An Investigation of the Relationships Between Personality and Types of Instructor Criticism in the Beginning Speech-Communication Course

• Main Author: Huntley, Jackson Richard
• Format: Publication
• Language: English
• Published: University Microfilms, A Xerox Company 1969
• Subjects: College Students; Communication (Thought Transfer); Individual Characteristics; Individualized Instruction; Personality Assessment; Psychological Characteristics; Public Speaking; Speech; Student Evaluation

The purpose of this study was to find a method for individualizing instruction in a beginning college-level speech communications course--a course which allows for student-instructor interaction. To determine the relationship between the personality typology of introversion-extraversion and types of oral instructor criticism, 76 students who had been identified as either introverts or extraverts (based upon the "Eysenck Personality Inventory, Form A") were divided into two groups. One group received audience-oriented, indirect criticism of their classroom performance; the other, speaker-oriented, direct criticism. Speech anxiety, attitudes toward the course and the instructor, achievement of course goals, and examination scores served as dependent variables. It was hypothesized that those speakers identified as introverts would produce more favorable changes in an audience-oriented group, while those identified as extraverts would produce more favorable changes in a speaker-oriented group. This hypothesis was confirmed and it was concluded that a partial solution to speech anxiety might be the use of a "critique-by-personality" approach in speech communication courses. (Author/JM)