Original scientific paper
The differences in shyness and assertiveness between men and women in Croatia
Predrag Zarevski
Željko Vukosav
Abstract
The question here is whether the questionnaires on shyness and assertiveness measure the same constructs in men and women? In addition to the choice of the most adequate scale for the operationalisation of shyness and assertiveness, two additional questions are imposed:
1. Are shyness and assertiveness in the Croatian population at opposite ends of the same conitnuum or are they connected but separate constructs?
2. Whether the same or different set of items should be used to measure shyness and assertiveness in men and women?
The aim is to estimate the degree of correspondence between the latent dimensions of shyness and assertiveness in sub-samples of the Croatian men and women.
Method: A masculine and feminine version of the scale for measuring shyness and assertiveness were used.
Results: The first main component in both sub-samples is a general measure of shyness/non-assertiveness, or on the second component the situations requiring assertiveness are positioned on the positive pole and items of shyness, with somewhat lower values, are positioned on the negative pole. After rotation and several iterations, clear factors of shyness and assertiveness are obtained. In only 7 out of 38 items there are considerable differences in projections on these two factors in the function of gender.
Since Oblimin factors of shyness and assertiveness share only ten per cent of the variance it is justified to measure each of these constructs separately.
Conlcusion: in general, there is no "masculine" or "feminine" shyness or assertiveness in the Croatian population, although there are certain specific characteristics of responding and experiencing in the function of gender. The latent dimension of shyness shows somewhat higher correspondence.
Keywords
Shyness; assertiveness; gender differences
Hrčak ID:
3186
URI
Publication date:
15.12.1999.
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