Human Communication. A Publication of the Pacific and Asian Communication Association. Vol. 12, No. 4, pp.485-492. Communication Traits and Social Phobia

This paper is directed toward the potential relationship between the psychological construct of Social Phobia and several communication traits. The results of the present research indicate that communication apprehension, and to a lesser extent, behavioral shyness, self-perceived communication competence, and assertiveness are substantially related with two of the subconstructs of social phobia (fear and avoidance of performance). Willingness to communicate, compulsive communication, responsiveness, and nonverbal immediacy had small or no relationship with these social phobia constructs. None of the communication traits were found to be strongly associated with the other two sub-constructs (fear and avoidance) of social phobia. Researchers are cautioned about the questionable validity of the measure of social phobia for use in communication research. Amsbary & McCroskey 487 Psychological and communication scholars often appear to be interested in the same phenomena. Frequently, however, they focus their attention on different aspects of those phenomena. As an illustration of this claim, psychologists have become interested in what they refer to as Asocial phobia.@ There are two primary elements of this constructBfear and avoidance. Liebowitz (1987) developed an instrument (the LSAS) to measure the components of social phobia that yields four scores, one each for fear of performance, avoidance of performance, fear of social situations, avoidance of social situations. Wrench, Brogan, McCroskey, and Jowi (2006) hypothesized that LSAS scores would positively correlate with scores for the Personal Report of Communication Apprehension (fear) and negatively correlate with ones for the Willingness to Communicate (avoidance) scores. Their results showed positive correlations between the PRCA and the LSAS scores ranging from .44 to .56 and negative correlations between the WTC and LSAS scores from -.30 to -.37. Although all these correlations were statistically significant, the measures are far from isomorphic. When it comes to the cluster of concepts this manuscript has addressed it is clear that psychology and communication scholars are not studying the same things, even though they are conceptually similar and and empirically related. The primary purpose of the present study was to assess the degree to which additional communication traits are associated with the components of social phobia. Rationale and Hypotheses Since the results of Wrench et al.=s (2006) study indicated that all of the components of social phobia were associated with communication apprehension and willingness to communicate, if valid, the findings presumably would be replicated in the present research. Hence, our first two hypotheses were: H1. The components of social phobia are positively correlated with communication apprehension. H2. The components of social phobia are negatively correlated with willingness to communicate. Since the construct of social phobia suggests that people who are phobic fear and avoid communication and the theory of behavioral shyness suggests that some people behave in a shy manner because they fear communication, we posed a third hypothesis: H3. The components of social phobia are positively correlated with behavioral shyness. The construct of self-perceived communication competence suggests that people who think of themselves as competent communicators are more likely to initiate communication than those who see themselves as less competent. Similarly, people who indicate that they are talkaholics (compulsive communicators) ostensibly communicate virtually without concern for other factors. Consequently: H4. The components of social phobia are negatively correlated with self-perceived communication competence. H5. The components of social phobia are negatively correlated with compulsive communication. The theory related to assertiveness and responsiveness suggests that both traits are positive elements in the communication process. Since a phobic reaction to communication would be likely to interfere with effective communication, we hypothesized that: H6. The components of social phobia are negatively correlated with assertiveness. H7. The components of social phobia are negatively correlated with responsiveness.