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This thesis has investigated the effect of a beginning public speaking course upon students. The sample was drawn from students enrolled in courses taught at Ball State University during the Spring Quarter, 1971. An experimental group of thirty-three students enrolled in Speech 210 and a control group of twenty-five students enrolled in Theatre 100 were studied.The three attitudes examined were: (1) self-confidence, (2) leadership, and (3) cooperativeness. These attitudes were measured by the Leary-Attitudes Scale. The test was administered during the first week of the quarter and again during the final week. In addition, a semantic differential, incorporating questions relating specifically to public speaking, was given to Speech 210 students as a part of the post-test.Very few differences in scores were noted between the experimental and control groups as measured by the Leary test. With regard to self-confidence, it was found that (1) freshmen in the experimental group had a significantly greater increase in self-confidence scores than did upperclassmen and (2) upperclassmen in the experimental group had a significantly higher increase in scores than did their counterparts in the control group. In the area of leadership, (1) the experimental group had a significantly greater increase in scores than did the control group and (2) the total population, both the experimental and control groups combined, showed a significant decrease from high (scores sixteen or above) to low (scores below sixteen) leadership. With regard to cooperativeness, the subjects in the control group perceived their class as possessing a significantly lower degree of cooperativeness than the scores of the individual class members indicated they possessed. Many other comparisons were made, but no other statistically significant differences were found.However, the results of the semantic differential contradicted the results of the Leary test. The semantic differential showed that the subjects in the experimental group did increase in their attitudes toward self-confidence over the quarter. These contradictory findings led to the conclusion that the fundamentals of public speaking students may have improved their attitudes as related to speech even though there was no increase in the scores relating to these attitudes on the Leary scale which dealt with the whole personality.

There is no abstract available for this dissertation.