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Cognitive mediation of assertive behavior: An analysis of the self-statement patterns of college students, psychiatric patients, and normal adults

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Abstract

College students, psychiatric inpatients, and normal adults served as subjects in a study of cognitive self-statement patterns and their relationship to self-reported assertiveness. Subjects completed a series of behavioral role-plays and responded to a revised version of Schwartz and Gottman's (1976) Assertion Self-Statement Test. Subjects' positive and negative self-statement scores were then examined to test the generality of Schwartz and Gottman's (1976) “internal dialogue of conflict” explanation of nonassertive behavior. Nonassertive subjects reported a higher frequency of negative self-statements than did assertive subjects, regardless of their psychiatric or student status. Subject sample exerted an additional, but independent, effect on both positive and negative self-statements. Schwartz and Gottman's hypothesis may hold promise for the explication of assertive and nonassertive behavior in clinical populations.

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Heimberg, R.G., Chiauzzi, E.J., Becker, R.E. et al. Cognitive mediation of assertive behavior: An analysis of the self-statement patterns of college students, psychiatric patients, and normal adults. Cogn Ther Res 7, 455–463 (1983). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01187173

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