55 men and 55 women were administered Schill's Self-defeating Personality Scale, an argumentativeness scale, and a measure of assertive self-statements. Women with higher scores on the Self-defeating Personality Scale had lower scores on the argumentativeness scale. Both men and women scoring higher on the Self-defeating Personality Scale recalled having thoughts which inhibited them from making assertive statements. These results were discussed as supporting prior research showing that persons reporting more self-defeating characteristics were relatively unassertive.
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