TRANSFER OF ASSERTION TRAINING ACROSS AFFECTIVE DOMAINS

JAMES HENRY FALK, Purdue University

Abstract

Assertion training is an established clinical intervention which relies upon the role-playing of "hostile" (i.e. negative) and "commendatory" (i.e. positive) affective expressions in problematic social situations. It has been assumed in past applications of the procedure that these two domains are completely compatible topics of training. This assumption contrasts with growing concerns about the transfer of responses which are correct only in the context of specific situations. The polarity in affective quality of the two main subsets of the assertive response class poses a test for the transfer value of training in one affective domain. A theory of transfer in the general experimental literature on skill (Osgood, 1949) states the perceived similarity between stimuli and responses from two tasks determines the extent of transfer. In this study, training was evaluated in a second session covering either the alternate domain, the same domain, or a control task involving neutral conversational skills. The scenes for the three tasks were screened for affective quality by a sample of nursing assistants on psychiatric wards from which subjects were drawn. Each session was divided into four blocks of scene rehearsals with modeling, instructions, and videotape replay accompanying each scene. Sixty male psychiatric patients were selected as subjects on the recommendation of the staff treating them. Judges' ratings of the patients' responses indicated that the transfer from one assertive domain to the other was performed without any interruption in skills level. This would suggest that the polarity between tasks was recognized as superficial. However, the control condition functioned as an equally effective preparation for either assertion task, despite lower ratings of skill on the control task itself. The absence of an overall pattern of block-by-block increments in assertiveness was interpreted as an indication that the brief role-play format failed to elicit a behavioral sample with complexity sufficient to provide an adequate test transfer. Implications for the ecological validity of role-played assertion were discussed with an eye toward testing transfer across the affective dimension in settings which are more critical to the trainee than the training ground itself.

Degree

Ph.D.

Subject Area

Psychotherapy

COinS