COMMUNICATION APPREHENSION AS TEMPERAMENTAL EXPRESSION - A COMMUNIBIOLOGICAL PARADIGM

Over the past two decades, a large amount of research focusing on corr elates and consequences of communication apprehension has accumulated. Despite this massive research effort, few, viable models of the devel opment of the trait have been proffered. Also during the past twenty y ears, psychobiologists have made impressive strides toward the explana tion of human behavior by identifying underlying neurological processe s, especially in affective domains. lit this essay, we propose a theor y of communication apprehension, anchored in the trait-oriented work o f psychobiology as articulated in the temperament literature. Drawing from the extensive work of both psychobiologists and communication app rehension researchers in our field, we contend that communication appr ehension represents individuals' expression of inborn, biological func tioning, which has been shown to be antecedent to social experience an d, therefore, independent of social learning processes. In formulating our theoretical framework we (1) present a temperament-based conceptu alization of communication apprehension, (2) integrate neurologically- based temperament functions into three fundamental propositions based on communication apprehension research, and (3) discuss the implicatio ns of our theoretical position.