Public Speaking Anxiety

Presentation anxiety can be at an all-time high for university students. Due to the fact that most of the research about presentation anxiety takes place in specific university classes or jobs, participants are aware of and familiar to the topic of their presentation.

The limitation to this research is that participants are familiar with their topic and there is little research to show how a less familiar topic effects anxiety. Due to the fact that most of this research takes place in specific university classes or jobs, participants are aware of and familiar to the topic of their presentation. That is what this research is going to overcome.
Presentation, or public speaking anxiety, has been studied in numerous ways; findings include physiological ones like hand-arm tremors (Behnke, Beatty, & Kitchens, 1978), psychological ones such as state or trait anxiety (Behnke & Sawyer, 1999), and therapeutic studies like the use of brief virtual reality therapy (Harris, Kemmerling, & North, 2002). Public speaking anxiety affects a substantial number of people worldwide; some of these are high school students, college students, or even adults who are employed. The research into this involves all aspects of why people are anxious, the specific attributes that lead to greater or lesser anxiety, as well as situational differences.

Presentation anxiety has been analyzed using two different types of anxiety: state and trait. State anxiety refers to the anxiety resulting from a situational factor, while trait anxiety originates from a factor within a person’s personality. Behnke and Sawyer (1999) examined both trait and state anxiety and discovered that for both, the anxiety levels at the time of the presentation being assigned ranked second highest, right after anxiety levels immediately before the presentation. In terms of state anxiety, Beatty (1988) found that the more novel the situation was to the presenter, the higher the anxiety levels. These conclusions are relevant to this study because participants will be in a novel, unfamiliar situation. Witt and Behnke (2006) found that although the levels were not statistically different, the anxiety levels of participants asked to give an impromptu speech were significantly higher than those asked to give an extemporaneous speech. These results are of importance because participants were given an impromptu presentation assignment, not an assignment they could necessarily have prepared for.

Factors of a presentation such as topic, situation, and audience have been known to have an effect on anxiety levels. Daly, Vangelisti, Neel, and Cavanaugh (1989) found that people who were less familiar with their speech topic had higher levels of anxiety than those who were familiar with their topic. Similarly, Lederman (1983) found that a person presenting on a topic of less familiarity had more fear about the presentation than one who was familiar with their topic. However, Lederman was more interested in communication apprehension. One limitation found in Daly et al.’s study was the participants’ ability to prepare. They were told earlier that they would be doing a presentation. In Lederman’s study, surveys and discussion groups were used as the method, so anticipation played little into those results. Menzel and Carrell (1994) found that there was a positive correlation between presentation preparation and the quality of the presentation. Anxiety might be exacerbated in a participant knowing that they have little to no time to prepare for the presentation assigned to them.

Many theories arise in the domain of public speaking anxiety, one of which has to do with emotion processing. Scherer (2019) stated that the form of appraisal, novelty or expectedness, coupled with the criterion of valence, can lead in different directions such as aggression, passiveness, or repairing. From there, Scherer says that novelty appraisal can lead to physiological symptoms such as hand-arm tremors as discussed earlier. These physiological symptoms can be a sign of anxiety, which is known to increase when put in a novel situation (Beatty, 1988). While the present study focuses on state anxiety from the novel situation, many previous studies have focused on communication apprehension (Lederman, 1983). The construct of communication apprehension has been adapted and used to study other factors such as resistance to communicate (Phillips, 1968). Communication apprehension, although a good way to study speech anxiety, focuses more on trait anxiety and the individual rather than how the situational factors influence the individual’s anxiety (Beatty & Andriate 1985).

The present study aims to examine the anxiety levels of individuals given an on-the-spot presentation assignment. Half of these individuals received an easy, familiar topic, and the other half received a more difficult and less familiar topic. In relation to previous studies, it is hypothesized that participants who are assigned a more difficult, less familiar topic will show higher scores of anxiety than those who are assigned an easy, familiar topic. Although most research does not include variations in topic of speech, Witt and Behnke (2006) varied the assignment type. Participants either read from a manuscript, gave an extemporaneous presentation, or an impromptu presentation, all of which being informative. As stated before, assignment type or presentation topic is a limitation seen in many studies, but these variations here are the most similar to the present study. Methods of random assignment from this study are modeled in the present study.

Methods

Participants

This study involved X participants (X females and X males) aged X to X. The mean participant age was X (SD = X). Participants were recruited through the SONA System at Western Washington University and were primarily 100-level and 200-level psychology students. The study was inclusive, focusing on university students as a whole, and did not exclude anyone based on gender identity or age. The tasks in this study involved working on a word search and completing a survey online. The demographic breakdown was X% White, X% Black, X% other, and X% non-respondents. There was no requirement for academic performance throughout one’s life to participate in this study. During the study, X participants dropped out.

Measures.

A Likert Anxiety Scale from cesultra.com was used in this study as an assessment of anxiety after a given task and the assignment of a presentation. This questionnaire consists of nine feelings such as “tense,” “restless,” and “insecure,” on a 10-point Likert scale ranging from 0 to 10, measuring the intensity of the feeling. Upon completion, scores from this scale were summed, with higher scores indicating a higher level of anxiety. The experiment was conducted in a room at Western Washington University. A United States word search from www.KnowledgeBoxCentral.com was used as a cognitive task for participants. This task was chosen because any age group can do it once they have the fine motor skills it requires.

Procedures.

Informed consent was received from all participants prior to beginning the experiment. After obtaining informed consent, participants were told they would be assigned a topic for a presentation during their time in the study. Half of the participants were given an easy, familiar topic: something they did over the summer, and half were given a more difficult, unfamiliar topic: calculus formulas. Participants were chosen for these topics by divvying up the room, giving one half one topic and the other half the other, to ensure random sampling. X participants were given the easy and familiar topic, and X participants were given the more difficult, unfamiliar topic. After being told of this presentation, participants were given a word search to complete for five minutes as a cognitive task. Following the five minutes, the participants were asked to complete the anxiety scale. This survey was completed online. After participants filled out the questionnaire completely, they were verbally debriefed and informed they would not have to give a presentation. They were also given a hard copy debriefing form. Survey answers will be summed and analyzed.