Sex and Contextual Differences in the Appropriateness of Assertive Behavior

Abstract

A series of one-line descriptions of assertive behavior sequences were written so that the situational context was systematically varied. Adult males and females were asked to rate how appropriate each behavioral sequence would be if performed by men and if performed by women (normative appropriateness). The same persons were also asked to estimate how appropriately a typical man and a typical woman would rate them if they engaged in the same behavior (expected appropriateness). Analyses of normative ratings indicated that assertion by women is viewed as slightly more appropriate than that by men, at least when carried out with opposite sex friends and spouses. Both males and females expected higher appropriateness ratings from their own sex. Both normative and expected appropriateness varied as a function of situational context.