Communication Scales

I gave the communication quizzes to two people who know me in different aspects of my life.  I gave my husband, John, the quizzes, and I gave my colleague Christina the quizzes as well.  John is the person who knows me the best, and Christina knows me only from work.  I was nervous and excited to read what they thought of my communication style. 

            Their scores were similar to mine except for two areas.  The first area that differed from my results came from my husband was in the Verbal Aggressiveness Scale.  He thought that perhaps I am more verbally aggressive than I give myself credit for.  John thinks I can become verbally aggressive and insult a person’s character, ideas, and moral position (Rubin, Rubin, Graham, Perse, & Seibold, 2009).  Although I mainly am verbally aggressive with my husband in this manner in jest, I can see his point and will try my best not to insult his intelligence when we are having a verbal debate; but I am not promising anything. 

            Christina, who only knows me in a more formal setting, differed from my score in the Communication Anxiety Inventory.  Christina’s score me in the low anxiety range which states, “You reported that you feel comfortable communicating in most situations and feel confident in anticipating such encounters (Rubin, Rubin, Graham, Perse, & Seibold, 2009)”.  Christina has only ever seen me address small groups, and in small groups I am a confident communicator.  What Christina does not know is that when it is necessary for me to speak in public, I begin to have the symptoms of a panic attack.  My pulse races, my breathing increases, my heart palpitates, and there is a pit in my stomach.  It feels bizarre that Christina only knows one side of my communication style.  On the other hand; my husband mainly knows the more casual side of my communication style.