How does pressure affect whether you decide to use assertive communication?

Assertive Communication is when you can freely talk about negative or positive ideas or feelings in an open, honest manner. If you are feeling threatened or negatively pressured by a friend, partner, family member, etc, you will probably not feel comfortable speaking openly. Negative pressure would make someone less likely to use assertive communication. 

An epidemic is a large and localized outbreak of a sickness or disease.  a pandemic is a large global outbreak of a sickness or disease.