Instructor Socio - Communicative Style , Argumentativeness , and Verbal Aggressiveness in the College Classroom

A study examined the relationship among instructor socio-communicative style, argumentativeness, and verbal aggressiveness in the college classroom. Participants were 139 undergraduate students enrolled at a small southern university who completed the Assertiveness-Responsiveness Measure (Richmond and McCroskey, 1995), as well as modified versions of the Argumentativeness scale (Infante and Rancer, 1982), and the Verbal Aggressiveness scale (Infante and Wigley, 1996). Results indicated that: (1) competent and aggressive instructors are rated significantly higher in argumentativeness than submissive instructors and (2) noncompetent and aggressive instructors are rated significantly higher in verbal aggressiveness than either competent or submissive instructors. (Contains 47 references and a table of data.) (Author/CR) ******************************************************************************** Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. ********************************************************************************