COMMUNICATION STYLE: THE MANY SHADES OF GRAY

"The major aspects of communication include the communicating individual, the addressee, and the style of communication which can be more objective or subjective. The present study examines the role of the communicator’s motivation and the identity of the addressee of the communication in regard to the style of communication. The motivation was assessed in terms of the cognitive orientation approach (Kreitler & Kreitler) which assumes that motivation is a function of beliefs that may not be completely conscious. The motivation to communicate may be oriented towards sharing and self disclosure or towards withdrawal and distancing oneself from others. The style of communication was assessed in terms of the Kreitler meaning system which enables characterizing the degree to which the communication is based on means that are more objective and interpersonally-shared means (viz. attributive and comparative means) or more personal-subjective ones (viz. examples and metaphors). The hypothesis was that the style of communication is determined by one’s motivation and by the recipient’s characteristics, which in the present context was gender. It was expected that when the motivation supports sharing and the addressee is a woman the style would be mainly subjective, while when the motivation supports withholding information and the addressee is a man the style would be objective. The participants were 70 undergraduates. The tool was a cognitive orientation questionnaire. The experimental task was a story that had to be recounted. The narratives were coded in terms of the Kreitler meaning system. The data was analyzed by the Cox proportional hazards model. The findings supported the hypothesis of the study. Major conclusions referred to the motivational determinants of communication styles."