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Appraisal Models Of Intercultural Communication Apprehension Among Sojourners., Rong Ma, Dale Hample

Scholarship and Professional Work - Communication

We used R. S. Lazarus’ (Emotion and Adaptation. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991) appraisal theory of emotions to propose a theoretical model of anxiety, upon which we built two empirical models centering on intercultural communication apprehension (ICA), distinguished by timing. We tested the models in three samples: Chinese in the US (N = 268), US Americans who studied abroad (N = 419), and US Americans in the US (N = 515). The models achieved good fit. The results showed that during an anticipated or actual intercultural interaction, people had multiple, potentially conflicting goals. The goal-related appraisals …