Research indicates that transcendental meditation (TM) may provide relief from accumulated stress and render the meditator better able to cope with future stressful events. Single and combined TM and assertive training programs were compared for effectiveness in the treatment of socially anxious college students. A waiting-list group served as the control. College students (28 females and 12 males) participated in one of the four programs, completed the College Self-Expression Scale, the Assertion Inventory and selected scales of the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory, and collected daily self-observations of personally targeted assertive behaviors. Pre-post changes for meditation subjects were significantly superior to the control group on all self-report measures, suggesting an increase in assertiveness and reductions in situational and trait anxiety, general dysphoria, and social isolation. For the assertive training group, only the indices of assertive behavior showed changes significantly exceeding waiting-list results. The combined treatment was less effective, perhaps due to inordinate demands of the intensive training regimen. All three treatment groups observed significant pre-post increases in their ability to assert themselves in targeted situations, but these changes were not reliably greater than for waiting-list subjects. (Author)