title: Correlations among applicants' communication apprehension, argumentativeness, and verbal aggressiveness in selection interviews.
abstract: This study explored the influence of applicants' perceived apprehension during communication on self-reported argumentativeness and verbal aggressiveness in selection interviews. One week prior to selection interviews with corporate interviewers, 51 college students who were actively seeking career-oriented employment completed a questionnaire on their situational apprehension, trait argumentativeness, and trait verbal aggressiveness. The major findings were that (a) Trait Argumentativeness was significantly and negatively correlated with Trait Verbal Aggressiveness; (b) Apprehension was significantly and positively correlated with Trait Verbal Aggressiveness; (c) Apprehension was significantly and negatively correlated with Trait Argumentativeness; and (d) descriptive statistics indicated applicants experienced high Apprehension before the interviews.
authors.affiliation: Department of Communication Studies, California State University, San Bernardino, 92407-2397, USA. dsimmons@csusb.edu
authors.forename: Donna
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Simmons
authors.forename: Kevin G
authors.initials: KG
authors.lastname: Lamude
authors.forename: Joseph
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Scudder
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000374:Aggression / Q000523:psychology*; D003142:Communication; D005239:Fear / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006791:Hostility; D006801:Humans; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D007586:Job Application; D008297:Male; D010555:Personality Inventory / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D010560:Personnel Selection; D011594:Psychometrics; D012919:Social Behavior; D013334:Students / Q000523:psychology; D014705:Verbal Behavior