ASSERTION TRAINING THERAPY IN PSYCHIATRIC MILIEUS

The current investigation involved an attempt to develop a clinical pr ocedure to decrease anxiety and increase responsiveness (assertion) of psychiatric inpatients of both sexes in mixed diagnostic categories a nd to evaluate the effectiveness of the procedure, Using a Solomon Fou r-Group Design, patients, matched on age, sex, and diagnosis, were ass igned to one of the following conditions: (1) pretest, treatment, post test; (2) pretest, no treatment, posttest; (3) treatment, posttest; or (4) no treatment, posttest, The Gambrill-Richey Assertive Inventory w as used to assess patient Degree of Discomfort and Response Probabilit y with and without assertion training therapy, Results indicated that (1) patients receiving assertion training therapy were less anxious an d more responsive after treatment than before, (2) patients receiving assertion training therapy were less anxious and more responsive than were matched control subjects, (3) control subjects who received no as sertion training therapy and who were pretested showed moderate signif icant gains on the posttest measure, (4) patients reported a greater r eduction of anxiety than they did an increase in responsiveness, and ( 5) pretesting did not significantly influence posttest scores. Copyrig ht (C) 1997 by W.B. Saunders Company.