Date of Award

6-1-1991

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Counseling Psychology & Community Services

Abstract

Young chronic mentally ill persons are individuals whose needs for treatment are well documented. Within the context of existing mental health systems, the client is generally faced with the need to be able to seek out services. With sobering regularity, these persons are quite poorly prepared to communicate their needs effectively.The present research proposed that improvements in the assertive communication skills of young chronic mentally ill persons would promote improvements in their interactions with caregivers. This study was undertaken to investigate a videotape strategy for the training of assertiveness.The sample for this study consisted of 42 male and female volunteers recruited from mental health center populations. All subjects had either Axis I and/or Axis II, DSM-III-R diagnoses. Subjects were divided into two training and one control group. The persons in the two training groups were individually exposed to a four-session assertiveness training program which centered upon videotaped vignettes. Each individual in one training group was also engaged in interactive role play training. The control group received no training.Dependent measures for the study were taken both pre- and post-training. These measures included self-ratings as to perceptions of assertive skills, ratings of the subjects' behaviors by the researcher, ratings of the subjects' assertiveness by their primary therapists, and subjects' responses to a test of discrimination abilities about what constitutes assertiveness. Post-treatment ratings by therapists took place eight weeks post-training.MANOVA and ANOVA statistical procedures were utilized to assess for significance of videotape and role play training, videotape only training, and no training. The significance of subjects' ages, gender and diagnoses were also assessed. The results of these analyses indicated that the videotape strategy utilized for both training groups was statistically significant in subjects' increased self-ratings as to their assertive skills. This, however, was the only significant effect detected.The study's results indicate the videotape format can be a useful medium. However, alterations such as use of more truly interactive media, greater variation in ratings by others and investigation of how subjects' diagnoses may affect ways their assertiveness is perceived, are suggested.

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