Covert and overt rehearsal and homework practice in developing assertiveness.

Evaluated the effects of overt rehearsal and homework practice on covert modeling treatment of social skills. 79 18–73 yr old nonassertive clients received 1 of 4 variations of covert modeling that resulted from a 2?×?2 combination of overt rehearsal and homework practice. Ss who received overt rehearsal engaged in overt enactments (role playing) within the treatment sessions; Ss who received homework practice engaged in extra treatment activities to develop their social skills. A delayed-treatment control group was also included to serve as a no-treatment condition before Ss were randomly assigned to 1 of the 4 treatments. Findings indicate that treatments led to significant improvements on self-report inventories, global ratings, and behavioral measures of assertiveness (the Conflict Resolution Inventory and the Wolpe-Lazarus Assertiveness Questionnaire). Ss who engaged in homework practice and/or overt rehearsal of assertive behavior within the treatment sessions made consistently greater improvements at posttreatment and at an 8-mo follow-up than Ss who did not receive the procedures. Treatment effects extended to novel assessment situations and brought Ss to the level of 45 16–41 yr olds who regarded themselves as adept in social situations. (28 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)