The relationship between student communication motives and perceived instructor communicator style

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between student communication motives (i.e., relational, functional, participatory, excuse‐making, sycophantic) and perceived instructor communicator style (i.e., friendly, impression leaving, relaxed, contentious, attentive, precise, animated, dramatic, open, dominant). Participants were 228 undergraduate students enrolled in a variety of communication courses at a small Midwestern university. Results indicate that (a) the perceived instructor communicator style attributes of impression leaving, friendly, and contentious predict student use of the relational motive, (b) the attribute of friendly predicts student use of the functional motive, (c) the attributes of animated, contentious, and friendly predict student use of the participatory motive, (d) the attributes of attentive and contentious predict student use of the excuse‐making motive, and (e) the attributes of contentious and friendly predict student use of the sycophantic motive.