| Description |
The purpose of this master's thesis research project was to compare the assertiveness scores of graduate nursing students with other women graduate students at The University of Utah to determine if there was any significant difference. The problem was to describe and define the difference, in any, found in the assertiveness scores of nursing graduate students and those scores of other women graduate students, and to establish a data base of information upon with other researchers could build. This study employed a descriptive comparative survey methodology using a reliable 85 item self-report questionnaire designed at The University of Utah by M. Manderino, J. Sullivan, L. Sullivan and N. Madsen. In addition to this instrument, The Patterns of Social Adaptation Scale, demographic data were collected which included: age, marital status, graduate school, subspecialty and number of years the subject had been in school. The sample was drawn from the population of women graduate students enrolled in the colleges of nursing, business, medicine, law and social work at The University of Utah. The total sample consisted of 39 nurses, 23 business women, 17 law student, 18 social workers, and 25 physicians. To collect data, the researcher obtained permission form various professors in the Colleges of Nursing, Medicine, Law, Business, and Social Work to take 5 minutes of class time to explain to the subjects that they would be participating in a research project designed to compare certain personality traits, and styles of interaction, of women graduate students enrolled in various colleges of The University of Utah. Those subjects willing to participate took the materials and filled out the questionnaire at their convenience; returning it to the researcher through campus mail. The research hypotheses were: (1) that there would be no significant differences in the assertiveness scores of graduate nursing students and other women graduate students at The University of Utah; (2) that there would be no significant differences between the assertive scores of nurses study in different clinical areas of nursing; and (3) that there would be no significant differences in the assertiveness scores of women 35 years of age and above, and those women 20 to 24 years of age. The data were analyzed by computer, using the Standard Program for Social Sciences which printed descriptive statistics, reliability coefficients, analysis of variance, Pearson's correlation coefficients, and when indicated a T-test. The results indicated that while there was a consistent trend for nurses, social workers and business students to be very slightly above the mean in assertiveness scores, and for law and medical students to be very slightly below the mean, there was no statistical difference in the assertive scores among graduate students who participated in this study. Inadequate size of subgroups within the nursing responses prohibited reliable analysis of the data. Therefore the second hypotheses was neither accepted nor rejected. A T-test indicated that there was not significant difference in the assertiveness scores of women 20 to 34 years of age and women 35 years of age and older. The value of assertiveness skills as an important part of role expansion in nursing is widely recognized among nursing educators. The value of a tool measure assertiveness responses in that nursing educators might assess the assertive skills of incoming students and either reinforce existing skills or teach assertiveness skill to student in need of such training. |
