ABSTRACT
Communication researchers, especially those interested in the role of personality and individual differences in explaining communication processes and effects, have imported various measures, over the years, from related fields such as psychology. Investigators have applied these measures to operationalize a multitude of antecedent, intervening, and, even, consequent variables defined in questions and predictions about communication attitudes and behavior. Such variables include anxiety, aggression, locus of control, and need for cognition. Some of these measures of hostility, self-esteem, locus of control, and social desirability, for example, date back 40 years or more. Rosenberg’s (1965) SELF-ESTEEM Scale and Crowne and Marlowe’s (1960) SOCIAL DESIRABILITY Scale, for instance, have been the most widely used measures of those constructs in the social sciences. Some measures have been refined over time. Other measures of anxiety, loneliness, personality, and sensation seeking, for example, have been developed, revised, and adapted since that time.
