The effect of various cognitive strategies in the control of public speaking anxiety

An experiment was designed to apply the cognitive strategy paradigm of Jaremko and Patteson to a classroom speech anxiety situation. Forty-eight introductory speech students volunteered to be tested on physiological, behavioral, and self-report measures of anxiety during two of their regular classroom speeches. Subjects were divided into groups based upon which cognitive strategy they were asked to implement: rationalization, reversal of affect, misattribution, misattribution and rationalization, a placebo control and a no treatment control. Results indicated reductions in anxiety across trials, but these were not attributable to treatment. These findings are discussed in terms of the application of laboratory paradigms to field situations, and the reliability of anxiety measures. Future lines of research are suggested