Communication apprehension is often described as:

CONCEPT

Communication apprehension is a person’s fear or anxiety associated with actual or anticipated communication with other people. It is an affective response to social interaction through communication, rather than a theory of relativity or ambiguity.

APPLICATION

The stem seeks the specific affective description, not a broad taxonomy of barriers. Communication apprehension centers on fear or anxiety about actual or anticipated interaction through communication; among the offered values, social anxiety names that state.

CONTRAST

• Social relativity concerns how social judgments depend on context.

• A psycho-social barrier is a broad causal category of obstacles; it does not itself name the specific fear-or-anxiety state experienced in communication.

• Social anxiety names fear or unease in social interaction.

• Social ambiguity concerns uncertainty in interpreting social situations.

RESULT

Therefore, communication apprehension is best described here as social anxiety.