A proposal for evaluating cognition in assertiveness.

This article presents the development process and initial psychometric features of an instrument for evaluating cognition in assertiveness. This is an essential social skill for adolescent development and seems to encompass emotional, behavioral, and cognitive aspects. The instrument was created by combining both empirical and theoretical methods for item construction, aiming to evaluate the cognitive realm of assertiveness. A sample of 996 adolescent students was used to test for reliability and validity. Results indicate good psychometric properties. The instrument is composed of 4 subscales: Outer Emotional Support, Functional Personal Ability, Interpersonal Management, and Affective Personal Ability. The Assertive Interpersonal Schema Questionnaire may potentially be a useful tool in the diagnosis of, understanding of, and development of a treatment plan for individuals with persistent difficulties in social events. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Interests of assertiveness trainees.

149 participants in assertiveness training groups rated their degree of interest in improving their assertive skills in 26 areas. A rank order of mean interest ratings for 149 trainees indicated that being assertive when confronted with another's aggression was the highest priority, whereas saying "no" in various situations assumed a much lower priority. Results indicate where assertiveness training groups may be deficient in meeting individuals' needs and suggest areas for increased emphasis that would more effectively meet these needs. (17 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Development of a counselor verbal response category.

Developed a counselor response category system for measuring counselor verbal behavior by incorporating components from 11 existing systems, refining the categories after use, and having experts match examples to the definitions. The resulting system had 17 mutually exclusive categories, which had at least minimal face and content validity. In rating 3,866 counselor response units from 12 personal/emotional intake sessions, the category system resulted in high agreement levels between 3 judges. An analysis of the agreement levels for individual categories led to a revised 14-category system: minimal encourager, approval-reassurance, information, direct guidance, closed question, open question, restatement, reflection, nonverbal referent, interpretation, confrontation, self-disclosure, silence, and other. (11 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Differential helpfulness of counselor verbal response modes.

28 counselor–client dyads (analog sample consisting of 15 graduate students and faculty and 28 undergraduates) and 16 client–counselor dyads (counseling sample) rated the helpfulness of particular counselor responses in just-completed counseling sessions, using Interpersonal Process Recall. In the counseling sample, counselors also rated the helpfulness of the same responses. The responses were measured for type of response made by objective raters, clients, and counselors. Interpretations received the highest helpfulness ratings from both client and counselor. Advisements were rated as slightly more helpful than nonadvisements, and questions were rated as slightly less helpful than nonquestions. However, counselor response modes account for only a small proportion of the variance in helpfulness ratings, which points out the need for research on contextual variables and response mode subtypes. (32 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Counselor verbal response modes and experienced empathy.

[Correction Notice: An erratum for this article was reported in Vol 34(3) of Journal of Counseling Psychology (see record 2008-10749-001). The second paragraph of the author acknowledgement should have read as follows: We thank Ian Spalding for supervision of the session recordings, Liz Colley for programming and advice on data analysis, Richard Shillcock and Jane Oakhill for response mode coding, and Robert Elliott for comments on a draft.] Client and counselor perceptions of empathy at different stages in the counseling process were examined in relation to the verbal response modes used by counselors in 24 client–counselor dyads. Each of 6 counselors (aged 32–58 yrs) at college counseling centers was studied in counseling with 4 clients, of whom 2 were in initial sessions and 2 were in sessions drawn from ongoing counseling relationships. Clients perceived counselors as showing significantly greater empathy during ongoing than during initial sessions, and counselors perceived themselves as showing significantly greater empathy during initial sessions than did clients rating the same sessions. Clients rated counselors using fewer general advisements as more empathic, whereas counselors who rated themselves more empathic used more explorations and fewer reassurances. At the moment-to-moment level tapped by interpersonal process recall, exploration was the only category strongly associated with both client and counselor experiences of empathic communication in both initial and ongoing sessions. (50 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Authoritarianism, verbal ability, and response set.

The relationship of authoritarianism (as measured by the F scale) to year of college and response set were tested and discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Validity of a measure of assertiveness.

Presents validity data for the College Self-Expression Scale (CSES), a measure of assertiveness for college students. Data were obtained from 3 samples of undergraduates: (a) 28 male and 47 female dormitory residents; (b) 18 male mathematics majors, 45 male engineering majors, 24 male student legislators, 45 female child development and family relations majors, and 8 female student legislators; and (c) 29 students who sought personal adjustment counseling, 35 who sought vocational counseling, and 32 noncounseled students. The correlation between residence hall counselor ratings and self-ratings of assertiveness was .33. Significant differences were found between self-ratings of assertiveness of student legislators and dormitory groups, but not between dormitory males and engineering and math students. It is not clear whether the CSES does not detect differences among student groups or whether there were no differences between the groups on assertiveness; however, the results indicate the utility of the CSES as a measure of assertiveness. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

An assertiveness inventory for adults.

Developed the Adult Self-Expression Scale, a 48-item, self-report measure of assertiveness designed for use with adults in general. The scale was administered to 464 students at a large, "open-door" community college; Ss ranged in age from 18-60 yrs, with a mean age of 25.3 yrs. Results show the scale has high test-retest reliability and moderate-to-high construct validity, as established by correlations with Adjective Check List scales and by a discriminant analysis procedure. Factor analysis generally supported the model used in the construction of the scale. Concurrent validity was also established. (22 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Sex-role stereotyping in television commercials: A verbal response mode and content analysis.

Evaluated the degree of sex-role stereotyping in TV commercials using both a verbal response mode and a content analysis. A total of 120 commercials (60 daytime and 60 primetime), each depicting an adult male–female dyad verbally interacting, were drawn from a larger sample of commercials aired between October 1983 and January 1984 on the major North American networks. Results of the 2 analyses reveal a more sex-stereotyped pattern of male–female differences in daytime than in primetime commercials. It is concluded that sex-role stereotyping still exists in TV commercials and is present at subtle as well as obvious levels of analysis. (French abstract) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Changes in women's assertiveness in response to status and roles: A cross-temporal meta-analysis, 1931–1993.

Across two meta-analyses, American women's assertiveness rose and fell with their social status from 1931 to 1993. College women and high school girls' self-reports on assertiveness and dominance scales increased from 1931 to 1945, decreased from 1946 to 1967, and increased from 1968 to 1993, explaining about 14% of the variance in the trait. Women's scores have increased enough that many recent samples show no sex differences in assertiveness. Correlations with social indicators (e.g., women's educational attainment, women's median age at first marriage) confirm that women's assertiveness varies with their status and roles. Social change is thus internalized in the form of a personality trait. Men's scores do not demonstrate a significant birth cohort effect overall. The results suggest that the changing sociocultural environment for women affected their personalities, most likely beginning in childhood. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Linguistic analysis of an assertiveness training film.

Analyzed stylistic complexity and verb usage in the text of the film Responsible Assertion, an assertiveness training film, using the Computer-Assisted Language Analysis System. Findings suggest that the assertive language in the film was characterized by a wordy, complex style full of many embedded clauses and that assertive speech consisted of monologues containing qualifying phrases. Results suggest that assertiveness trainers should emphasize wordiness and persistence rather than simple sentences. Data indicate that an emphasis on feelings was not crucial in behavior that was judged assertive. Implications for understanding the process and outcome of therapy are considered. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of a positive social reward upon a verbal avoidance response.

In investigating the effect of reward upon the acquisition and extinction of avoidance response, a word association task was presented to 90 Ss for 8 conditioning and 12 extinction trials. During conditioning, associations to preselected words were punished on Trial 1 and whenever S repeated them. There were 3 acquisition groups: 1 received the above training, the 2nd also received reward for substitute associations, and the 3rd obtained reward during the 2nd ? of acquisition only. Each acquisiton group was divided into 2 extinction subgroups: 1 received neither reward nor punishment while the 2nd was rewarded for avoiding. Results indicated that reward hastened acquisition and delayed extinction of avoidance responses, thus confirming hypotheses regarding the concept of secondary gain. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A comparative study of feminist and traditional group assertiveness training with women.

Tested the effectiveness of feminist group therapy within the context of group assertiveness training for women. Two types of group were organized: One emphasized female role modeling, identity formation, and awareness of sex roles; and one had a traditional approach. Two female group leaders were trained and conducted one of each type group with all-female group members. The 40 adult Ss were interviewed, and 5 outcome measures were taken pre- and posttherapy and at follow-up 6 wks later. Both groups made significant gains on all measures, but the feminist groups did not make greater gains than the traditional groups. Ss who described themselves as feminists at the outset generally showed elevated scores throughout, more commitment to remain in treatment, and greater initial gains in self-reported assertiveness than did Ss who endorsed a more conservative position. It is concluded that the success of feminist therapy groups may not be attributable to their consciousness-raising style but perhaps to the single-sex composition of such groups and to the feminist orientation of clients who seek this form of psychotherapy. (30 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A model of personality test item response dissimulation.

Proposes and empirically evaluates a general model of faking on self-report personality test items. The model predicts that differential test item response latencies should be faster for schema-congruent test answers than for noncongruent responses. Thus, individuals faking good should take relatively longer to endorse socially undesirable test item content than desirable test item content. Conversely, individuals faking bad should endorse socially desirable test item content relatively slower than undesirable test item content. Support for the model was found to generalize across personality inventories and across populations of university students and maximum security prisoners. Conflicting results from previous research are viewed in terms of the model. Further testing of the model's generality and practical relevance is discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Dimensions of assertiveness in an Asian-American student population.

The components of assertiveness assessed by the College Self-Expression Scale were analyzed in 150 Asian-American and 135 Caucasian college student populations. A significant difference in full-scale assertion scores indicated lower levels of overall assertion in the former sample, although sampling differences could have augmented the difference. Sources of the difference in mean scores were examined by the factor analyses and post hoc comparisons of derived subscales. Results are consistent with value differences between Asian-American and Caucasian college students. Limitations, counseling implications, and strategies for developing culturally relevant assertion training are discussed. (18 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Convergent and discriminant validity of selected assertiveness measures.

Used D. T. Campbell and D. W. Fiske's (see record 1976-20103-001) multitrait-multimethod design and D. N. Jackson's (see record 1976-00077-001) multimethod factor analysis to investigate the convergent and discriminant validity of selected assertiveness measures as compared with those of aggression and dominance. The selected assertiveness measures were the College Self-Expression Scale (J. P. Galassi et al; see record 1974-30156-001), the Wolpe-Lazarus Assertiveness Questionnaire (J. Wolpe and A. Lazarus, 1966), and global self-ratings of assertiveness. 159 undergraduates served as Ss. Results provide strong support for the convergent and discriminant validity of the assertiveness measures. (33 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)