Washington University in St. Louis

Personality and Communication

Our study is interested in the theoretical relationship between preferred modes of communication and two of the Big Five personality traits, Extraversion and Neuroticism. The forms of communication we plan to study include face-to-face conversation, telephone calls, instant messaging, The Facebook, email, and text messaging. We will determine which form of communication Wash. U. students use the most on a daily basis.
In addition, we will establish which mode of communication students find elicit the most meaningful conversations (meaningful defined as adding significance, meaning, or purpose to somebody�s life). The conversations under question will be limited to peer-to-peer interaction.
We are trying to find out if specific personality traits cause a person to use a mode of communication more frequently than another. We are examining where our participants� personalities fall on the scale of Introversion/Extraversion and Neuroticism/Emotional Stability. Extraversion/Introversion is meant to study sociability and expressiveness, and Neuroticism/Emotional Stability is meant to study one�s emotional reactivity.