Communication Apprehension

Abstract

One cannot discuss the construct of communication apprehension (CA) without bringing up the scholar James C. McCroskey. McCroskey coined the concept with his graduate students during his time on faculty at Michigan State University, and published the first article in 1970 utilizing the term. CA is generally defined as people’s fear or anxiety related to actual or anticipated communication with others. As many of the references in this article will show, McCroskey went on to author or coauthor dozens of publications concerned with CA over the years. CA is divided into two general categories: trait CA and state CA. A person has trait CA when he or she has fear or anxiety about speaking across the entire spectrum of communication contexts. On the other hand, state CA occurs when a person has fear or anxiety about speaking in just one situation or context. In other words, people may be low in trait CA but have high state CA in certain situations. For example, someone may experience fear or anxiety about communicating with a physician during a medical consultation (i.e., high state CA), but not have any other fear or anxiety surrounding communication in other interpersonal contexts (i.e., low trait CA). Research into CA has generally been focused on finding ways to reduce CA among individuals, as it has usually been framed as a negative attribute.