Manage Speech Anxiety
Chapter 2
Public Speaking Anxiety?
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Research suggests that stress of public speaking
affects more than one in five adults.
Meryl Streep, Barbra Streisand, Billy
Graham…………76% of experienced speakers feel
fearful before presenting a speech
Females experience higher anxiety associated with
public speaking
In a recent poll, the second most frequently cited fear
was public speaking (2001 Gallup poll: public opinion).
However, other studies cite it as the top fear and ranks
above fear of death.
Understanding Anxiety
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Public Speaking Apprehension: fear or anxiety
associated with either anticipating or actually speaking to
an audience.
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Anticipatory anxiety – worry you feel when looking ahead
to a speech and often starts when the speech is assigned.
It usually decreases as you prepare.
Anxiety usually peaks when you first start your speech.
Fortunately, as you deliver your speech, anxiety
decreases.
Speakers felt less anxious about speeches for which they
had more time to prepare. The more prepared you are, the
less anxious you will be.
Pinpointing the onset of Public
Speaking Anxiety
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Pre-preparation anxiety – the anxiety felt
when the speech is assigned
Preparation anxiety – for most people,
anxiety is lowest at this phase
Pre-performance anxiety – as you rehearse
your speech
Performance anxiety – there is a gradual
decline of anxiety that begins about one
minute into your presentation
Why are you anxious about
speaking?
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Lack of positive experience?
Feeling different?
Being the center of attention?
Fear of the unknown and fear of failure
contributes to public speaking.
Lenny Laskowski says…
PRIOR PROPER PREPARATION
PREVENTS POOR PERFORMANCE
OF THE PERSON PUTTING ON THE
PRESENTATION!
Try saying that 3 times!
Consider How to Use Stress to
Your Advantage
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Accept speaking anxiety as normal. Rather than trying
to eliminate it, accept it as normal part of performance.
Focus your nervous energy. That energy boost is meant
to help you deal effectively with a threatening situation.
Consider how athletes use anxiety to improve
performance.
Desensitize yourself. When people face their fears, they
often realize it isn’t as scary as anticipated. Research
shows that desensitization can significantly lesson anxiety.
The more speeches you give, the less anxiety you will
experience! Systematic desensitization????
Consider How to Use Stress to
Your Advantage
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Prepare and Practice. Students who practice in front of others do better on
their speeches and experience less anxiety.
Stay positive and Modify thoughts and attitudes (Cognitive
Restructuring).Positive self-talk can be difficult but is important. Consider
Communication Orientation Motivation (Performance vs Communication).
Research suggests that positive thoughts and emotions help to relieve the
body of negative effects of stress. Research suggests that negative
thoughts can turn into a self-fulfilling prophecy. Those who suffer with
communication apprehension tend to engage in negative self talk which leads to a
negative self-fulfilling prophecy (Richmond & McCroskey, 1995).
Visualize a successful performance. Consider the work of Joe Ayres and
Theodore Hopf. Visualization is also used with athletes. Create positive
self-fulfilling prophecies!
Impact of Self-Fulfilling Prophecy?
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A self-fulfilling prophecy occurs when a person’s
expectations of an event make the outcome more likely
to occur than would otherwise have been true
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When people expect rejection, they behave in ways
that lead others to reject them (Downey, Freitas,
Michaelis, Khouri, 2004).
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Rosenthal and Jacobson (1968) studied effects of selffulfilling prophecies in elementary school….what
happened 8 months after beginning study?
Why Visualization?
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Internal orientation versus external orientation?
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The Mind of a Champion (Scott, 1997)…….
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Robert Schleser (director of the Institute for Sport and Performance
Psychology at the Illinois Institute of Technology) has been studying
the effects of visualization for over 20 years. He studied a group of
schoolchildren. He reassured their success rate of shooting baskets.
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Rummerfield also emphasizes the importance of visualization. For 6
days, he works with a group of golf students. Positive visualization
boosted scores by 30%. Negative visualization lowered scores by
21%.
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Bill Walton (great basketball player) said that he never approached a
situation without having visualized it a thousand times.
Specific Techniques
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Allow time to prepare!!!!
Practice your speech aloud!!!
Choose an appropriate time to speak
Use positive self-talk
Face the audience
Focus on your message
Use visual aids