Self-report Measure Of Assertiveness Research Articles

Actions speak: personality, nonverbal behaviors, and self-perceptions of vulnerability in college-aged women

Purpose Despite representing a relatively small portion of the population, those who experience repeat victimization make up a significant share of all sexual and violent crimes, implying that perpetrators target them repeatedly. Indeed, research reveals specific traits (e.g. submissiveness) and behaviors (e.g. gait) related to past victimization or vulnerability. The purpose of this study is to explore the link between personality traits, self-assessed vulnerability and nonverbal cues. Design/methodology/approach In all, 40 undergraduate Canadian women were videotaped while recording a dating profile. Self-report measures of assertiveness, personality traits and vulnerability ratings for future sexual or violent victimization were obtained following the video-recording. The videotape was coded for nonverbal behaviors that have been related to assertiveness or submissiveness. Findings Self-perceived sexual vulnerability correlated with reduced assertiveness and dominance and increased emotionality (e.g. fear and anxiety). Additionally, nonverbal behaviors differed based on personality traits: self-touch was linked to lower assertiveness, dominance and extraversion and higher submissiveness, emotionality and warm-agreeableness. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study of its kind to consider the relationships between personality, self-perceived vulnerability and nonverbal behaviors among college-aged women. Potential implications, including enhancing autonomy and self-efficacy, are discussed.

Assertiveness training for disabled adults in wheelchairs: Self-report, role-play, and activity pattern outcomes.

Thirty-four physically disabled adults participated in an 11-week assertiveness training (AT) program. Ss were randomly assigned to either AT or a waiting-list (WL) condition. Each was asked to complete three self-report measures, a role-play test, and a social and recreational activity diary. The AT Ss showed significant improvements on both self-reported assertiveness and role-play performance from pre- to posttreatment, whereas WL controls showed no changes on these measures. No significant changes in frequency of social or recreational activities were found at posttest for either AT or control Ss. A mixed pattern of results was shown at 6-month follow-up. Posttest gains were maintained across all self-report measures of assertiveness and acceptance of disability, whereas role-play performance approached baseline levels at 6-month follow-up. Overall results support the use of AT in enhancing perceived social efficacy and interpersonal skill of physically disabled adults in wheelchairs.

Assertiveness training for disabled adults in wheelchairs: Self-report, role-play, and activity pattern outcomes.

Thirty-four physically disabled adults participated in an 11-week assertiveness training (AT) program. Ss were randomly assigned to either AT or a waiting-list (WL) condition. Each was asked to complete three self-report measures, a role-play test, and a social and recreational activity diary. The AT Ss showed significant improvements on both self-reported assertiveness and role-play performance from pre- to posttreatment, whereas WL controls showed no changes on these measures. No significant changes in frequency of social or recreational activities were found at posttest for either AT or control Ss. A mixed pattern of results was shown at 6-month follow-up. Posttest gains were maintained across all self-report measures of assertiveness and acceptance of disability, whereas role-play performance approached baseline levels at 6-month follow-up. Overall results support the use of AT in enhancing perceived social efficacy and interpersonal skill of physically disabled adults in wheelchairs.

Components of rational-emotive imagery: Two experiments with nonassertive students

Unassertive students took part in two experiments to assess the contributions of emotional and cognitive rehearsal procedures in rational-emotive imagery. In each study participants received analogue treatment in groups, which met twice for one and a half hours. In Experiment 1 behavior rehearsal (BR) was more effective than emotional rehearsal (ER, which involved tryping to attenuate unwanted feelings in fantasy) and cognitive rehearsal (CR, which involved examining negative, and rehearsing helpful, self-statements) as assessed by a self-report measure of assertiveness. In Experiment 2 combinations of Experiment 1 procedures were tested in a factorial design. On a behavioral test, BR proved more effective than the treatment combinations, but on questionnaire measures of social anxiety and irrational beliefs rational-emotive imagery (the combination of CR with ER) was superior to the other treatment conditions. Results are encouraging in that rational-emotive imagery was more successful than either component in isolation, even within the limits of a brief analogue study. Further clinical trials are needed.

The Development of an Assertiveness Self-Report Inventory

The development of a self-report measure of assertiveness is described. The Assertiveness Self-Report Inventory (ASRI) was devised with concern for endorsement frequency, internal consistency, and independence from social desirability response bias. The scale's reliability and convergent and discriminant validity are adequate. Further tests of validity support the use of the scale as a measure that taps behavior related to the construct of assertiveness.

A self-report measure of assertiveness in young adolescents

Reported a self-report measure of adolescents' assertiveness. Items for this scale were presented to young adolescents (N = 78) and subsequently were subjected to a factor analysis that revealed factors of submissiveness, aggressiveness, and assertiveness. Teacher ratings and behavioral responses during a role-play test also were obtained and provide additional validational evidence in support of the scale. After the validational study, a small assertiveness training program was conducted to evaluate the efficacy of standard treatment procedures with this population. Results indicated that training effects were obtained and that the effects generalized to situations that had not been employed during training.

Relationship of Sex, Sex-Role Orientation and a Self-Report Measure of Assertiveness in College Students

Sex-role orientation reliably predicts several behavior patterns and personal characteristics considered to be adaptive. Persons with these characteristics have also been shown to be more assertive. The present study determined the relationship between sex-role orientation and a self-report measure of assertiveness. A multiple regression analysis showed that masculine sex-role orientation is the only single predictor of self-report measure of assertiveness and accounts for 52% of the total variance. Additional research is proposed to test the hypothesis that assertion is primarily a masculine sex-role characteristic. The implications for this assessment and training of assertion are also discussed in the context of sex-role.

Concurrent validity of three self‐report measures of assertiveness

The relative validity of three self-report measures of assertiveness was assessed by correlating the scored obtained by 88 student nurses with peer and faculty ratings of assertiveness. Self-reported assertiveness failed to predict frequency of class participation within a subsample of 48 students. Type of instructional setting, however, did exert a significant effect on class participation.

A Group Assertive Training Program for Elementary Schoolchildren

Utilizing two treatment and two control groups, 80 fourth grade elementary schoolchildren participated in an assertive training experiment comparing 8 vs. 16 contact hours of training. Both training groups performed significantly better than the control groups on all post and follow-up assessment measures. At follow-up, self-report measures of assertiveness and teachers' ratings of students' behaviors revealed significant differences between treatment and control groups, and marginally significant differences between the 8 vs. 16 hour groups. These findings are discussed, with recommendations for future investigations.

The Effects of Assertion Training on Severely Disabled Students/Clients

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of assertion training upon severely disabled student/clients in a residental treatment center. Effects were assessed by performance on a (a) self-report measure of assertiveness, (b) a self-report inventory of internal-externallocus of control construct, and (c) audio responses to video-tape constant role situations. Results indicated a significantly different post-test score on items A and C for the groups receiving training.

Measurement of assertive behavior: Construct and predictive validity of self-report, role-playing, and in-vivo measures

Examined the predictive validity and construct equivalence of the three major procedures used to measure assertive behavior: Self-report, behavioral role-playing, and in-vivo assessment. Seventy-five Ss, who spanned the range of assertiveness, completed two self-report measures of assertiveness, the Rathus Assertiveness Scale (RAS) and the College Self-Expression Scale (CSES); two scales from the Endler S-R Inventory of General Trait Anxiousness, the interpersonal and general anxiety scales; eight role-playing situations that involved the expression of positive and negative assertiveness; and a telephone in-vivo task. In general, the study revealed the following: (1) assertiveness measures are task-dependent in that there was more overlap within task than between tasks; (2) there is a moderate degree of correspondence between self-report and role-playing measures, although this was true only for negative assertion; (3) positive and negative assertion do not appear to have the same topography of responding; and (4) there appears to be no consistent relationship between the in-vivo measure and any other type of assertiveness measure.

Behavioral performance in the validation of an assertiveness scale

The study was concerned with validation of a self-report measure of assertiveness against behavioral performance criteria. Low, moderate, and high scorers on the College Self Expression Scale role played five short situations which required assertive behaviors. Planned nonorthogonal multivariate comparisons revealed significant differences between the low group and the combined moderate and high group and the low and high groups, respectively, on a linear combination of four dependent variables—assertive content, eye contact, subjective anxiety, and response latency. Univariate comparisons indicated significant differences between the low and high groups on assertive content and eye contact and between the low group and the combined moderate and high group on eye contact. Differences on the anxiety measure approached significance.

Effects of practice, instructions, and modeling on components of assertive behavior

Unassertive psychiatric patients matched on age, years of education, diagnosis, and self-reported assertiveness were assigned to one of five conditions, with 10 subjects in each group: (1) Test-Retest, (2) Practice-Control, (3) Instructions, (4) Modeling, (5) Modeling plus Instructions. All subjects were videotaped (Pre- and Post-Test) while responding to five interpersonal situations requiring assertive responses. Pre- and Post-Test responses for all subjects were rated independently by judges on seven verbal and non-verbal components of assertiveness. Analyses of variance for difference scores followed by multiple t-test comparisons indicated that the Modeling plus Instructions group was superior or equal to the Instructions alone or Modeling alone groups on five of the seven components. Instructions alone and Modeling alone led to greatest improvement in the remaining two components. No differences were found between the Practice-Control and Test-Retest groups on any of the seven components of assertiveness. No differences (Post-Pretest) were found among the groups on a self-report measure of assertiveness.