ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews the rationale behind the development of the Affectionate Communication Index (ACI) and the process describes by which the scale was developed and validated initially. It discusses the strengths and limitations of the scale and how researchers might utilize it. It also presents the development and use of the ACI, a self-report measure that assesses nonverbal expressions of affection as well as verbal expressions and supportive gestures. Nonverbal communication scholars, like all social scientists, must be cognizant of the psychometric adequacy of measurement tools used in research they conduct or even in research they cite. Prior to development of the ACI, studies of affectionate communication tended to take several approaches to measurement. In developing the measure, Floyd and Morman adopted a grounded theory approach to generating referents for affectionate communication in order to increase the ecological validity of those referents.
