Generalization effects of coping-skills training: influence of self-defense training on women's efficacy beliefs, assertiveness, and aggression.
Concern for personal safety is a pervasive stressor for many women. Developing competencies in physical self-defense may empower women to engage more freely in daily activities with less fear. This study assessed the effects of physical self-defense training on multiple aspects of women's perceived self-efficacy and other self-reported personality characteristics. Training powerfully increased task-specific (self-defense) efficacy beliefs as well as physical and global efficacy beliefs. Training increased self-reported assertiveness, and posttraining decreases in hostility and aggression were found on several of the subscales of The Aggression Questionnaire (A. H. Buss & M. Perry, 1992), indicating that training did not have an aggression-disinhibiting effect. In the experimental condition, most of the effects were maintained (and some delayed effects appeared at follow-up.
Weitlauf
J C
JC
Department of Psychology, University of Illinois at Chicago, USA. weitlauf@uic.edu
Smith
R E
RE
Cervone
D
D
D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000374:Aggression; D001242:Assertiveness; D001290:Attitude; D005260:Female; D005793:Generalization, Psychological; D006801:Humans; D012649:Self Concept; D020377:Self Efficacy; D013663:Teaching