Issues in the Measurement of Listening

Abstract

Without a doubt, listening is a critical facet of human communication. Within the field of communication studies, a central concern for listening scholars has been developing models of listening competence and arguing for its palliative effects in various contexts. Most commonly, listening is viewed as having affective, cognitive, and behavioral components. The purpose of this article is to outline a few issues in the measurement of listening as an affective, cognitive, and behavioral phenomenon and to advocate for more integrated research efforts.

Keywords:

• Communication Competence
• Hearing
• Information Processing
• Self-Report Measurement
• Social Cognition

Acknowledgments

This article was written while the author was supported by a Research Competitiveness Subprogram grant awarded by the Louisiana Board of Regents through the National Science Foundation EPSCoR program (LEQSF[2011-14]-RD-A-04). The author thanks (in alphabetical order by first name, not order of importance) Andrea Vickery, Chris Gearhart, Kaitlin Cannava, Shawn Keaton, and Susanne Jones for providing insight that has helped shape this article. Thanks are also extended to Tim Levine and Debra Worthington for reading previous versions. The author retains all liability.

Notes

I wish to point out here that the focus of this article is on one branch of research on listening, which, though large, in no way constitutes the entirety of the tree. As such, this article essentially “ignores” other, equally valid conceptualizations (Gehrke, 2009). The interested readers is directed to the following sources for alternative conceptualizations of listening: Beard (2009), Ihde (2007), Lipari (2009, 2010), and Purdy (2000).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Graham D. Bodie

Graham D. Bodie (PhD, Purdue University, 2008) is Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication Studies at The Louisiana State University.