Communication apprehension: a narrative analysis of the PRCA-24

Thesis (M.S.) University of Alaska Fairbanks, 2002This exploratory study examined individuals' lived experience with communication apprehension (CA). CA has been explored extensively over the past 35 years by researchers seeking psychological explanations for communication phenomenon and employing the premise that CA exists as a "trait-like" characteristic of personality or as a relatively permanent behavioral disposition. Grounded in a constructionist epistemology, this study presumes that meaning is created, maintained, and transformed through communication with others. From this perspective, CA is an individual's evaluation of anticipated or occurring communication events, based upon his/her prior experiences interacting with others in specific situations. Though CA researchers acknowledge this situational basis of communication apprehension, it has been largely overlooked in past research given the reliance on the "trait-like" perspective. To gain insight into people's actual experiences when filling out the PRCA-24, this research utilizes in-depth conversational interviews to examine the situational specificity of the most popular CA measurement instrument, the Personal Record of Communication Apprehension-24 (PRCA-24)