Thesis (Ph.D.)--Drexel University, 2010. / Includes abstract and vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 61-76).

Public speaking anxiety is a common experience in both community and clinical populations and can have a negative impact on quality of life. Although contemporary treatments have been found to be effective, there is a lack of cultural relevance in existing theories and treatments. The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of stereotypes, a culturally relevant variable, on public speaking performance and anxiety for African Americans and Asian Americans. Participants (N=97) were randomly assigned to one of two experimental conditions where they either received feedback that was stereotype confirming or non-stereotype confirming. Analyses of variance procedures were utilized to determine whether stereotype confirming feedback would have a negative impact on public speaking performance and anxiety during a speech performance task. Overall, stereotype confirming feedback was not found to have a negative impact on the participants’ public speaking performance or anxiety as measured by self-report and observer ratings. In particular, participants who received stereotype confirming feedback reported less prediction of poor performance in public speaking situations compared to those who received non-stereotype confirming feedback. However, there was a significant positive relation between the participants’ concerns for confirming negative stereotypes and self-report measures of public speaking anxiety. African American participants also reported fewer negative self-statements associated with public speaking compared to Asian American participants. These results encourage future studies to further examine the relation between stereotypes and public speaking anxiety.

A non-concurrent multiple baseline design across eight participants was used to determine whether working through Hayes and Smith's (2005) book would help those with public speaking anxiety. Hayes and Smith (2005) is based on Acceptance and Commitment Therapy. It encourages people to accept internal experiences as opposed to avoiding and struggling with them. For the purposes of this study, the book was divided into nine components, which participants discussed with the researcher. They also completed measures daily, during baseline and over the intervention period, as well as a battery of tests pre-baseline, mid and post intervention. The multiple baseline data showed that self-reported willingness to approach public speaking situations increased while self-reported avoidance decreased over the intervention. The pre and post measures also showed avoidance of internal experiences decreased significantly after the intervention. These outcomes are in line with changes suggested to result from engaging in such a therapy. The pre and post results also showed that quality of life increased significantly from mid to post-intervention. However, engagement with values did not change. While this measure is expected to change after such an intervention, this result may have occurred because the ideas about values were introduced last in the book. The intervention also led to significant decreases in anxiety, significant changes in thoughts about public speaking and significant increases in anxiety control as shown by the test battery. These findings are positive but are not predicted by processes posited for this therapy. However, there was no control group so these pre vs post comparisons must be interpreted with caution. Despite this limitation, the results suggest that the book, together with therapist contact, can help those with public speaking anxiety.

Public Speaking Anxiety (PSA) arises from the real or anticipated performance of an oral presentation. People with PSA experience an increase in Heart Rate (HR), negative self- focused thoughts and observable behaviours such as, trembling or non-fluent speech. In this study Video Self-Modelling (VSM), an intervention based on observational learning, was used to increase performance fluency and decrease cognitive, behavioural, and physiological anxiety. Ten high school students with high PSA participated from an English class in a New Zealand school. Video self-models were created for each student through editing to depict confident speaking and then viewed by the students 5 to 8 times over a fortnight. Results indicated from pre-intervention to post-intervention that all students decreased their level of behavioural anxiety. Seven of the ten students decreased their level of self-reported speech anxiety and six students self-reported more positive thoughts about public speaking. There was a decrease in HR for two of the four students, who wore HR monitors during the study. These results suggest that VSM could be used as an intervention, within a high school setting, to reduce anxiety and improve public speaking performance.

This study explored the relationship between the personality construct of hardiness and public speaking anxiety. Although hardiness has been widely explored in a variety of anxiety-arousing life events, its relationship with communication anxiety had not been previously studied. Therefore, hardiness, public speaking trait anxiety, and public speaking state anxiety were measured in a course requiring an oral presentation assignment. One hundred fifty students enrolled in a basic speech communication course participated in the study. A statistically significant correlation was revealed between hardiness and trait communication anxiety. Students higher in hardiness reported lower trait communication apprehension in three contexts: 1) meeting, 2) interpersonal, and 3) group. Overall, students did not differ on measures of hardiness and a fourth communication context: public speaking anxiety. Likewise, on measures of hardiness and state public speaking anxiety, students did not differ.

This study is exploratory in nature and focuses on the relation between the individual and macrosystems by investigating the link between African Americans’ fear of confirming stereotypes and their experience with symptoms and treatments for social anxiety. This study hypothesizes that 1) among a sample of African Americans diagnosed with social anxiety, there will be a significant, positive relationship between African-Americans’ self-reported concerns over confirming stereotypes relevant to both social anxiety and their own self-reported levels of social anxiety, 2) significantly more African Americans will drop-out of therapy than Caucasians, 3) amongst African Americans, significantly more will drop out of group therapy than individual therapy, 4) the racial composition of the group will matter, such that more African Americans will drop out of groups where they are the only African American participant, compared to if there are other African Americans in the group, and 5) the presence of an African American co-therapist will impact attrition from group treatment, with higher attrition rates in groups without an African American co-therapist, compared to if there is one. Thirty-four participants, 23 females and 11 males, who self-identified as African Americans and forty-four participants, 23 females and 21 males, who self-identified as Caucasian took part in this study. Results did not show a relation between stereotype confirmation concern and social anxiety. Regarding attrition, results showed that significantly more African Americans dropped out of therapy than Caucasians. Additionally, more African Americans dropped out of group therapy than individual therapy. There was no impact of therapist ethnicity or the presence of other African Americans on attrition rates, though these tests were underpowered.

Though the field of psychology is moving forward in its awareness of the importance of studying and addressing cultural issues, there is still a dearth of literature on the subject, especially in the area of anxiety (Heurtin-Roberts, Snowden, & Miller, 1997). The current study tested the following hypotheses 1) African-Americans’ self-reported concerns over confirming stereotypes would be related to their own self-reported levels of social anxiety. 2) There would be a negative relationship between how negatively African-Americans think others view African-Americans in general, and levels of social anxiety; 3) The relationship between public regard, concern over confirming stereotypes, and levels of anxiety would be partially mediated by beliefs about the probability and consequences of a negative outcome from their speech for group members. Results showed that the relation between public regard and fear of negative evaluations was fully mediated by the consequences of a negative outcome for group members.

Although public speaking anxiety is one of the most commonly reported causes of both clinical and non-clinical anxiety, many of the currently used questionnaire measures of public speaking anxiety do not reflect the advances made in recent decades regarding empirical methods of test construction, including item generation and determination of subscale composition. The current study administered 35 empirically-generated cognitive self-statement items related to speaking anxiety to a sample of 367 undergraduate students along with measures of public speaking anxiety, fear of negative evaluation, generalized social anxiety behaviors, and self-consciousness tendencies. Using exploratory factor analysis and item-total correlations, participant responses to the 35 self-statement items were examined, producing the 30-item Speaking Cognitions and Attention Scale (SCAS). Data indicated that in the current sample the SCAS displayed a three-factor solution, with factors composed of items reflecting positive self-statements, negative self-statements, and catastrophic self-statements. The scale also demonstrated excellent internal reliability, with alphas in the range of .90 to .97. Discriminant validity analyses supported the specificity of the measure in measuring public speaking anxiety by correlating highly with another measure of speaking anxiety, at a moderate level with measures of general social anxiety, and at a small level with a measure of self-consciousness with no theoretical relationship to speaking anxiety. Results are discussed with respect to implications of the current findings for questionnaire measurement of public speaking anxiety, needed future directions in further validation of the measure, and potential applications for treatment of public speaking anxiety.

Cognitive theories postulate that attention toward threatening information and away from neutral cues plays an etiological role in anxiety. The present study examines whether a preconscious attentional bias (AB) toward threatening stimuli exists in individuals with public speaking anxiety. Participants included 61 undergraduates with high and low speech anxiety. AB was measured using a dot-probe paradigm with threatening and neutral words. Reaction times to dot-probes on threatening and neutral trials were compared between the two groups. Results indicated that, contrary to expectations, high and low speech anxious participants did not differ in their mean reaction times to threat words. Thus, AB may not be measurable in individuals with public speaking anxiety using the method that the current study employed. / Master of Science

Public speaking anxiety (PSA), widespread amongst students and also the general population, is associated with substantial distress and interferes with a person’s ability to give a presentation or speech. This can lead to difficulties in social, occupational and academic areas of functioning. Despite its pervasiveness, very few individuals will seek help, most will tend to avoid the anxiety-provoking situations. This can be a serious issue if left untreated, leading to negative impacts on quality of life, for example dropping out of education early and subsequently having limited job opportunities. The literature review explored the existing body of work regarding PSA and presented the rationale for the current research, beginning with a conceptual framework and the manner in which PSA is related to Social Anxiety Disorder (SAD). This was followed by a detailed investigation of existing influential models and treatment modalities for both PSA and SAD. It identified that CBT has been the most effective treatment and has been delivered via different formats; however some individuals with SAD/PSA did not respond to a mainstream CBT approach and continued presenting residual symptoms after therapy. Thus, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) was introduced, with an examination of its model and potential to help PSA. Preliminary research employing acceptance-based strategies have provided promising results. The literature review indicated a need for investigation of (i) more readily disseminated, briefer formats of ACT and (ii) whether differences exist in efficacy and sustainability between non-guided self-help and group-led therapies format. Given the large number of individuals experience PSA/SAD and the limited availability of resources, there is a need to consider ways of improving access. Thus, development of ultra-brief interventions would potentially reduce delivery cost and enhance dissemination to a larger population. Keywords: public speaking anxiety, social anxiety, interventions, experiential avoidance, fear of negative evaluation, acceptance.