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Psychology and Communication | 129

too, personality dispositions have a long and distinguished history. Indeed,
some of the empirical studies of communication revolved around individual
differences in peoples’ proclivities to be comfortable in speaking in front
of others. And if one were to tabulate the phases of academic work in the
field of interpersonal communication over the past fifty years, one would
discover, unsurprisingly, that the greatest proportions of articles in journals
have explored topics directly related to personality.
Given the enormous number of studies on topics related to individual
differences in communication, we shall touch upon the major dispositional
differences associated with communication, most importantly, interpersonal
communication. First we shall try to understand what individual difference
is, and secondly see the catalogue of various individual differences that affect
communication and social interaction.

Are Individual Differences Important in Communications?

For many years, there have been debates about the validity of personality
constructs. Are there really individual differences? Moreover, if there are,
how important are they in the explanation and production of communica-
tive behaviour? Let us find out about some of the researches relevant to the
various communication-related predispositions that is, the nature of person-
ality difference as they relate to communicative behaviour.
Oslon, Vernon, Haris, and Jang (2001) found that a number of com-
munication-related behaviours (e.g. enjoying big parties, enjoying public
speaking, being assertive) have significant heritability. Beatly, McCrosky,
and Hiesel (1990) found genetic predispositions and communication, such
as communication apprehension. Krants Price (1976), gives the explanation
of personality variables such as reinforcement, social norms, and modeling.
Each of these alternative explanations is, to some degree, relevant to the
development of various communication related predispositions.
The motion behind these alternative approaches is that, genetics may
predispose a person to certain traits, but environment factors exacerbate or
ameliorate the development of these traits. For instance, in the case of social-
communicative anxiety, evidence exist that the anxiety of the people may be
shaped by the sort of reinforcements they received for communicating as
children, the level of social skills they were taught, and the adequacy of the
models of communication to which they were exposed. What we are trying
to see here is that, both hereditary and environmental factors are responsible
for individual differences in communication.
Besides, the heredity and environmental factors and differences in cul-
ture are also responsible for individual differences in communication. The
cultural construal decides how skilled individuals are when they are work-
ing, living or communicating in culture other than their own, a concept that

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