The assessment of social‐communicative anxiety via self‐reports: A comparison of measures

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Abstract
A necessary assumption for the derivation of general summative propositions about any personality dimension is that measures assessing the characteristic are equivalent. In communication, research on social‐communicative anxiety has reflected this assumption. The present research assessed the accuracy of the assumption in terms of self‐report measures of social‐communicative anxiety. Fourteen instruments, representative of three conceptual groups (performance, communicative and social anxiety) were completed by a group of undergraduates. Three major tests of empirical equivalence were completed (correlations, factor analysis, classification analysis). Results indicated that virtually every measure was significantly and strongly associated with most other measures and most reflected the same general construct. The classification analysis revealed only moderate agreement among measures. A replication was completed which supported the conclusion of the primary study. In addition, the different measures were compared in terms of internal consistency and social desirability.

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