On the art of saying no: The influence of social cognitive development on messages of refusal

Abstract

In an effort to add to the scant research literature on refusal skills, this study (a) offers a constructivist theoretical framework for conceptualizing refusal messages, and (b) assesses the framework by examining the relationship of social cognitive development to measures of refusal sensitivity. Measures of interpersonal construct differentiation and responses to a refusal task were obtained from 320 undergraduates. A nine‐level coding hierarchy for measuring message‐focused refusals was devised, and a separate study (N = 68) confirmed that messages at the major levels of the coding hierarchy are perceived to be progressively more sensitive and effective. The primary study then found that persons with highly differentiated interpersonal construct systems are more likely to use more refusal strategies and to construct more sensitive refusal messages than their counterparts. Subjects' choices to refuse or comply with the request did not differ as a function of construct differentiation. The ability to discriminate refusal message features was also positively correlated with construct differentiation, message‐focused refusals and refusal strategy number.