A self-modeling intervention for high school students with public speaking anxiety

Public speaking anxiety is the most common form of communication apprehension in the general population. This study investigated the efficacy of self-modeling as an intervention for the reduction of behavioral manifestations of public speaking anxiety, self-reported public speaking anxiety, and state anxiety. Positive behavior change through repetitive, videotaped observations of oneself performing the adaptive or desired behavior is a major tenet of self-modeling theory. Seven high school students (male = 6, female = l) with an age range of 14–18 volunteered for the study and all students had elevated levels of self-reported public speaking anxiety. A control student was added to partially control for threats to internal validity. The study employed an AB design replicated across 6 students, plus a control. The three phases of the study were baseline, intervention, and follow-up. During baseline, students presented public speeches to a randomly selected peer audience on 5 separate, spaced occasions. In the intervention phase, students viewed personalized, self-modeling tapes that were free from speech dysfluencies and other behavioral symptoms of speech anxiety. The self-modeling tapes depicted only adaptive, exemplary behavior with an edited-in audience feature making it appear that the students were producing a fluent speech to an audience of their peers. The follow-up phase replicated the baseline phase of the study with the presentation of 4 speeches to a different randomly selected audience. Direct observational measures monitored the behavioral manifestations of public speaking anxiety throughout the baseline and follow-up phases. ^ All of the students evidenced significant decreases in behavioral symptoms of speech anxiety and these changes were maintained throughout follow-up and the range of the students\u27 effect sizes was 2.7 to 4.9. Self-report measures of state anxiety and confidence as a speaker were used to assess additional effects of treatment. For all students, there were significant decreases in self-reported public speaking anxiety and state anxiety from baseline to follow-up. A post-treatment interview measured high consumer satisfaction and generalization of treatment.