Communication Apprehension Essay

While these explanations for differences in communication apprehension levels all are persuasive, their impact is limited to differences across different families. Little attention has been directed toward differences in communication apprehension level among children within the same family. Randolph and McCroskey (1977) advanced what initially appeared to be a promising theory designed to explain differential communication apprehension levels among children within the same family as a function of birth order and family size. The first study they conducted yielded substantial support for their theory (Randolph & McCroskey, 1977), but subsequent research, which involved a much larger sample of subjects permitting a more powerful test of the

Three general theoretical propositions are central to this line of research, all of which are cast in terms of: persons who experience a high level of the CA. People who experience a high level of communication apprehension will withdraw from and seek to avoid communication when possible. As a result of the withdrawal from and avoidance of communication, people who experience a high level of communication apprehension will be perceived less positively than people who experience lower levels of communication apprehension by others in their

In addition, it has been found that when people with high communication apprehension do participate, their verbalizations are likely to differ from those of people with lower communication apprehension. For example, Powers (in press) has found that people with high communication apprehension include significantly more rhetorical interrogatives (i.e., you know, you see?, okay?) in their interaction than other people. Weiner (1973) and Wells (1970) found that when people with high communication apprehension do participate, their comments are likely to be irrelevant to the ongoing discussion. This has been explained as a function of wanting to avoid further interaction. If what a person says is not relevant, it is less likely that additional interaction will be pressed by other group