Nonverbal Immediacy Scale (NIS)

What the Nonverbal Immediacy Scale measures

Immediacy is the set of behaviours that communicate psychological closeness: they signal that you are available, attentive and positively oriented towards the person in front of you. In the nonverbal channel that means eye contact, gestures, an open and relaxed body position, physical closeness, touch, facial expression and vocal expressiveness.

The Nonverbal Immediacy Scale (NIS) asks you to rate how often you actually do these things while talking with people. It is a self-report measure, so it describes your own picture of your behaviour — not an external observer's. A separate observer version of the same instrument exists for that purpose.

What the 26 statements cover

The statements sample six families of behaviour, each from both directions (doing it, and avoiding it). The quiz scores them as one total rather than as separate subscales:

• Eye contact — looking directly at people while talking, or looking over and away from them.
• Gestures and animation — using hands and arms, being animated, or avoiding gestures altogether.
• Body position — a relaxed or tense posture, leaning towards people or leaning away.
• Distance — sitting or standing close, moving closer, or deliberately keeping space.
• Face and touch — smiling or frowning, touching someone on the arm or shoulder, or avoiding physical contact.
• Vocal expression — vocal variety against a monotone or dull voice.

How the NIS is scored

Each of the 26 statements is rated on a five-point frequency scale: never, rarely, occasionally, often, very often. Thirteen positively worded items score 1 to 5 as answered, and thirteen negatively worded items are reverse-scored (very often becomes 1), so the total runs from 26 to 130, with higher scores indicating more nonverbal immediacy.

Because half of the items point the other way, a total score cannot be inflated by simply agreeing with everything — which is the main reason a reverse-scored format is used in self-report scales.

Where the scale comes from

The Nonverbal Immediacy Scale was developed by Virginia P. Richmond and James C. McCroskey and published in 2003. It grew out of the earlier Nonverbal Immediacy Behaviors instrument and is one of the most widely used measures of teacher and interpersonal immediacy in communication research.

Kuakua's version reproduces the 26 self-report statements and the standard five-point scoring with the published reverse-scored item set. The scale is used here for education and self-reflection.

References

• Richmond, V. P., & McCroskey, J. C., & Johnson, D. (2003). Development of the Nonverbal Immediacy Scale (NIS): Measures of self- and other-perceived nonverbal immediacy. Communication Quarterly, 51(4), 504-517.

What your score does not mean

A high score is not automatically "better" and a low score is not a deficiency. Immediacy helps in some situations — supporting someone, teaching, building rapport — and can be counterproductive in others, for example in a formal or hierarchical setting where closeness is read as a boundary violation.

The scale is also culturally relative. The behaviours it counts are weighted differently across cultures, so comparing your total with someone from another country (or another generation) says more about norms than about skill.

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