The Tolerance For Disagreement (TFD) Scale is designed to measure the degree to which an individual can tolerate other people disagreeing with what the individual believes to be true. This conceptualization is similar to that of argumentativeness. People with high argumentativeness are likely to be able to deal with more disagreement than those people who are low in argumentativeness. It is believed that conflict in interpersonal communication is in large part (in conjunction with the level of liking between the people) a function of the tolerance of disagreement of the interactants.

An innovation is an idea, practice, or object that is perceived as new by an individual or other unit of adoption (like an organisation). People and organisations vary a great deal in their "innovativeness." Innovativeness has to do with how early in the process of adoption of new ideas, practices, etc. that the individual or organization is likely to accept a change. The Individual Innovativeness (II) scale was designed to measure individuals' orientations toward change. Research has indicated that this orientation is associated with several communication variables.

The Non-verbal Immediacy Scale-Self Report (NIS-S) is based on the immediacy of people in relation to communication. This is the most up-to-date measure of nonverbal immediacy as a self-report. Since the purpose was to develop a measure that could be employed either as a self-report or as an other-report, some items from the measure were drawn from previously used measures.

This measure was developed as a part of a continuing research program investigating the effects of systematic desensitization on communication apprehension. The Personal Report of Public Speaking Anxiety Scale (PRPSA) is an excellent measure for research which centers on public speaking anxiety, but is an inadequate measure of the broader communication apprehension construct.