Communication and assertiveness skills: WACE Year 12 Health Studies Unit 4
“Apply communication skills, including assertiveness, refusal, negotiation and conflict resolution, to protect health in challenging interpersonal situations”
Interpersonal communication skills let a person protect their health in pressured situations. Assertiveness is expressing your needs and limits clearly while respecting others, sitting between passive (giving in) and aggressive (overriding others) styles. Refusal skills are ways to say no firmly without damaging the relationship. Negotiation finds a solution that meets both parties' needs, and conflict resolution settles disagreements without harm. WACE wants you to apply the right skill to a scenario and explain how it protects health.
What this dot point is asking
WACE expects application, not just labels. A strong answer identifies the pressure in the scenario, names the appropriate communication skill, describes specifically what the person would say or do, and explains how it protects their health and the relationship. Marks reward the matched, applied response rather than a list of skill names.
Assertiveness and communication styles
Communication styles sit on a spectrum. A passive style avoids conflict by giving in, hiding true feelings and letting others decide, which protects the relationship but not the person's own health or wishes. An aggressive style gets what it wants by overriding, blaming or intimidating others, which may protect the person's wish but damages relationships and can escalate harm. An assertive style is the healthy middle: stating your needs, feelings and limits clearly and respectfully, while acknowledging the other person.
Assertiveness protects health because it lets a person uphold boundaries (around alcohol, drugs, sexual activity, risk-taking or unfair treatment) without either surrendering or escalating. Using clear statements that name how you feel and what you want, holding eye contact and a calm steady tone, are practical markers of assertive communication.
Students often confuse assertiveness with being forceful or rude. Assertiveness respects both yourself and the other person: it states your position clearly without attacking, blaming or dominating. Aggression wins at the other person's expense and tends to damage relationships and trigger conflict, while assertiveness protects your health and preserves the relationship.
Refusal skills
Refusal skills are specific techniques for saying no to pressure while keeping the situation manageable. They include stating the refusal clearly and repeating it if pressured, giving a brief honest reason, suggesting an alternative, and removing yourself from the situation if needed. Effective refusal is firm but not aggressive, so the person resists the pressure (to drink, to take a risk, to do something unsafe) without provoking conflict. Practising refusal in advance raises self-efficacy, making it easier to use under real pressure.
Negotiation
Negotiation is used when two people have different wants and a shared solution is possible. It involves listening to the other person's position, stating your own, and working toward an outcome both can accept. In a health context, negotiation might settle how a group spends an evening safely, or how partners agree on protection or boundaries. Successful negotiation protects health while keeping the relationship intact, because neither party simply loses.
Conflict resolution
Conflict resolution settles disagreements before they cause harm. Useful steps include staying calm, listening to understand the other view, focusing on the problem rather than attacking the person, looking for common ground, and agreeing on a way forward. Resolving conflict well prevents the stress, relationship breakdown and sometimes violence that unresolved conflict can cause, all of which affect physical and mental health. Knowing when to walk away or seek help is part of the skill.
Choosing the right skill
The skills overlap and the situation decides which leads. Direct pressure to do something unsafe calls for assertiveness and refusal. A difference in wants that can be reconciled calls for negotiation. An escalating disagreement calls for conflict resolution. Strong answers read the scenario, choose the fitting skill, and show the specific words or actions that protect health.
How this maps to the exam
Expect a stimulus describing peer pressure, a disagreement or a risky social situation. Identify the pressure, select the appropriate communication skill, describe specifically how the person would respond, and explain how this protects their health while managing the relationship.
The marks live in the specific words and steps, not the label. Work a scenario through these stages.
Read the scenario for the pressure type
At a party, friends repeatedly offer Sam a vape and tease them for refusing. The pressure is direct pressure to do something unsafe, so the leading skills are assertiveness and refusal, not negotiation.
Script the assertive refusal
Write what Sam actually says: "No thanks, I don't vape." If pushed, repeat it (the broken-record technique), add a brief reason ("it's not for me"), and offer an alternative ("let's get a drink instead"). Note the tone: calm, steady, eye contact.
Add an exit and self-efficacy point
Explain the fallback: if the pressure continues, Sam moves to another group or leaves. Mention that rehearsing the refusal beforehand raises self-efficacy, making it easier under real pressure.
Explain how it protects health and the relationship
Conclude that the assertive refusal upholds the health boundary (no nicotine) without surrendering (passive) or insulting the friends (aggressive), so it protects both Sam's health and the friendship. Showing the words, tone, steps and the outcome is the full-mark answer.
Students often write that a person should be assertive or use refusal skills without describing what they would actually say or do. The marks come from the applied response: the specific words, tone and steps, and an explanation of how they protect health. Show the skill in action in the scenario.
Exam-style questions
Questions in the style of SCSA exam questions on this dot point, each with a worked answer. They are written by ExamExplained unless tagged "Past paper"; the year shows the paper a question is modelled on.
WACE 2021-style6 marksA person is being pressured by friends to ride in a car with a driver who has been drinking. Describe how assertiveness and refusal skills could be used to protect their health, and explain why an assertive style is preferable to a passive or aggressive one.Show worked answer →
A 6 mark response needs the applied skill (specific words and actions), plus the style comparison.
Apply the skills. Use a clear refusal: state "No, I'm not getting in, the driver has been drinking" and repeat it if pressured. Give a brief honest reason, suggest an alternative (call a parent, rideshare, stay over), and remove yourself if needed. Keep a calm steady tone and eye contact (assertive markers).
Compare the styles. A passive style (going along to avoid conflict) protects the relationship but not their safety. An aggressive style (insulting the friends) may avoid the ride but damages the relationship and can escalate. The assertive style upholds the safety boundary while keeping the relationship intact.
Markers reward specific refusal wording and actions, plus a clear reason assertive beats passive and aggressive in this situation.
WACE 2023-style4 marksExplain the difference between negotiation and conflict resolution, and give a health-related situation suited to each.Show worked answer →
A 4 mark response needs both definitions and a fitting situation each.
Negotiation. Used when two people have different wants and a shared solution is possible: listen, state your position, and reach an outcome both accept. Situation: a group agreeing how to spend an evening safely.
Conflict resolution. Used to settle an escalating disagreement before it causes harm: stay calm, focus on the problem not the person, find common ground. Situation: defusing an argument between friends that is becoming heated.
Markers reward correct definitions and a situation that genuinely fits each skill.