Importance Of Assertiveness

Introduction

Assertiveness is defined as “the ability to express ones feeling, ask for what one wants, and say ‘no’ to what one doesn’t want” It is a desirable trait that resolves conflicts with ‘sensitivity, responsibility, and action.’ Assertiveness could be a learnt ability or be part of the personality of the beholder. In this investigation, the level in which assertiveness could be learnt, through observation, will be explored. The behavioural and cognitive components of assertiveness will be investigated to see how they will be affected by observation of assertiveness. Such information could be helpful for young adults in determining whether assertiveness could be learnt. It could also provide some information on the level of ease

This allowed the analysis and exploration of the data collected. It was a subjective quantitative design, where there were rating scales provided to answer the question and numbers allocated to different choices. The independent variable in the investigation is the level of assertiveness a person withholds with and without observation of the act. The dependent variable in the experiment is the level of cognitive and behavioural assertiveness. There will be two groups used, the experimental, who will observe the act of assertiveness through a video, and the control group, who will not be exposed to anything. This will be measured by adding the results from the questionnaire the participants attempted. The scores will be averaged and the experimental and control group will be compared to one another by displaying both results in a graph. Two graphs will be used, one for cognitive assertiveness and the other for behavioural. This will provide a visual interpretation of the mean scores calculated. The results will be used to see whether the participants that witnessed an act of assertiveness will have a greater overall average than the participants that were not exposed to such an

The participants were notified beforehand that the process of anonymity will be kept by providing each participant a random three-digit number that represents their personal data. This coincides with the laws of ethical consideration, as the participants’ personal data were kept anonymous. However, during the process giving the teacher the results of each individual, the participants had to read their results out loud. This was done while the other participants were present in the room as well, hence there is a high possibility that their results were heard by the others. This contradicts the process of ethical consideration of keeping the information anonymous, taken before the investigation, as it jeopardises the participant’s anonymity. The other participants may hear their scores of what they received from the questionnaire, which may lead to the participant to being judged for receiving such a score. For example, a participant may have resulted with a smaller score for assertiveness than the rest, hearing the results may lead to some participants to take advantage of the participant and possibly tease them for the score they