An Examination of the Relationship Between Career Thoughts and Communication Apprehension‪.‬

********** Counselors make inferences about persons' readiness for career assistance by listening to them talk about their thoughts or by examining their self-report responses to tests and inventories. Communication is an essential element of counseling; in fact, the ability to put feelings into words may reduce emotional distress (Eisenberger, Lieberman, & Williams, 2003). However, communication behavior per se is seldom examined in the counseling literature. Our inspection of the contents of the Journal of Counseling Psychology, the Journal of Counseling & Development, and The Career Development Quarterly published during the past 20 years revealed one study examining this topic (Swagler & Ellis, 2003). We sought to address this limitation in the literature by conducting a study examining the idea that persons who have good self-knowledge and can communicate effectively might have fewer negative career thoughts impeding their decision making.