Investigation of Personal Investment in Behavioral Role-Playing Tasks Used to Assess Assertiveness

Abstract

The role of subjects' personal investment or incentive in responding to behavioral role-playing tasks used to assess assertiveness was investigated. Using scores on the Rathus Assertiveness Schedule, subjects were assigned to one of three groups of high, low, or medium assertiveness. All subjects differentially responded to situations designed to elicit high or low personal investment. All subjects tended to exhibit qualitatively better assertive responses with high investment than with low investment. Correlations indicated that subjects' Rathus scores of high and low assertiveness correlated with ratings of their role-playing at the low but not the high level of personal investment.