The tension between empathy and assertiveness and its correlation with self-efficacy

It has been argued that empathy and assertiveness are not two mutually exclusive traits but rather two skills working together to enhance individuals’ outcomes in negotiations: empathy and assertiveness are two universally recognized emotional skills that must be included in the repertoire of any successful social actor. To investigate this issue, aid relationships, a field where it is particularly important to perform efficient negotiations with the client, were considered: in pilot study , nurses completed a paper and pencil questionnaire including measures of empathy, assertiveness and perception of self-efficacy; in Study 1, educators compiled a questionnaire that included also measures of social efficacy, social identification and deficit in emotions identification. In both studies, a positive correlation between both empathy and assertiveness with self-efficacy was found; additionally, in Study 2, social efficacy was found to correlate positively with in-group identification and deficit in emotions management, namely alexitymia, moderated main results. It is important, mostly for activities that require efficient daily negotiations, such as caring professions, to increase the knowledge and management of empathy and assertiveness through guided training.