Non-immediacy between communicator and object of communication in a verbal message: Application to the inference of attitudes.

Abstract

Nonimmediacy is a measure of the attenuation of directness and intensity of interaction between a communicator and the object of his communication in a verbal message. In this paper, the categories of nonimmediacy are presented and are specifically applied to the inference of communicator attitudes towards the object(s) he communicates about. In 3 experiments it is found that experimentally induced, or long-standing attitudes may be discriminated on the basis of nonimmediacy measures. Communications about affectively or evaluatively negative events or people are found to contain greater nonimmediacy than communications about positive events or people. Possible applications of nonimmediacy measures in clinical settings or experimental investigations of psychotherapeutic activity are briefly noted. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved)