Janis F. Andersen

Teacher Immediacy as a Predictor of Teaching Effectiveness

This investigation examined teacher immediacy as a potential predictor of teaching effectiveness. Teacher immediacy was conceptualized as those nonverbal behaviors that reduce physical and/or psych...

The Measurement of Nonverbal Immediacy.

(1979). The measurement of nonverbal immediacy. Journal of Applied Communication Research: Vol. 7, No. 2, pp. 153-180.

Communication apprehension of elementary and secondary students and teachers

A series of studies are reported that indicate a substantial increase in the average communication apprehension level of children occurs between kindergarten and grade 5 and that a disproportionately greater number of teachers with high communication apprehension teach at the lower elementary school level as compared to the upper levels. Suggestions for needed research are outlined and discussed. The development of two new scales designed to measure the communication orientations of children in grades K‐12, the Personal Report of Communication Fear (PRCF) and the Shyness Scale (SS), is also reported.

The Importance of Perceived Homophily, Level of Uncertainty, Feeling Good, Safety, and Self-Disclosure in Interpersonal Relationships.

This investigation assessed the relationship of the independent variables of perceived homophily to the dependent variables of: (1) level of uncertainty, (2) feeling good, and (3) safety. Also, the relationship of uncertainty level, feeling good, and safety was assessed to the dependent variables of self‐disclosure. Results indicated that perceived attitude‐value homophily has moderately high independent predictive power concerning level of uncertainty, feeling good, and safety. Perceived background homophily and perceived appearance homophily have little or no independent predictive power to those dependent variables. Also, the independent predictive power of uncertainty level, feeling good, and safety was low for self‐disclosure variables. Feeling good was the single best predictor of self‐disclosive communication, accounting for five percent of the variance in a self‐disclosure variable.

The exchange of nonverbal intimacy: A critical review of dyadic models

This article examines six different theoretical approaches that attempt to explain the exchange of dyadic immediacy, intimacy, or involvement cues. Affiliative conflict or equilibrium theory, two expectancy norm models, an arousal-labeling model, an arousal valence model, a discrepancy-arousal model, and a sequential functional model are summarized. Advantages and limitations of each of these approaches are discussed, and empirical support for each of these approaches is summarized.

Singing Apprehension and Talking Apprehension: The Development of Two Constructs

Singing apprehension is examined as a nonverbal counterpart of talking apprehension. Three research questions and hypotheses were tested in two separate replications. Subjects were 190 undergraduates in the first and 551 primary and secondary teachers in the second. Results indicated that apprehension about singing can be reliably and validly measured and is unrelated to apprehension about talking. A significant negative relationship between singing lessons and singing apprehension was hypothesized and confirmed. Men were found to have higher levels of singing apprehension; women were found to have higher levels of talking apprehension. Implications of these findings are discussed in terms of role conditioning and neurophysiological sex differences. Suggestions for treating and reducing singing apprehension are also discussed.