The Content and Dimensionality of Communication Styles

A multiphase lexical study was conducted to uncover the key dimensions of communication styles. In the first two phases, adjectives and verbs were selected on the basis of their ability to describe communication styles. In the third phase, a study was conducted using 441 respondents who provided self-ratings on 744 adjectives and 837 verbs. Adjectives and verbs were submitted to principal components analysis, followed by orthogonal Procrustes rotation to establish within-sample replicability, which provided evidence of four to seven main communication style dimensions. The seven communication style dimensions form the acronym PRESENT, for preciseness, reflectiveness, expressiveness, supportiveness, emotionality, niceness, and threateningness. As expected, scales based on the seven dimensions were meaningfully related to the interpersonal but not the intrapersonal scales from the Communication Style Scale. The results are discussed in light of existing communication style scales, the interpersonal circumplex, and personality structure.