STRAIGHT TALK® COMMUNICATION STYLES

The Research

The goal of our research was to construct a survey that could reliably measure the Straight Talk® Communication Styles that were developed by Eric Douglas.

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Original Statements
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Participants
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Second-Generation Statements
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Final Survey Statements

Research Summary

We then conducted correlation analyses of the four subscales and the Social Desirability Scale (SDS; Crowne & Marlowe, 1964). We focused on the Social Desirability Scale because we were interested to see how the four subscales related to a scale that measured the tendency to present oneself in a favorable or socially desirable light. We found that the SDS was meaningfully related to the Harmonizer (r = .60) and Thinker (r = .37) styles (see Table 2). These relationships were predicted by the theory.

Furthermore, we found strong relationships between the Expresser and Director subscales (r = .44) and the Thinker and Harmonizer subscales (r = .34). These relationships are also predicted by Douglas’ theory.

Table Two

Correlations Among the Douglas Communication Inventory Subscales and the Social Desirability Scale

SDS Director Expresser Harmonizer Thinker
SDS1.00
Director.081.00
Expresser.17*.44*1.00
Harmonizer.60*.23*.27*1.00
Thinker.37*.18*.05.34*1.00
Note: * denotes significance at the .001 level. N = 237

The purpose of the next set of analyses was to investigate the internal consistency of the Douglas Communication Styles Inventory (DCSI). This would confirm that each item within the same subscale measures the same underlying communication style. Alpha reliability coefficients of .70 and above are considered acceptable. Our results revealed that the DCSI subscales showed good internal consistency (see Table 3).

Table Three

Alpha Reliability Coefficients for the Douglas Communication Inventory Subscales

Subscale Alpha Reliability Coefficient
Director.77
Expresser.88
Harmonizer.79
Thinker.81

We next investigated the stability of the Douglas Communication Style Inventory subscales. We gave the DCSI to 64 college students to fill out. Two weeks later our volunteer participants completed the DCSI once again. We conducted correlations of each of the DCSI subscales from Time 1 to Time 2 (see Table 4).

Table Four

Test-Retest Reliability Correlation Coefficients

Subscale Correlation Coefficients
Director.85
Expresser.93
Harmonizer.70
Thinker.84

The Director, Expresser, Harmonizer, and Thinker subscales showed excellent test-retest reliability (acceptable coefficients are equal to or greater than .70). Overall, the DCSI had an average test-retest reliability of .83, which indicates that this scale is stable across time.

We also conducted t-tests for correlated groups to see if average subscales changed significantly from Time 1 to Time 2 (see Table 5).

Table Five

Comparison of Average Subscale Scores from Time 1 to Time 2

Variable Mean SD t df significance
Director (T1)26.564.75.4863.63
Director (T2)26.414.89
Expresser (T1)25.256.93-.1563.88
Expresser (T2)25.306.60
Harmonizer (T1)29.483.46.8863.38
Harmonizer (T2)29.193.47
Thinker (T1)31.394.59.1963.85
Thinker (T2)31.334.52
Note: Significance levels equal to or less than .05 are considered meaningful. T1 equals Time 1; T2 equals Time 2; SD equals standard deviation; df equals degrees of freedom.

These analyses showed that average scores did not change from Time 1 to Time 2. This was added confirmation that the subscales are stable across time.

Next, we correlated each of the DCSI subscales to determine their inter-relationships (see Table 6).

Table Six

Correlations among the DCSI Subscales

Director Expresser Harmonizer Thinker
Director1.00
Expresser.62*1.00
Harmonizer.24.42*1.00
Thinker.38*.46*.221.00
Note: * denotes significance at the .01 level. N = 64.

Again, we found the expected high relationship between scores on the Expresser and Director subscales (r = .62), but not the Thinker and Harmonizer subscales (r = .22). We also found significant relationships between the Thinker and Director subscales (.38), the Harmonizer and Expresser subscales (.42), and the Thinker and the Expresser subscales (.46).

We believe, however, that the correlations from the first phase more accurately reflect the relationships among variables because they are based on a larger number of people (237 vs. 64), and therefore are more reliable.

The purpose of the final set of analyses was to confirm the internal consistency of the DCSI subscales. Our results revealed that the DCSI subscales were internally consistent (see Table 7) except for the Harmonizer subscale. As before, the alpha reliability coefficients from Phase 1 were given more weight because they were based on a larger sample (see Table 6).

Table Seven

Correlations among the DCSI Subscales

Subscale Alpha Reliability Coefficient
Director.81
Expresser.90
Harmonizer.61
Thinker.82

In summary, we were very pleased with the results of the first phase of the research. The Douglas Communication Styles Inventory (DCSI) showed an ideal factor analysis pattern and good internal consistency. Moreover, the expected relationships among the DCSI subscales and the Social Desirability Scale were found. We were also pleased with the reliability of the survey instrument. The DCSI showed good average test-retest reliability (.83) and good internal consistency.

Together, these results confirmed that the DCSI was a reliable instrument for measuring the four discrete styles of communication.

1997 by Lisa Bohon, Ph.D. All rights reserved.

Reproduced by permission of the author.

References

  • Crowne, D., and Marlowe, D. 1964. The Appraisal Motive. New York: Wiley.
  • Gorsuch, R. L. 1983. Factor Analysis. 2nd ed. Hillsdale, N.J.: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
  • Jackson, D. N. 1970. A sequential system of personality scale development. In Current Topics in Clinical and Community Psychology. Vol. 2, ed. C. D. Spielberger, New York: Academic Press.
  • Tabachnik, B. G., and Fidell, L. S. 1996. Using Multivariate Statistics. 3rd ed. New York: Harper Collins