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Limitations Of Interpersonal Communciation Research Essay Research

Limitations Of Interpersonal Communciation Research Essay, Research Paper


When taking a limit of an equation in Calculus, a limit does


not always exist. However, in the real word there are


always limitations to what people can accomplish no matter


how hard they work or try. These limitations are evident in


interpersonal commuciation research as well. In the article,


"Commucication Apprehension Among Secretarial


Students," the authors, Melanie Booth-Butterfield and


Carol C. Thomas, research and examine the levels of trait


communication apprehension among students enrolled in


college level office administration programs. In the


following paragraphs I will discuss the process and two


limitations of the research.


In the article, the authors seek to investigate communication


apprehension among secretarial students. Communication


apprehension is an individual?s level of fear or anxiety


associated with communicationg with others


(Booth-Butterfield & Thomas, 1995, pp. 39). The


methodological framework utilitized by the authors was to


administer questionnaires during regular class time in four


different sections. This survey included a measure of trait


communication apprehension and anxiety across four


different areas of interpersonal, small group, meeting and


public speaking. In addition, the questionnaire asked for the


age and whether the participants have had experience in a


co-op role or as a secretary for a regular business. The


participants of the questionaire were 117 random students


enrolled at a four-year, technical business-oriented college.


Of these students, 58 were female students enrolled


full-time in office administration courses. The remaining


students were not secretarial students but were enrolled in


business administration, management, and communication


courses. The results of the survey clearly showed a higher


communication apprehension among secretarial students


than non-secretarial students rergardless of age or job


experience. Furthermore, secretarial students showed


anxiety in all four areas of communication especially in


public speaking. In conlusion to the research, the authors


say that the anxiety experienced by many office


adminstration students should be observable and will


substatntively influence their performance in classes and on


the job (Booth-Butterfield & Thomas, 1995, pp. 39).


Although this communication apprehension research seems


reasonable, limitations include the type of data used and the


relationships or generalizations that are drawn between


certain variables. To begin with, the methodological


framework utilized by the author is in the form of a


questionairre. A questionairre is basically a test to see how

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one thinks of his or herself and is not necessarily accurate.


For example, an individual may think he or she is


apprehensive to communication but when actually


confronted with the scenerio may perform rather well and


without any fear or anxiety. Perhaps a better


methodological approach in gathering data is to setup an


actual communication setting and have the participants


perform to the communication task. The data should be


based on the performance as well as feedback from the


participant to see if the communication apprehension was


accurate.


Another limitation to the research is the relationships or


generalizations that are drawn between certain variables.


First, of the secretarial participants that took the


questionairre, all were females. Differences in trait


communication apprehension between males and females in


the non-secretarial group were examined and showed no


significant differences (Booth-Butterfield & Thomas, 1995,


pp. 42). The authors use this data and draw a relationship


between the secretarial and non-secretarial gender to say


that in general there are no gender differences. However,


accurate as it may sound, this is another limitation because


secretarial students in general may think differently. Perhaps


females with communication apprehension follow office


administrative fields because they think that all they need to


do is sit all day and type with little talk or interaction while


males in the same field do not. Secondly, the authors come


to the immediate generalization that these secretarial


students with communication apprehension will be less


successful once in a working environment others


(Booth-Butterfield & Thomas, 1995, pp. 43). This parallels


the first limitation where I stated that these individuals might


perform rather well when the spotlight is on them. Although


they may be apprehensive to communication does not


necessarily mean that they cannot perform under actual


situations.


In this paper I have discussed the authors? research on


communication apprehension among secretarial students as


well as the limitations of the research. Booth-Butterfield


and Thomas give us their interpretations of their findings


and feel that secretarial students have greater anxiety when


it comes to communication scenerios. They even conclude


that this apprehension will make these students less capable


of success in future work environments. However, these


statements are based on generalizations and interpretations


from research with various limitations. In conclusion, there


are always limitations of interpersonal communication


research because it not like Mathematics where one can


just measure communication levels with a ruler.
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