ABSTRACT
Immediacy refers to those behaviors that reduce physical or psychological distance between people. Although the immediacy construct originated in social psychology, immediacy was introduced into the instructional communication area by Andersen. The Generalized Immediacy (GI) Scale measures a general or gestalt impression of an individual’s overall level of immediacy. Reliability estimates for the GI Scale are always high, ranging from.84 to.97. Andersen attempted to validate students’ gestalt impressions of their teachers’ overall immediacy by having the same students also report their teachers’ specific immediacy behaviors. In this second instrument, the Behavioral Indicants of Immediacy Scale, students indicated the degree to which they perceived their teachers engaging in 15 separate nonverbal behaviors in the classroom. The GI Scale also correlates highly with other affectively based variables.
