The Constitutive Relationship of Listening to Hope, Emotional Intelligence, Stress, and Life Satisfaction

Abstract

Communication scholars conceptualize communication as constitutive of meaning, arguing that we must place communication first as a primary, fundamental explanation, not as a secondary phenomenon to be explained by psychological antecedents (Cooren, 2012; Craig, 1999; Hecht, 1993; Luhmann, 1992; Manning, 2014). The present study uses a constitutive communication approach to model the relationship of listening to the cognitive states of hope, emotional intelligence, stress, and life satisfaction. A path analysis model lends support to the constitutive communication perspective, indicating that listening styles are predictive of hope, emotional intelligence, stress, and life satisfaction.