Limitations of Interpersonal Communciation Research :: essays research papers

When taking a limit of an equation in Calculus, a limit doesnot always exist. However, in the veridical word there arealways limitations to what people can accomplish no matterhow hard they work or try. These limitations are evident ininterpersonal commuciation research as well. In the article,"Commucication Apprehension Among SecretarialStudents," the authors, Melanie Booth-Butterfield andCarol C. Thomas, research and examine the levels of trait communion apprehension among students enrolled incollege level shoes administration programs. In thefollowing paragraphs I will discuss the process and twolimitations of the research.In the article, the authors seek to investigate communicationapprehension among secretarial students. colloquyapprehension is an individuals level of fear or disquietassociated with communicationg with others(Booth-Butterfield & Thomas, 1995, pp. 39). Themethodological framework utilitized by the authors was toadminister questionnaires during reg ular class meter in fourdifferent sections. This survey included a measure of traitcommunication apprehension and anxiety across fourdifferent areas of interpersonal, low-pitched group, meeting andpublic speaking. In addition, the questionnaire asked for theage and whether the participants have had experience in aco-op role or as a secretary for a regular business. Theparticipants of the questionaire were 117 random studentsenrolled at a four-year, technical business-oriented college.Of these students, 58 were female students enrolledfull-time in office administration courses. The remainingstudents were not secretarial students precisely were enrolled inbusiness administration, management, and communicationcourses. The results of the survey clearly showed a highercommunication apprehension among secretarial studentsthan non-secretarial students rergardless of age or jobexperience. Furthermore, secretarial students showedanxiety in all four areas of communication especially inpubl ic speaking. In conlusion to the research, the authorssay that the anxiety experienced by many officeadminstration students should be observable and willsubstatntively influence their performance in classes and onthe job (Booth-Butterfield & Thomas, 1995, pp. 39).Although this communication apprehension research seemsreasonable, limitations include the type of data apply and therelationships or generalizations that are drawn betweencertain variables. To begin with, the methodologicalframework utilized by the author is in the form of aquestionairre. A questionairre is basically a test to see howone thinks of his or herself and is not necessarily accurate.For example, an individual may think he or she isapprehensive to communication but when actuallyconfronted with the scenerio may perform rather well andwithout any fear or anxiety. Perhaps a bettermethodological approach in gathering data is to setup anactual communication setting and have the participantsperform to the communica tion task. The data should bebased on the performance as well as feedback from theparticipant to see if the communication apprehension was