Social skills training for an unassertive adolescent

An adolescent was trained to be more assertive through use of a social skills training program consisting of instruction, feedback, behavior rehearsal, and modeling by adult role models. The training program was applied to three component behaviors of assertiveness-requests for new behaviors, ratio of eye contact to duration of speech, and loudness of speech-in a multiple-baseline analysis design. Two of these behaviors increased as a function of the training program, while the third behavior remained at baseline levels. Ratings of overall assertiveness also increased as a function of the training program. These effects of the training program using an adult therapist generalized to personal situations involving peers. A negative effect of social skills training was also observed.