ABSTRACT
The heuristic value of the immediacy metaphor is evidenced in some of the diverse behaviors that it has helped identify. Media of communication range from the most immediate, face-to-face situation, to video tape communications received on a monitor screen, telephone conversations where not only verbal contents but also vocal expressions are available to the listener, on to written communications where the subtle qualities of the voice are absent. Some additional applications of findings from studies of implicit communication can occur in the exploration of characteristic attitude communications. The relation of characteristic attitude communications to level of psychopathology of the communicator can also be explored. The implicit communications of like or dislike, or the characteristic implicit communications of a more or less dominant attitude, may contribute to inaccuracy in communications. The rationale for the research reviewed and reported differs from earlier approaches to the study of nonverbal and subtle verbal behaviors.
