Vol 2, No 10, 2003 pp. 731-744
UDC 159.072:159.946.2
JUDGING ASSERTIVENESS
Marianne Schmid Mast, Judith A. Hall,
Nora A. Murphy, C. Randall Colvin
Northeastern University, Boston, USA
E-mail: m.schmidmast@psychologie.unizh.ch
hall1@neu.edu
Abstract. In the present study we investigated whether the personality trait of assertiveness can be judged accurately, which cues are used to judge assertiveness, and how cue utilization is related to accuracy. We additionally assessed whether perceiver and/or target gender moderate any of these relationships. Participants (72 females and 36 males) watched 33 short videoclips each featuring a female and a male target interacting. After watching each clip, participants indicated how assertive they judged each target to be. Since the self-reported assertiveness measure of the targets was known, accuracy of judging assertiveness could be calculated. Each target was coded on an array of behavioral cues. Results showed that assertiveness could be judged at better than chance level and that female targets were assessed more accurately than male targets. To find out how much perceivers relied on each specific cue to judge assertiveness (cue utilization), perceived assertiveness was correlated with each of the behavioral cues across targets. We found that perceivers used different cues to judge assertiveness in female as compared to male targets. Also, accuracy of judging assertiveness was achieved by using somewhat different cues for male and female targets.
Key words: person, perception,  interpersonal sensitivity, judgment accuracy, assertiveness, gender.
PROCENJIVANJE ASERTIVNOSTI
U ovom radu smo istraživali da li karakterna crta asertivnosti može precizno da se proceni, koji pokazatelji se koriste za procenjivanje asertivnosti i kakav je odnos izmedju upotrebe tih pokazatelja i preciznosti. Uz to smo  utvrdjivali i da li pol posmatrača i/li posmatrane osobe utiče na neke od ovih odnosa. Ispitanici (72 žene i 36 muškaraca) gledali su 33 kratka video snimka  u kojima su jedna ženska i jedna muška osoba komunicirale. Posle odgledanog video snimka, ispitanici su označavali koliko je, po njihovoj proceni, posmatrana osoba asertivna. Pošto je razmera asertivnosti posmatrane osobe po sopstvenoj proceni već bila poznata, mogla je da se izračuna preciznost  procenjivanja asertivnosti. Svaka posmatrana osoba je bila šifrirana na spisku bihejvioralnih pokazatelja. Rezultati su pokazali da se asertivnost može procenjivati na nivou višem od slučajnog i da su posmatrane osobe ženskog pola preciznije procenjivane od osoba muškog pola. Da bi se utvrdilo u kojoj meri se posmatrači oslanjaju na odredjeni pokazatelj u procenjivanju asertivnosti (upotreba pokazatelja), uočena asertivnost dovodjena je u korelaciju sa svakim od bihejvioralnih pokazatelja kod posmatranih osoba. Utvrdili smo da posmatrači koriste različite pokazatelje prilikom procenjivanja asertivnosti kod posmatranih osoba ženskog u odnosu na muški pol. Takodje, preciznost pri procenjivanju asertivnosti postizana je upotrebom nešto drugačijih pokazatelja zavisno od pola posmatrane osobe.