Correlates of compulsive communication: Quantitative and qualitative characteristics

This study focuses on communication correlates of compulsive communication. Participants in the study completed the Talkaholic Scale as a measure of their tendency to be a compulsive communicator. Measures of other trait orientations related to communication also were completed. Results indicated that compulsive communication has low positive relationships with assertiveness, willingness to communicate, self‐perceived communication competence, and neuroticism. It also has low negative relationships with introversion and communication apprehension and moderately high negative correlation with self‐reports of behavioral shyness. Categorical analyses indicated that “talkaholics,”; those people scoring two standard deviations above the mean on the measure, are likely to report low behavioral shyness, high willingness to communicate, high extroversion, high assertiveness, and high responsiveness. Thus, attributions that a person “talks too much”; are likely based on qualitative rather than quantitative perceptions.

Key concepts:

• Compulsive communication
• Talkaholic Scale
• talkativeness
• communication apprehension
• willingness to communicate