EAI
Everyday Assertiveness Inventory
This exploratory questionnaire describes difficulties with assertiveness in everyday life: expressing opinions and needs, saying no and setting boundaries, making requests and claiming what one is owed, handling criticism and disagreement, expressing emotions, and accepting compliments. It distinguishes this passive side from aggressive reactions and helps target the situations to work on in assertiveness training.
- Number of questions
- 24 questions
- Estimated duration
- 6 minutes
- Language
- English
- Original name
- Everyday Assertiveness Inventory
- Target audience
- Adults
- Category
- Assertiveness, Interpersonal issues, Self-esteem
- Exploratory questionnaire
- Exploratory questionnaire
Preview of the 24 questions
Scoring & interpretation
Scoring
Passive style
| Making requests and claiming one's due | 12 / 16 |
Difficulty asking for help or a favor and claiming what is owed, a feeling of having no right to do so.
Areas to explore: requests put off or dropped, the sense of being entitled to ask, the fear of being a bother or of owing someone.
| Expressing opinions and needs | 11 / 16 |
Difficulty giving one's opinion and saying what one wants or needs, a tendency to defer to other people's choices.
Areas to explore: the situations and people with whom the person stays silent, what they fear when speaking up, what this silence costs them.
See also: RAS (Rathus), CAT (Chalvin).
| Saying no, setting boundaries | 11 / 16 |
Difficulty turning down a request and protecting one's time, space, and priorities.
Areas to explore: requests accepted reluctantly, the people it is hardest to say no to, what the person associates with refusing (selfishness, fear of disappointing others).
See also: IIP-32.
| Expressing emotions, accepting compliments | 8 / 16 |
Difficulty showing what one feels, from hurt or anger to happiness and affection, and accepting a compliment.
Areas to explore: the emotions held back most, the people with whom they can be shown, the reaction to compliments.
| Handling criticism and disagreement | 6 / 16 |
Difficulty responding to criticism, holding one's ground in a disagreement, and defending one's point of view without giving in.
Areas to explore: the usual reaction to criticism, whether justified or not, the disagreements avoided, what the person fears in a conflict.
Aggressive style
| Aggressive reactions | 11 / 16 |
Asserting oneself at other people's expense: raising one's voice, hurting, deciding for them, exploding after holding back for a long time.
Areas to explore: the situations that trigger outbursts, what comes before them (accumulated frustrations), their consequences for relationships.
See also: BPAQ, STAXI-2.
No validated clinical or psychometric cutoffs have been established for this test yet. The results should therefore be considered exploratory indicators, meant to support the clinical interview, not diagnostic findings.
Scoring
Each statement is scored from 0 (never) to 4 (very often) based on its frequency in everyday life. Each domain combines 4 statements spread throughout the questionnaire, giving a score from 0 to 16.
Reading the profile
There is no total score. Within each block, domains are ranked from most to least elevated, each with a description of what it covers and points to explore in the interview. The results show two blocks: the passive style (staying silent, giving in, stepping aside), then the aggressive style (flaring up, imposing one's views, hurting others). The two can coexist, with restraint building up until it spills over; the interview then looks for the situations in which the person switches from one to the other.
Clinical cautions
A marked passive style can accompany social anxiety or fragile self-esteem, which should be explored in the interview. When the restraint mainly concerns one specific person (partner, parent, supervisor), screen for coercive control or abuse: asserting oneself may then put the person at risk, and their safety comes first.
Limitations
This exploratory questionnaire has not undergone psychometric validation and has no cutoffs. It supports the clinical interview and does not provide a diagnosis.
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