Development of Social Skill Programming for Communication Avoidance and Apprehension

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Recent research on Communication Apprehension (CA) in Japan has focused on understanding the processes and characteristics of the phenomenon on Japanese students. As a result of those effort, a basic understanding of the impact of CA has been achieved. Missing from the picture, however, is an awareness of the underlying causes of CA among Japanese students. The purpose of this research project was to explore in-depth the reasons for the manifestation of CA among Japanese college students. The Japanese Communication Fear Scale (JCFS) was administered to 292 students at a major private university, and a subsample of 23 highly apprehensive students (SD>+1.0) was drawn for participation in a focus group. Using a series of semistructured questions, students discussed the impact of apprehension on their daily lives. All comments were transcribed and subsequently analyzed with a thematic analysis program. Results suggest that highly apprehensive students report suffering from CA mainly as a result of differences in level of familiarity (known versus unknown) and status of the receiver (senior-junior). Potential reasons for increased levels of CA are theorized to be linked to the lack of skill of invention and/or fear of negative evaluation. Directions for future research, including a discussion of which treatment programs may be suitable for treating CA among Japanese populations closed out the research project.