ABSTRACT
Assertion training has received much attention as a behavior therapy technique for directly shaping assertive behavior (Rathus and Ruppert, 1972; Salter, 1949; Wolpe, 1958, 1969, 1970; Wolpe and Lazarus, 1966). Thus the need for an instrument for measuring behavioral change in assertion training has arisen. Wolpe (1969) and Wolpe and Lazarus (1966) report that they assess patients’ pretreatment assertiveness by asking them several questions, but they report no method for quantifying and thus determining the reliability and validity of these data. The old “A-S Reaction Study” (Allport, 1928) comprised a quantified method for evaluating assertiveness, but many of the items on this scale appear to be in need of updating. For example, Item Three on the 1939 Revision of the Form for Women reads
At church, a lecture, or an entertainment, if you arrive after the program has commenced and find that there are people standing but also that there are front seats available which might be secured without “piggishness” but with considerable conspicuousness, do you take the seats?
