Abstract The present study investigates the differences in assertiveness and the ability to discriminate assertiveness from aggressive and defensive/passive behaviour and the relationamong them across Indian and Serbian cultures, besides exploring the relationship between personality and assertive-ness in both the cultures. Measures of assertiveness, scale of discrimination among assertive,aggressive and passive behaviour and Big-Five personality inventory were administered on Indian (N=108) and Serbian (N=116) engineering students. Results indicated significant difference in the assertive behaviour of Indian and Serbian samples apart from significant relationship between personality and assertiveness Keywords Assertiveness Personality Big-Fiv.
Assertive behaviour is the ability to formulate and communicate one’s own thoughts and wishes in a clear,direct and non-aggressive way. Assertiveness is “that
complex of behaviors emitted by a person in an interpersonal context which express that person’s feelings, attitudes, wishes, opinions or rights directly, firmly and
honestly while respecting the feelings, attitudes, wishes,opinions, and rights of others” (Galassi and Galassi 1977).Being assertive is essentially about respecting oneself and others. It is about having a basic belief that one’s opinions,
beliefs, thoughts and feelings are as important as anybodyb else’s. It is same as for other people, too. Assertive person values what he/she thinks and feels, have esteem and respect for himself/herself. In addition, being assertive means taking responsibility for one’s life and choices that one makes. It also means not blaming other people or circumstances for what happens to him/her (Rees and Graham 1991). Assertiveness contributes to better communication in emotional and professional relationships in healthy individuals. It is also proven to have considerable the rapeutic effect in some psychiatric conditions such as anxiety disorders (particularly social phobia), substance abuse, depression, etc. (Messina and Messina 2007). Assertiveness is a type of verbal behaviour that represents a “golden middle” between the aggressive and defensive (passive) response in social situations. How people deal with personal boundaries; their own and those of other people, helps to distinguish between these three concepts. Passive communicators do not defend their own
personal boundaries and thus allow aggressive people to harm or otherwise unduly influence them. They are also typically not likely to risk trying to influence anyone else. Aggressive people do not respect the personal boundaries of others and thus are liable to harm others while trying to influence them. They generally show little or no consideration for the rights of others and usually fail to assume responsibility for the consequences of their actions (Fornell and Westbrook 1979). They have the tendencies to expressand/or exhibit hostility by using both verbal and nonverbal methods. A person communicates assertively by not being afraid to speak his or her mind or trying to influence others, but doing so in a way that respects the personal boundaries of other.