An examination of the relationship between career thoughts and communication apprehension.

  This study examined relationships among dysfunctional career thoughts
  and Levels of communication apprehension. Undergraduate students, 88
  women and 87 men, completed the Career Thoughts Inventory (CTI; J. P.
  Sampson, G. W. Peterson, J. G. Lenz, R. C. Reardon, & D. E. Saunders,
  1996) and the Personal Report of Communication Apprehension (PRCA-24;
  J. C. McCroskey, 1984b). Analysis of correlation coefficients found
  significant mild-to-moderate correlations among scales of the CTI and
  the PRCA-24. The results indicated that individuals with average and
  high levels of communication apprehension had greater decision-making
  confusion, commitment anxiety, and external conflict than persons
  with low levels of communication apprehension. Implications for
  counseling and further research are discussed in light of these
  results.

**********

Counselors make inferences about persons' readiness for career assistance by listening to them talk about their thoughts or by examining their self-report responses to tests and inventories. Communication is an essential element of counseling; in fact, the ability to put feelings into words may reduce emotional distress (Eisenberger, Lieberman, & Williams, 2003). However, communication behavior per se is seldom examined in the counseling literature. Our inspection of the contents of the Journal of Counseling Psychology, the Journal of Counseling & Development, and The Career Development Quarterly published during the past 20 years revealed one study examining this topic (Swagler & Ellis, 2003). We sought to address this limitation in the literature by conducting a study examining the idea that persons who have good self-knowledge and can communicate effectively might have fewer negative career thoughts impeding their decision making.

The mental processes involved in career decision making are explained in cognitive information processing (CIP) theory (Peterson, Sampson, Lenz, & Reardon, 2002). According to CIP theory, emotions (affect) and thoughts (cognition) are inseparable from career choices, including options about fields of study, occupations, and/or jobs. As persons think through their career decisions, their emotions can motivate them to make and follow through on choices or cause them not to act at all.

CIP theory focuses on career problem-solving and decision-making skills (Peterson et al., 2002). The model comprises four domains, which are represented by a pyramid. The foundation of the pyramid symbolizes the knowledge domains, which include self-knowledge and occupational knowledge. The middle level of the CIP pyramid represents the decisionmaking skills domain, which includes generic information-processing skills essential in gathering and using information to solve problems and make decisions. These skills include five phases for receiving external or internal signals of a gap between one's current and desired situation (communication), interrelating problem components (analysis), generating alternatives (synthesis), prioritizing options or alternatives (valuing), and forming an action plan to close the gap (execution)--the CASVE cycle. At the top of the pyramid is the executive processing domain, which relates to metacognitions (e.g., self-talk, self-awareness, and control and monitoring) that govern the choosing and sequencing of cognitive strategies used to make career decisions.

The communication phase in the CASVE cycle is of special relevance in this study. In this phase, information is received by the sense organs and interpreted in the cerebral cortex, which signals that a problem exists. The signal may stem from external demands (e.g., choice of college major, the need for employment) or from internal states, such as anxiety, depression, confusion, avoidant behavior, or physiological stress reactions. One then queries oneself and the environment to identify the gap between the existing state of indecision and a desired state of decidedness, which serves to frame the problem. This encoding of internal and external signals and sending out inquiries is described as communication in CIP theory.

The communication phase involves becoming fully in touch with all facets of the problem space (Peterson et al., 2002), including information signals from oneself and one's environment. Full identification and description of the gap (i.e., between indecision and decidedness) creates

a tension that provides a motivational resource for seeking a resolution to the career problem (Festinger, 1964). The two important communication questions for clients at this stage are "What am I thinking and feeling about my career choice at this moment?" and "What do I hope to attain as a result of career counseling?" Clearly, communication apprehension, speech anxiety, and other such factors that may interfere with effective communication about the nature of the gap are important in career counseling.

Peterson et al. (2002) theorized that poor career problem-solving and decision-making skills are related to negative thinking or dysfunctional career thoughts, and they developed the Career Thoughts Inventory (CTI; Sampson, Peterson, Lenz, Reardon, & Saunders, 1996) to measure such thoughts. Currently, researchers are seeking to learn more about dysfunctional career thoughts and how they relate to other constructs important in career decision making, including communication apprehension. Previous studies have found dysfunctional career thoughts to be significantly correlated with the inability to choose a major field of study (Kilk, 1997), level of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (Painter, 2004), and depression and career indecision (Saunders, Sampson, Peterson, & Reardon, 2000). Moreover, college students with higher levels of dysfunctional career thoughts do not appear to make a positive adjustment to their learning disability (Dipeolu, Reardon, Sampson, & Burkhead, 2002), and individuals with cognitive impairments have more decision-making confusion and external conflict than do individuals with physical disabilities (Yanchak, Lease, & Strauser, 2005).

The development of the CTI was based on the elements of the pyramid of information processing domains and the CASVE cycle. A factor analysis of the CTI revealed three factors that reflect the pyramid and the CASVE cycle. Self-knowledge, communication, analysis, and synthesis items loaded on the first factor, Decision-Making Confusion. Valuing, execution, and executive processing items loaded on a second factor, interpreted as Commitment Anxiety. A third factor, External Conflict, contained selected valuing and self-knowledge items (Sampson et al., 1996).

Finally, CIP theory specifies an approach to service delivery that is tied to effective communication. The initial step in integrating readiness assessment into career service delivery involves a brief screening upon entry to the counseling reception area where clients are greeted and asked their reason for seeking resources or services (Sampson, Reardon, Peterson, & Lenz, 2004). One example of an appropriate greeting would be "Hello, what brings you here today?" If the subsequent response from the individual is judged by the staff member to be a concrete request for information with no indication of a problem, then the person would be provided access to self-help career resources without further screening. This brief screening function can be performed with on-the-job-training by reception staff who have good verbal ability and effective communication skills. If the client has difficulty in communicating the nature of the career problem or decision or seems apprehensive, the counselor will move to a higher level of service delivery based on this screening process. Poor client communication suggests a lack of readiness for self-help career services and the need for professional counseling.

Previous research has not examined communication apprehension in relation to career thinking. This is an important issue in career counseling because communication apprehension may seriously hamper persons as they seek to share their thoughts, ideas, and visions for themselves regarding their vocation. As much as 15% to 20% of the U.S. population fears or is uncomfortable with oral communication, especially about matters that are difficult to conceptualize (Neuliep & McCroskey, 1997). College students making educational and career decisions are required to speak about career matters many times, for example, during individual career counseling or job interviews.

In our literature review, we found only two instances in which oral communication skills and career decision making were studied together (Osipow & Alderfer, 1968; Osipow & Phillips, 1967). Initially, Osipow and Phillips reported a process evaluation of a speech course designed to develop oral communication skills and improve career maturity. They characterized the results as a qualified success in that some students benefited from preparing and delivering four speeches related to career issues and decision making.

In a later study, Osipow and Alderfer (1968) used the notion of crystallizing a career decision, basically a verbal-based cognitive process, to structure a speech class to foster this process. The idea was to have 407 high school students at several grade levels give a series of speeches on topics of career development to further their vocational maturity. Results indicated that certainty about educational and career plans increased for girls at all grade levels who took the experimental speech class, but this was not true of boys.

The current study did not examine skills in preparing or delivering speeches in a speech class but examined the concept of communication apprehension in relation to career thoughts. McCroskey (1977) viewed communication apprehension as "an individual's level of fear or anxiety associated with either real or anticipated communication with another person or persons" (p. 78). Although this definition was originally based on oral communication, communication apprehension now encompasses all areas of communication, including writing (McCroskey & Beatty, 1998).

People who experience high levels of communication apprehension are often viewed or described in a negative manner. For example, individuals with high communication apprehension may be harder to get to know and may be viewed as introverted, less attractive and desirable, and unsocial (McCroskey & Wheeless, 1976). On the other hand, individuals with low levels of communication apprehension may be described using more positive terms such as extraverted, confident (McCroskey, 1977), cheerful, able to cope, and determined (McCroskey & Daly, 1976). Studies have indicated that honors college students have higher levels of communication apprehension (Butler, Pryor, & Marti, 2004) and that individuals with higher levels of communication apprehension have the type preferences of introversion, sensing, and feeling on the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (Opt & Loffredo, 2000). Communication apprehension has also been linked to occupational choice. Daly and McCroskey (1975) found that individuals with high communication apprehension prefer occupations that require little communication, such as computer programmer, whereas the opposite is true for individuals with low communication apprehension.

The current study sought to answer the following question: Are students who experience high levels of communication apprehension prone to having more negative career thoughts than are students with lower levels of communication apprehension? Specifically, the following hypothesis was tested: Students with low and average levels of communication apprehension will have lower levels of negative career thoughts related to decision-making confusion, commitment anxiety, and external conflict than will students with high levels of communication apprehension.

Method

Participants

A sample of 175 undergraduate students enrolled in 10 sections of an undergraduate career course offered at a large research university volunteered to participate in this study. The sample consisted of 87 men and 88 women; they were Asian Americans (2%), African Americans (15%), Hispanic Americans (11%), Caucasians (64%), and other (7%). (Percentages do not total 100% because of rounding.) The participants consisted of 100 lower division students (57%) and 75 upper division students (43%), with a mean age of 20 years (SD = 1.43).

Instruments

CTI (Sampson et al., 1996). The CTI is a 48-item instrument that assesses level of agreement with items using a 4-point Likert-type scale ranging strongly disagree (0) to strongly agree (3). The CTI provides information about an individual's negative career thoughts (the CTI total score), and it consists of three construct scales: Decision-Making Confusion (DMC), Commitment Anxiety (CA), and External Conflict (EC; Sampson et al., 1996). Higher scores on these scales indicate higher levels of each of these constructs.

The DMC scale assesses an individual's inability to engage in or sustain the career decision-making process because of disabling emotions or a lack of understanding about the process itself (Sampson et al., 1996). A sample DMC item is "I get so depressed about choosing a field of study or occupation that I can't get started." A high score on the CA scale indicates an individual's higher level of anxiety about the decision-making process and represents an inability to commit to a specific career choice. A sample CA item is "There are several fields of study or occupations that fit me, but I can't decide on the best one." The final scale, EC, reflects an individual's inability to balance self-perceptions with input from significant others, resulting in a reluctance to assume responsibility for decision making. A sample EC item is "I'm always getting mixed messages about my career choice from important people in my life" (Sampson et al., 1996).

According to Sampson et al. (1996), the internal consistency (alpha) coefficients of the CTI total score range from .97 to .93, and the three construct scales' alpha coefficients range from .94 to .74. The participant alphas in the current study for the DMC, CA, and EC scales were .91, .82, and .68, respectively. The CTI has demonstrated convergent validity with other instruments including the Vocational Identity scale and the occupational information and barriers items of the My Vocational Situation questionnaire (Holland, Daiger, & Power, 1980). Although the CTI total score and the scale scores all have clinical implications, only the three CTI scales were used for the data analysis of this study.

Personal Report of Communication Apprehension (PRCA-24; McCroskey, 1984b). The PRCA-24 is a 24-item instrument that uses a 5-point Likert-type scale ranging from strongly agree (1) to strongly disagree (5). The 24 items cover four contexts in which communication is needed: talking in group discussions, participation in meetings, dyad conversations, and public speaking (McCroskey, 1984b). Each context is assessed by 6 items, which alternate between 3 positively and 3 negatively worded items to avoid response bias (Bledsoe, 1990). The four contexts yield four subscores in addition to the overall communication apprehension score (McCroskey, 1984a, 1984b). Scores on the PRCA-24 range from 24 to 120 (McCroskey, 1984a); low scores are 51 and below, average scores are between 51 and 80, and high scores are 80 and above. A low score indicates a lower level of communication apprehension.

According to McCroskey (1984a), the internal reliability for the PRCA-24 is estimated to be .94. McCroskey, Beatty, Kearney, and Plax (1985) found an alpha reliability of .97, and Chen (1994) found the alpha reliability to be .94. The participant alpha for the current study was .73. McCroskey et al. (1985) found a .70 correlation with the Radius Assertiveness Schedule, demonstrating the content validity of the instrument. Furthermore, McCroskey (1984a) stated that data collected from over 25,000 participants revealed that the scores form a normal distribution, with a mean of 65.6 and a standard deviation of 15.3.

Procedure

Lead instructors for the course sections administered the questionnaires by reading from a standard script to ensure that all participants received the same instructions and were aware that they could withdraw at any time during the study without penalty. Students completed the CTI and student data sheet during the 1st day of class and the PRCA-24 during the 7th week of class. Students participating in the study received extra credit toward their course grade. Because of the large number of students who dropped or added the course during the university's 7-day add/drop period and those students who were otherwise absent when data were collected, 77 (31% of the 252) PRCA-24 results could not be matched with the earlier CTI data collection that had occurred on the 1st day of class and were omitted from the analysis.

Results

Pearson product-moment correlations of test scores for communication apprehension (measured by the PRCA-24) and negative career thoughts (measured by the CTI) are reported in Table 1. The total communication apprehension score was found to be significantly ([alpha] = .01) correlated with all three CTI scale scores (ranging from .20 to .30).

TABLE 1
Pearson Product-Moment Correlations of Test Scores for Communication
Apprehension and Negative Career Thoughts

                    Variable                    1       2      3      4

1. Decision-Making Confusion (a)
2. Commitment Anxiety (a)                     .66 **   -
3. External Conflict (a)                      .52 **  .43 **   -
4. Total Communication Aprehension Level (b)  .30 **  .20 **  .25 **  -

(a) Scale of the Career Thoughts Inventory. (b) Total scores from the
Personal Report of Communication Apprehension.

** Significant at the .01 level.

A three-way between-subjects multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) was performed on the three CTI dependent variables: DMC, CA, and EC scales. Independent variables from the PRCA-24 were three communication apprehension levels: low, average, and high.

Using SPSS MANOVA, we found no univariate or multivariate within-cell outliers at p = .05. The results of evaluation of assumptions of normality and homogeneity of variance were satisfactory. The test of the assumption of homogeneity of covariancc matrices in the three groups resulted in a fail-to-reject decision, Box's M = 21.5; F(12, 17425) = 1.71, p = .06, indicating that there was not a violation of the assumption.

The means and standard deviations for the three dependent variables in the low, average, and high groups of communication apprehension levels are summarized in Table 2. The multivariate null hypothesis of equality of the means over all groups for all variables was rejected at the .05 level, Wilks's A = .85; F(6, 340) = 4.94, p < .001; Pillai's statistic, .15; and Hotelling's test statistic, .18, and resulted in p values that were less than .001. The small p value resulting from the overall test supported confidence that true mean differences exist among the three groups of communication apprehension levels. The Wilks's multivariate effect size was relatively small at .15.

TABLE 2
Means and Standard Deviations for the Dependent Variables in the Three
Communication Apprehension Levels

                             Communication Apprehension Level (a)

                           Low (n = 31)    Average    High (n = 22)
                                          (n = 122)

Variable (b)                 M     SD      M     SD     M     SD

Decision-Making Confusion   8.13  7.69   14.07  7.00  16.95  6.74
Commitment Anxiety         12.94  5.81   16.04  4.91  16.86  4.81
External Conflict           2.94  2.41    5.25  2.78   5.55  2.54

(a) Measured by the Personal Report of Communication Apprehension. (b)
Scales of the Career Thoughts Inventory.

To identify the dependent variables that contributed to the rejection of the multivariate null hypothesis, univariate analyses of variance (ANOVAs) were conducted for the DMC, CA, and EC scales. All of the ANOVA hypotheses were rejected at the .05 level. The computed values of F(2, 175) were 11.88, 5.44, and 9.91 for the DMC, CA, and EC scales, respectively. The values of strength of association (partial [[eta].sup.2]) for the same variables were .12, .06, and .10, respectively.

Significant ANOVAs supported follow-up analyses (pairwise comparisons with Bonferroni adjustment) for each dependent variable. The point estimates, test results, and 95% confidence intervals for all comparisons are given in Table 3. The Tukey's honestly significant difference procedure was used for each dependent variable to provide additional family-wise protection. Of all comparisons, the low versus average and the low versus high contrasts were statistically significant for all three dependent variables. The low level communication apprehension group had means that were lower than those of the average and high level groups for DMC, CA, and EC.

TABLE 3
Communication Apprehension Level Contrasts

Variable                       Point Estimate       95% CI

Decision-Making Confusion (a)
  Low versus average               -5.94 *      -9.32, -2.57
  Average versus high              -2.88        -6.76, 1.00
  Low versus high                  -8.83 *     -13.50, -4.15

Commitment Anxiety (a)
  Low versus average               -3.11 *      -5.51, -0.70
  Average versus high              -0.82        -3.60, 1.95
  Low versus high                  -3.93 *      -7.27, -0.59

External Conflict (a)
  Low versus average               -2.31 *      -3.59, -1.03
  Average versus high              -0.30        -1.77, 1.17
  Low versus high                  -2.61 *      -4.38, -0.84

Note. CI = confidence interval.

(a) Scale of the Career Thoughts Inventory.

* Significant at the .05 level with Tukey's honestly significant
difference procedure.

Discussion

Results indicated that there were significant relationships among the constructs measured by the two instruments (CT1 and PRCA-24) used in this study. The total PRCA-24 scores were significantly correlated with all three scale scores (DMC, CA, EC) on the CTI. Results showed that participants with low levels of communication apprehension had significantly lower scores on all three types (decision-making confusion, commitment anxiety, and external conflict) of negative career thinking than did participants with average or high levels of communication apprehension.

Implications

We believe there are several implications and recommendations for practice that can be drawn from these findings, although these must be viewed in light of the exploratory nature of the study. Additionally, a need for more research in the areas of communication apprehension and its impact on individuals' career development and behavior in career counseling is recognized and outlined as follows.

The increased amount of negative career thoughts experienced by individuals with average and high levels of communication apprehension, coupled with the positive relationship between CTI and PRCA-24 scale scores, calls for added awareness by career counselors and academic advisers working with college students in the career decision-making process. There are numerous points at which a choice must be made when a college student considers factors affecting career development, for example, selecting a major or job target. Communication apprehension and/or negative career thinking may be among those factors.

For instance, on many occasions these students meet with academic advisers to map out or plan their programs of study. Such meetings provide advisers with an opportunity to check in with students about something like communication apprehension and how it might affect choice of a major or intended career path. On the basis of the results of these conversations, an academic adviser may make a referral to the campus career center or student counseling center. Similarly, faculty members who notice a student with particularly high levels of communication apprehension (e.g., while the student is preparing for an oral exam or presentation) could take the opportunity to discuss the student's feelings or experiences and make the appropriate referral for communication or career assistance. Recognizing the relationship between communication apprehension and career decision making could lead to increased funding for mock interview training or expansion of individual and group counseling programs.

Perhaps most important, career development professionals can be more vigilant regarding students who may be experiencing negative career thoughts or anxiety about communicating in different contexts. A career counselor may not only make a referral if necessary, but also be able to address negative thinking and communication apprehension in the counseling relationship. Specifically, the counselor could work with the client to develop an appropriate intervention plan, especially as it relates to the client's career decision(s). Simply discussing the variety of career-related situations, such as interviewing or attending a career exposition, that will require communicating in different contexts would be helpful. Based on conversations between the career counselor and the client, follow-up interventions might include referral to individual career counseling, participation in information interviews, participation in mock interviews before interviewing for positions, reading books related to interviewing success and effective strategies, attending an interviewing workshop, attending a workshop focusing on effective career exposition networking strategies, attending an anxiety reduction workshop that focuses on communicating with others, speech therapy, or mental health counseling.

Limitations

Several limitations in this study should be noted. First, the sampling technique was criterion based in that participants were enrolled in 1 of 10 sections of an undergraduate career planning course at a large university. Given that the sample included a large number of sophomore students, generalization of these results can only be extended to other groups who have similar characteristics. Second, the low number of participants in the high communication apprehension group is another threat to internal validity (i.e., power), which could result in a Type II error. This type of error is associated with false negatives--or the chance that one will miss a significant effect when it is really there. Finally, because of the data collection procedures, there were a large number of incomplete data sets that were excluded from the data analysis. It is not possible to know whether those students who either withdrew from the course before the PRCA-24 data were collected or were absent during data collection periods differed in their levels of communication apprehension and negative thinking from those included in the study.

Future Research

In summary, although research exists about the effectiveness of anxiety reduction programs in general, further research is needed to examine the effectiveness of career-related interventions, such as mock interviews, on a person's level of communication apprehension. If certain career center programs or resources are more useful than others in reducing a client's level of communication apprehension, then increased funds and staff time could be appropriated accordingly. Additional studies could expand the previous research of Daly and McCroskey (1975) by focusing on occupational preferences or job satisfaction with individuals of differing levels of communication apprehension. Finally, an extension of that research could examine job satisfaction with respect to communication apprehension level and occupational choice.

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Katie Meyer-Griffith, Department of Continuing Workforce Education, Florida Community College at Jacksonville; Robert C. Reardon and Sarah Lucas Hartley, Career Center, Florida State University. Katie Meyer-Griffith is now at Career Development Center--Kent Campus, Florida State College at Jacksonville; Sarah Lucas Hartley is now at Primary Care-Mental Health Integration Team, Veterans Administration Medical Center, Salem, Virginia. The authors thank Jill Harris and Emily Bullock for assisting in data collection and analysis and Janet Lenz, James Sampson, and Gary Peterson for comments on drafts of this article. Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Robert C. Reardon, Career Center, Florida State University, 100 South Woodward Avenue, Tallahassee, FL 32306 (e-mail: [e-mail]).

[C] 2009 by the National Career Development Association. All rights reserved.