Measurement of assertive behavior: Construct and predictive validity of self‐report, role‐playing, and in‐vivo measures

Examined the predictive validity and construct equivalence of the three major procedures used to measure assertive behavior: Self‐report, behavioral role‐playing, and in‐vivo assessment. Seventy‐five, Ss, who spanned the range of assertiveness, completed two self‐report measures of assertiveness, the Rathus Assertiveness Scale (RAS) and the College Self‐Expression Scale (CSES); two scales from the Endler S‐R Inventory of General Trait Anxiousness, the interpersonal and general anxiety scales; eight role‐playing situations that involved the expression of positive and negative assertiveness; and a telephone in‐vivo task. In general, the study revealed the following: (1) assertiveness measures are task‐dependent in that there was more overlap within task than between tasks; (2) there is a moderate degree of correspondence between self‐report and role‐playing measures, although this was true only for negative assertion; (3) positive and negative assertion do not appear to have the same topography of responding; and (4) there appears to be no consistent relationship between the in‐vivo measure and any other type of assertiveness measure.