms were tested. Key findings showed that stress across different contexts positively predicted depressive symptoms. Initiating new relationships was shown to be a protective factor while providing emotional support and negative assertion were associated with greater depressive vulnerability for girls. Moderation results showed that girls have stronger associations between parent and peer stress and depressive symptoms. Recommendations are made for the assessment of interpersonal stress and competence, as well as prevention and early intervention for depressive symptoms. Assessing diverse interpersonal competencies and contexts of stress may be useful for enhancing adolescents’ capacity to address interpersonal stress and help diminish associations between stress and depressive symptoms.

A Controlled Evaluation of a Sport-Specific Performance Optimization Program in an Athlete Diagnosed With Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder and Oppositional Defiant Disorder Within the Context of COVID-19.

Adolescent athletes with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and oppositional defiant disorder (ODD) experience unique challenges that impact their sport performance, such as making errors due to poor concentration. The current multiple-baseline across behaviors case trial (i.e., positive assertion and negative assertion) is an evaluation of The Optimum Performance Program in Sports in an adolescent athlete diagnosed with ADHD and ODD. Intervention skill sets were targeted sequentially in a virtual format to safeguard against COVID-19 contraction. A battery of psychological measures was administered at baseline, post-intervention, and 1-month follow-up. Results indicated negative and positive assertion skills improved, but only when targeted, and severity of ADHD and ODD symptom severity, general mental health symptoms, and factors interfering with sport performance decreased from pre- to post-intervention and these improvements were maintained at 1-month follow-up. Similar improvements occurred in relationships with coaches, teammates, and family. Treatment integrity and consumer satisfaction were high.

Meta-inferences and Supervaluationism

Many classically valid meta-inferences fail in a standard supervaluationist framework. This allegedly prevents supervaluationism from offering an account of good deductive reasoning. We provide a proof system for supervaluationist logic which includes supervaluationistically acceptable versions of the classical meta-inferences. The proof system emerges naturally by thinking of truth as licensing assertion, falsity as licensing negative assertion and lack of truth-value as licensing rejection and weak assertion. Moreover, the proof system respects well-known criteria for the admissibility of inference rules. Thus, supervaluationists can provide an account of good deductive reasoning. Our proof system moreover brings to light how one can revise the standard supervaluationist framework to make room for higher-order vagueness. We prove that the resulting logic is sound and complete with respect to the consequence relation that preserves truth in a model of the non-normal modal logic NT. Finally, we extend our approach to a first-order setting and show that supervaluationism can treat vagueness in the same way at every order. The failure of conditional proof and other meta-inferences is a crucial ingredient in this treatment and hence should be embraced, not lamented.

First results on the efficacy of a digital life-skills program for substance use prevention

Abstract Background Life-skills trainings conducted within the school curriculum are effective in preventing the onset and escalation of substance use among adolescents. However, their dissemination is impeded due to their large resource requirements. Life-skills training provided via mobile phones might represent a more economic and scalable approach. Methods The efficacy of a mobile phone-based life-skills training to prevent substance use among adolescents is currently tested in comparison to an assessment only control group, within a cluster-randomised controlled trial with follow-up assessments after 6 and 18 months. The fully automated program is based on social cognitive theory and addresses self-management skills, social skills, and substance use resistance skills. Participants of the intervention group receive up to 4 individually-tailored text messages per week for a period of 6 months. The study started in 2019 and aims for 1,312 study participants between the ages of 14 and 16 years from approx. 100 secondary school classes in Switzerland. Outcomes are 1) problem drinking, 2) cigarette smoking, 3) perceived stress and 4) interpersonal competences. Results So far, 1'611 students within 88 secondary school classes were invited to participate in the study. Of these, 1,450 (90.0%) consented to participate. To date, 24 out of 726 (3.3%) participants of the intervention group discontinued the program and 945 (65.2%) were invited for 6-month follow-up. Of these, 752 (79.6%) completed the assessment. Preliminary analyses showed a beneficial effect of the intervention for the subscale negative assertion, assessed by the brief version of the Interpersonal Competence Questionnaire. Conclusions A large proportion of adolescents participated in this first study testing the efficacy of a mobile phone-based life-skills training for substance use prevention and the majority of them participated at 6-month follow-up. Key messages A novel, mobile phone-based life-skills training seems widely accepted by secondary students. Given its effectiveness, it could be economically implemented within secondary schools.

Pengembangan dan validitas Pane Afdal Psychological Condition for Domestic Violance Inventory (PAPC-DVI)

Cases of domestic violence increase every year where the dominant victim is a wife. Many factors cause victims to receive violence, one of which is caused by psychological conditions. This study aims to develop and validate the inventory of Psychological Conditions of Afdal Pane for Domestic Violence (PAPC-DVI). This inventory will measure assertive behavior and resilience of victims of domestic violence as psychological conditions that cause victims to accept violence. Assertive behavior will measure positive assertiveness, self-affirmation, and negative assertiveness. resilience will measure equaminity, perseverance, self-reliance, meaningfulness, and existential aloneness. This research was conducted on 90 wives who experienced violence in the city of Padang using purposive sampling techniques. Furthermore, validity was analyzed using Cronbach's alpha item analysis which showed a coefficient α> .3, and the data showed that 36 PAPC-DVI items were valid. In addition, the alpha cronbach reliability value was also used to analyze the data and the results showed that the PAPC-DVI reliability coefficient for victims of domestic violence was 0.932. The results showed that PAPC-DVI in victims of domestic violence is valid in measuring psychological conditions that cause victims to receive violence so that this inventory can help in understanding psychological conditions that cause victims to receive violence and are ready to be used by subsequent researchers.

The Impact of Negative Gossip on Target and Receiver. A “Big Two” Analysis

Negative gossip can negatively influence the gossip target as well as the gossip receiver. Building on the “Big Two” of agency and communion and their facets of assertiveness and competence (agency) and warmth and morality (communion), we show in three studies that negative gossip based on these four types of content differentially affect targets’ and receivers’ reactions. Targets’ identity threat was particularly high after negative assertiveness and warmth gossip, their reputation threat and their negative affect were especially high after negative morality gossip. Receivers’ impressions of and negative affect toward the target were most negative after negative morality gossip. Findings are discussed with respect to the Big Two framework and with respect to the target versus receiver perspective in social cognition.

종결형 ‘-다고’류와 전달 증거성

This paper aims to identify reported evidentials among various types of "-tako"s that occur in sentence final position in spoken Korean. "-Tako"s have been treated as sentence final endings and can be classified into five types: "emphasis", "negative assertion", "verification of wrong prediction", "confirmative question", and "repeated answer". Careful examination reveals that only those of "emphasis" and "confirmative question" are sentence final endings of which grammaticalization has completed. In the aspect of reported evidentiality, "-tako"s that function as "emphasis" are not reported evidentials because they do not convey the meaning of speech report. "-Tako"s of "confirmative question" can be divided into two types according to source of information: one from the hearer"s speech and the other from the third person"s speech. Of these two types, "-tako"s that are used to verify information from the third person are identified as sentence final endings that convey the meaning of speech report. In conclusion, "-tako"s that are qualified as reported evidentials are of "confirmative question" whose source comes from the third person.

Technology-Based Communication and the Development of Interpersonal Competencies Within Adolescent Romantic Relationships: A Preliminary Investigation.

This study investigated longitudinal associations between adolescents' technology-based communication and the development of interpersonal competencies within romantic relationships. A school-based sample of 487 adolescents (58% girls; Mage =14.1) participated at two time points, one year apart. Participants reported (1) proportions of daily communication with romantic partners via traditional modes (in person, on the phone) versus technological modes (text messaging, social networking sites) and (2) competence in the romantic relationship skill domains of negative assertion and conflict management. Results of cross-lagged panel models indicated that adolescents who engaged in greater proportions of technology-based communication with romantic partners reported lower levels of interpersonal competencies one year later, but not vice versa; associations were particularly strong for boys.

Scepticism about Scepticism

AbstractI argue that once we prioritize epistemic dependence and cast scepticism in those terms, rather than in modal terms, it is clear that skeptical arguments are no good. Skeptical arguments necessarily make dogmatic assumptions about what makes for knowledge or justification, or about what makes for lack of knowledge or justification. A dogmatist asserts an epistemic dependence relation at some level or other that something makes for knowledge or justification. But the skeptical assertion that something makes for the lack of knowledge or the lack of justification is then asserted dogmatically by the skeptic, and asserting that is as dogmatic as a non-skeptical assertion. Even if it is then said that both positive and negative epistemic views are not justified then we have a negative meta-epistemic dogmatic assertion. Wherever we draw the line, epistemic making relations are assumed. Both skeptical assertions and skeptical arguments assume such dependence claims. Dogmatism is our fate.

Nicolas Sanson and his Map: The Course of the Amazon River

One of the first scientific maps of the Amazon region, The Course of the Amazon River (Le Cours de La Rivière des Amazones), was constructed by Nicolas Sanson, a French cartographer of the seventeenth century, and served as the prototype for many others. The evaluation of this chart, until now, has been that it is a very defective map, a sketch based on a historical account, according to the opinion of La Condamine. Thus, the aim of the present work was to prove that the map of the Amazon River traced by Nicolas Sanson is a scientific work, a map that presents precise geographic coordinates considering its time, shows a well-determined prime meridian, and also employs a creative methodology to deduce longitudes from latitudes and distances that had been covered. To show such characteristics, an analysis of the accuracy of the map was made by comparing its latitudes and longitudes with those of a current map. We determined the prime meridian of this map and analyzed the methodology used for the calculation of longitudes. The conclusion is that it is actually a good map for the time, particularly considering the technology and the limited information that Sanson had at his disposal. This proves that the negative assertion of La Condamine is unfounded.

Cross-cultural validity of the scale for interpersonal behavior

The Scale for Interpersonal Behavior (SIB) is a 50-item multidimensional measure of difficulty and distress in assertiveness. The SIB assesses negative assertion, expression of and dealing with personal limitations, initiating assertiveness and positive assertion. The SIB was originally developed in the Netherlands. The present study attempted to replicate the original factors with an Italian student sample (n = 995). The four distress and four performance factors were replicable across two methods of analysis (the multiple group method of confirmatory analysis and Tucker's coefficient of congruence (phi). The corresponding scales were internally consistent and showed predicted patterns of correlations with a measure of self-efficacy. Sex and age differences in assertiveness were generally negligible. Italian students had higher positive assertion-performance scores than the Dutch and comparable scores on other performance scales; by contrast, the Italian subjects had significantly higher scores on all SIB distress scales than their Dutch equivalents. This was ascribed to the stronger pressure on people in Italian society to behave assertively (Hofstede's National Masculinity score = 70) as opposed to the Dutch society (National Masculinity score = 14).

Attachment Styles, Social Skills, and Depression in College Women

Attachment styles, social skills, and depression were studied in 93 college women using the Relationship Questionnaire (K. Bartholomew & L. M. Horowitz, 1991), the Beck Depression Inventory‐II (A.T. Beck, R.A. Steer, & G. K. Brown, 1996), and the Interpersonal Competence Questionnaire (D. Buhrmester, W. Furman, M.T. Wittenberg, & H.T. Reis, 1988). The self and other attachment models and the social skills of negative assertion, self‐disclosure, and conflict management all correlated with depression. Conflict management partially mediated the relationship between attachment self‐model and depression. Implications for counseling are discussed.

Negative wh-construction and its semantic properties

Widely attested cross-linguistically, the Negative WH (NWH)-construction involves the special use of wh-words (e.g., ‘where’, ‘what’, and ‘how’) to convey negation in certain specific contexts. The first half of this paper identifies the negative assertion as the primary meaning of the NWH construction, in addition to two conventional implicatures. In the second half, I argue that the grammatical features in NWHCs in Chinese, Korean, and Japanese strongly suggest that NWHCs should be analyzed as interrogative wh-questions. The quantification domain of NWH-words is the sets of propositions that pick out the conversational backgrounds of the sentence (Kratzer 1977; Portner 2009). The NWHC can be paraphrased as “What is the proposition q such that in view of q, p is true?” However, the interrogative question can only receive a negative rhetorical interpretation (i.e., a question without a true answer) because the conventional implicatures make it impossible for p to be true against any of the conversational backgrounds.

Are personnel in transplant hospitals in favor of cadaveric organ donation? Multivariate attitudinal study in a hospital with a solid organ transplant program

A considerable number of professionals who work in a hospital could be against organ donation, which means that when the time comes, they could act as an obstacle to donation. The objective of this study was to analyze the attitude of hospital professionals toward organ donation and to determine the factors that influence this attitude in a Spanish center with a transplant program. The study was carried out in a third-level Spanish hospital with a solid organ transplant program. A random sample was taken (n = 1262) and stratified by job category and type of service. Attitude was evaluated using a validated questionnaire. Contact was made in each service with the person responsible for each of the job categories in order to distribute the survey. The survey was completed anonymously and was self-administered. Student's t-test, the chi-squared test, and logistic regression analysis were applied in the statistical analysis. The survey completion rate was 93% (n = 1168). Most respondents were in favor of donation [69% (n = 808)]. Of those who are not in favor, 29% (n = 105) provide fear of apparent death as the reason whilst most do not give a reason (negative assertion; 57%; n = 206). There are many factors related to this attitude toward donation, which are evident in the multivariate analysis: (i) job category, in which physicians are twice as likely to be in favor of donation than ancillary personnel (OR = 2.02); (ii) a respondent's knowledge of brain death (OR = 1.64); (iii) having discussed the matter of organ donation and transplantation within the family (OR = 1.89); (iv) a preference for other options apart from burial (OR = 3.66); (v) being in favor of the performance of autopsy if it were necessary (OR = 2.76); (vi) not being concerned about mutilation of the cadaver (OR = 2); and (vii) having a partner with a favorable attitude toward donation (OR = 2.2). Attitude toward cadaveric organ donation among personnel in a transplant hospital is similar to that described in the general public and is determined by many factors. The following factors are most noteworthy: (i) job category; (ii) knowledge of the concept of brain death; (iii) consideration of the matter of donation in the family; and (iv) fear of manipulation of the cadaver. In view of this attitude, which is similar to that of the general public, it is necessary to carry out promotion activities if we want to increase cadaveric donation rates.