ABSTRACT
Unassertiveness ‘involves violating one’s own rights by failing to express honest feelings, thoughts, and beliefs, or expressing one’s thoughts and feelings in such an apologetic, diffident, self-effacing manner that others can easily disregard them’. At first blush, aggression and unassertiveness seem very different behavioural approaches to tackling problematic situations, yet they have something in common: both are based on a threat to a person’s self-esteem. Assertiveness is one option among others and not an automatic reflex in every situation where reader feel thwarted or challenged in some way. A. J. Langer and P. Jakubowski offer another major, but more obvious, reason for unassertiveness: reader don’t know how to act assertively because of a lack of role models or opportunities to acquire such skills. Assertion training is a popular method for gaining greater self-confidence and control over reader life and thereby reducing or removing previous feelings of helplessness and hopelessness.
