The Pfeiffer Book of Successful Communication Skill-Building Tools

Chapter 33. Interpersonal Communication Inventory

Millard J. Bienvenu, Sr.

The ability to be an effective communicator seems to be based on five interpersonal components:

1. An adequate self-concept, the single most important factor affecting people's communication with others;

2. The ability to be a good listener, a skill that has received little attention until recently;

3. The skill of expressing one's thoughts and ideas clearly, which many people find difficult to do;

4. Being able to cope with one's emotions—particularly angry feelings—and expressing them in a constructive way; and

5. The willingness to disclose oneself to others truthfully and freely. Such self-disclosure is necessary for satisfactory interpersonal relationships.

In the early 1970s, several research techniques and devices were developed to study interpersonal communication in several areas: marriage counseling, parent-child counseling, group therapy, and small-group communication.

The Interpersonal Communication Inventory (ICI) is applicable generally to social interaction in a wide variety of situations. It is an attempt to measure general tendencies in interpersonal communication and it may be used as a counseling tool, as a teaching device, as a supplement to an interview, by management, or for further research.

A fifty-four-item scale measures the process of communication as an element of social interaction; it is not intended to measure content but to identify patterns, characteristics, and styles of communication.

The items ...