ABSTRACT
WHY STUDY INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES? To put it simply, we don’t know as much as we should about how physical and psychological differences among people might (or might not) affect their listening processes and listening ability.1 While early listening scholars were more interested in defining listening and identifying listening skills, research over the past 20 years has increasingly explored the role of individual differences.2 One reason for this growing interest is that a number of personality and psychological constructs appear to be biologically based. Study in this area led to the rise of a new approach to studying communication: communibiology.3 Many of the researchers studying this area argue that “personality and communication are inherently intertwined.”4
