A STUDY OF THE EFFECT OF HOMOGENEOUS GROUPING 0N SYSTEMATIC DESENSITIZATION FOR THE REDUCTWN 0F INTERPERSONAL COMMUNICATIVE APPREHENSEON Thesis for the Degree of Ph. D. MICHIGAN STATE UNiVERSlTY CHARLES D. ERTLE 1969 THEM: a»: _ I LIBRARY MlClllgSn Slate Umvc‘rsity __L This is to certify that the thesis entitled A STUDY OF THE EFFECT OF HOMOGENEOUS GROUPING ON SYSTEMATIC DESENSITIZATION FOR THE REDUCTION OF INTERFERSONAL COMMUNICATIVE APPREHENSION presented by Charles D. Ertle has been accepted towards fulfillment of the requirements for fl degree in Ewe/.7274, Major professor/ Speech Date May 27, 1969 0-169 IINDING IV note a 3m . ”ELE‘E‘EEEH'SE' I ABSTRACT A STUDY OF THE EFFECT OF HOMOGENEOUS GROUPING ON SYSTEMATIC DESENSITIZATION FOR THE REDUCTION OF INTERPERSONAL COMMUNICATIVE APPREHENSION BY Charles D. Ertle A review of the literaturedfiscloses that communicative apprehension is a type of anxiety, that anxiety is a per- ceived state of mind accompanied by overt behavioral changes, and that communicative anxiety is a learned response associ- ated with personal threat to one's self-esteem. An individual tends to avoid communicative situations to reduce a high level of anxiety. If the situation cannot be avoided by the individual, which is the case with a re- quired course in public speaking, his level of anxiety inten- sifies. Over time a specific anxiety generalizes to like situations causing a general level of debilitating communica- tive anxiety rendering the individual ineffective in his com— municative interaction. Systematic Desensitization (S.D.) training has been suc- cessfully employed for the reduction of test and speech anx- iety on an individual and small group basis. If S.D. training is to be economical and efficient, it must be applied in large training groups. It then becomes important to ... . . .. .co an ,. Charles D. Ertle determine possible detrimental effects to the extinction rate of the less anxious 83 caused by the slow pace of the highly anxious SS when heterogeneously grouped. The above problem led to the experimental hypothesis that homogeneously assigned training groups will report a significantly greater reduction of anxiety than heterogen- eously assigned training groups, who will, in turn,.show a significantly greater reduction of anxiety than a comparable control group. Students enrolled in the basic public speaking course who indicated a high level of communicative anxiety and vol- unteered for training were assigned to either the heterogen- eous training group, the homogeneous training group or the control group. Five hours of S.D. training were administered. A pretest, posttest and delayed posttest were administered and analyzed by analysis of variance with subsequent t-test when justified. Analysis of the data showed that the hypothesis was not confirmed. Although a significant F-ratio was obtained, sub— sequent t—tests indicated a significant difference between the heterogeneous treatment and the control condition, be- tween the homogeneous treatment and the control condition, and between the heterogeneous and homogeneous treatments in the Opposite direction hypothesized. The difference between the heterogeneous and homogeneous treatments failed to reach significance over time. A STUDY OF THE EFFECT OF HOMOGENEOUS GROUPING ON SYSTEMATIC DESENSITIZATION FOR THE REDUCTION OF INTERPERSONAL COMMUNICATIVE APPREHENSION Charles D2 Ertle A THESIS Submitted to Michigan State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Department of Speech 1969 Accepted by the faculty of the Department of Communication of the College of Communication Arts, Michigan State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of PhilOSOphy. Thesis Director 1/é2%-’ (€14122:422;4g;, / 7 Guidance Committee Chairman ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The writer would like to express his appreciation to all these who offered both their time and advice during the preparation of the thesis. Special credit and appreciation are due to the following peOple: To Dr. James C. McCroskey for his advice, guidance, and encouragement during the planning, execution, and writing of this study; To Dr. David C. Ralph, Dr. William B. Lashbrook, Dr. Lawrence E. Sarbaugh, and Dr. William E. Sweetland, mem- bers of the Thesis .Committee, whose guidance and advice were instrumental in the completion of this study; To the Junior Staff instructors of the Department of Communication for their assistance in securing class time for the administration of the pretest and posttest measurements; To my wife, Marion, for her invaluable services as stenographer, her enthusiasm and motivation for my success, and endless patience as a graduate student wife; To all these persons and many others who offered advice and encouragement, the writer expresses sincere thanks. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter Page I. INTRODUCTION General Statement of the Problem ; . . . Review of Anxiety Studies . . . . . . . Review of Relevant Interpersonal Communicative Anxiety (Stage Fright) Literature . . . . . . . . . 12 Generation of the EXperimental HypotheSiS. o o o o o o o o o o o 0.0 2 Experimental Hypothesis . . . . . . . . 2 NH II. PROCEDURES OF THE STUDY SeleCtion Of SS 0 O O O O O O O O O O C 30 Selection of Trainers . . . . . . . . . 32 Training Procedures . . . . . . . . . . 32 Measurement and Analysis . . . . . . . . 36 III. REPORTING OF RESULTS PRCA Pre- Post Shift . . . . . . . . 38 PRCA Pre- -Delayed Post and Post- Delayed Post Shift . . . . ho SAI Post and Post- -Delayed Post Shift . . h2 "Cure" Success . . . . . . . . . . . . . NS IV. SUMMARY, DISCUSSION OF RESULTS, AND IMPLICATIONS FOR FUTURE RESEARCH Sma ry O O C O O O C O O O O O O u6 Discussion of Results . . . . . . . . . H9 Implications for Future Research . . . . 52 REFERENCES 0! O 0‘ O O O O O O O O O C O O O O O O 56 APPENDIX A:. Personal Report of Communicative Apprehension . . . . . . . . . . 57 APPENDIX B: Student Schedule Sheet . . . . . . 59 APPENDIX C: Communication Anxiety Hierarchy . . 60 APPENDIX D: Speech Anxiety Inventory . . . . . 61 iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter Page I. INTRODUCTION General Statement of the Problem ; . . . Review of Anxiety Studies . . . . . . . Review of Relevant Interpersonal Communicative Anxiety (Stage Fright) Literature .. . . . . . . . . 12 Generation of the Experimental Hypothesis. . . . . . . . . . . . ... 2 Experimental Hypothesis . . . . . . . . 2 «JH II. PROCEDURES OF THE STUDY Selection of Ss . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 Selection of Trainers . . . . . . . . . 32 Training Procedures . . . . . . . . . . 32 Measurement and Analysis . . . . . . . . 36 III. REPORTING OF RESULTS PRCA Pre— Post Shift . . . . . . . . 38 PRCA Pre- -Delayed Post and Post- . Delayed Post Shift . . . . . . DO SAI Post and Post— —Delayed Post Shift . . A2 "Cure" Success . . . . . . . . . . . . . MS IV. SUMMARY, DISCUSSION OF RESULTS, AND IMPLICATIONS FOR FUTURE RESEARCH Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . M6 Discussion of Results . . . . . . . . . N9 Implications for Future Research . . . . 52 REFERENCES ~ 0' O O: O O O O O O O O O C O O O O O O 56 APPENDIX A:. Personal Report of Communicative Apprehension . . . . . . . . . . 57 APPENDIX B: Student Schedule Sheet . . . . . . 59 APPENDIX C: Communication Anxiety Hierarchy . . 60 APPENDIX D: Speech Anxiety Inventory . . . . . 61 iv LIST OF TABLES Tahle Page 1. Experimental Design . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 2. Summary of TwoAWay Analysis of Variance: PRCA Pre-Post Change Scores . . . . . . 39 3. X PRCA Pre-Post Change Scores by Treatment and Level . . . . . . . . . . 39 h. Summary of One£Way Analysis of Variance: PRCA Pre-Delayed Post Change Scores . . M1 5. X PRCA Pre-Delayed Post Change Scores by Treatment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Al 6. Summary of One-Way Analysis of Variance: PRCA Post-Delayed Post Change Scores . . M1 7. Summary of Two-Way Analysis of Variance: SAI Posttest Scores . . . . . . . . . . #3 8. X SAI Posttest Scores by Treatment and level 0 O O O O O C 0 ~ 0 C O C C C O O O LL3 9. Summary of One4Way Analysis of Variance: SAI Post-Delayed Post Change Scores . . MD 10. Chi-square Tests of "Cure" Success Between Experimental Conditions . . . . MA 11. Chi-square Test of "Cure" Success Between Experimental and Control conditions 0 O O C O O O O O O O O O O O 1+“- CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION General Statement 2: the Problem The problem stems from a phenomenon known as "fear" or "anxiety." Specifically that "fear" or "anxiety" which is in response to interpersonal communication situations. Aris- tOtle ill his discussion of the emotions suggests the fol- lowing: Fear may be defined as a pain or disturbance arising from a mental image of impending evil of a destructive or painful sort. ...the very indications (signs) of such things cause fear, since they suggest that the thing is at hand; "danger" means just this—-the , proximity of anything we dread. ...it follows, therefore, that fear is experienced by those who think themselves likely to suffer, and to suffer from particular persons particular things at particular times. (COOper, 1960) pp. 107-110) As noted above, "fear" (a feeling of anxiety) is a state of mind accompanied by psychological and physiological reactions of the body that are elicited by threatening Situa- tiozrs. Murry (196h) in a discussion Of emotions suggests a difference between "fear" and "anxiety." He suggests the following: Innate physical stimuli and the cues associated with them account for only a part of the situa- tions that arouse emotions in human beings. Emotions are also aroused by threats to our 1 2 more personal and social motives. ...we can say that they revolve around our self-esteem and the social goals that are important to us in a personal sense. Psychoanalytic theo- rists point to this source of emotional arousal when they distinguish between fear and anxiet . Now, physiologically these two are 1dentical—-both involve a palpi- tating heart and feeling of dread. Fear, however, is usually thought to involve a specific, physical threat, whereas anxiety is a more general reaction to personal threats. (p. 5h) In general, anxiety is an emotional state of mind re- acting to personal threats. Lundin (1961) considers anxiety "...as the group of responses an organism.makes under cer- tain stimulus Operations." (p. 262) Lundin suggests that anxiety is a learned behavioral response-that is caused by H a "neutral stimulus followed by a "primary aversive stimu- ' Lundin states: lus.’ The paradigm reads Sl ----- 82. The 31 would be the neutral stimulus that is followed at some point in time by the aversive one, 82. When this operation is repeated, the behavioral consequences are termed anxiet . ...the S can take on the function of a cond1tioned negative reinforcer and that some of the consequences of that pairing will involve respondent be- havior. ...However, for the Operation to be properly identified as anxiety, the temporal separation between the two stimuli must be of sufficient duration to allow the behavioral changes to occur. Secondly, there is the mat- ter of the inevitability of the aversive stimulus that follows the neutral one. If the organism can do something to terminate it, the condition then becomes avoidance and not anxiety. (p. 26h) Brady and Hunt (1955) suggest that once anxiety is de- veloped it becomes intensified through the passage of time. Often when the anxiety response is acquired by an individual it will generalize to other stimuli making the identification 3 of the originating stimuli by the individual impossible. The above two characteristics of anxiety suggest that a per- son can become highly anxious when faced with a general si- tuation as opposed to a specific stimuli and not be con- scious of the cause of his anxiety. Thus a person may de- velop an habitual response of intense anxiety to a general situation as a reaction to personal threats, the origination of which he may not be able to define. "Stage fright," as experienced in the speaking situation, is an example of this type of anxiety phenomenon. A state of anxiety (stage fright) develops as peOple perceive interpersonal communicative situations as a source of threat to their self-esteem or social goals. In time, the anxiety state becomes a learned habitual response that may be generalized to all speaking situations and may be stimulated by the image of the situation alone. Clevenger (1955) defines stage fright as the following: ...any emotional condition in which emotion overcomes intellect to the extent that com- munication is hampered, either in audience reception or in speaker self-expression, where the immediate object or stimulus of the emotion is the speech-audience situa— tion. (p. 30) A state of anxiety (stage fright) may become a debili- tating response to any interpersonal communicative situation whether in a one-to-one relationship, in a small group, or in :3 one-toamany situation. Such anxiety, if strong enough, may act to inhibit or distort the interpersonal communication of‘ the individual. Examples of this are all too frequent in thus basic speech and group discussion courses that are A required for graduation in a large number of high schools and colleges. The student who visibly shakes while giving a speech, or who does not show up for class on the day he is to speak, or the student who avoids interaction during a group discussion are all examples of peOple who may suffer from a state of debilitating communicative anxiety. Outside the high school and college environment where the communica- tive situation is inevitable, a person with communicative anx- iety usually seeks to avoid interpersonal interaction as much as possible thus reducing his level of anxiety. How- ever, in a society that is increasingly dependent on inter- personal communication to sustain itself, an avoidance re- sponse by an indiiidual striving to reduce his state of anx- iety may be termed maladaptive behavior and a cause for con- cern. Until recently the debilitating effect of speech anx- ‘iety'remained as an unsolved problem. Many college speech texts have offered cures for speech anxiety. Clevenger and Phifer (l959),reviewing several speech texts, list the fol- lowing as possible cures: Many schemes for personality dewflopment are suggested: get out and meet people; make new friends; attempt consciously to become a more outgoing individual. One recent textbook tells the student to list all social Situations in which he has reactions like stage fright, and then to role-play several such experiences daily. He will develop all-around social poise and this will be reflected in his speaking. ...In another textbook the speaker is told to acknowledge his stage fright and learn to live with it. ...Another outgrowth of the semantic movement is the suggestion that the speaker learn to expect less of himself. 5 ...The cure is to re-orient oneself, to accept limited, "attainable" goals in place of vague or unrealistic ones. ...Perhaps the most common admonition on practice methods is to urge one to speak as often as possible. (PP. h-5) Clevenger and Phifer (1959) also add that most of the textbooks reviewed devote more space to the above techniques than to the nature and causes of the anxiety. They suggest that the speech profession "reflects a pragmatic orientation" tOward'tflua problem of anxiety. "...we may not know what stage fright is, but we have some cures that seem to work." (P. b.) The above techniques, although posited as cures for stage fright, negate a basic assumption of reinforcement- 1earning theory. When a person who has developed an habitual pattern‘of“ debilitating communicative anxiety is forced to speak as often as possible, he is performing a behavior that is a reinforcement to the state of anxiety. Practice only reinforces or intensifies the level of anxiety and does not, as the textbooks suggest, cure anxiety. For years the speech profession has suggested that practice makes perfect. Rein- forcement theory, however, suggests that practice makes per- manent, and in the case of communicative anxiety, practice intensifies the problem. What is needed is a technique based on learning theory that will extinguish the state of anxiety prior to taking a speech course based on performance. Most colleges today administer tests to incoming Freshmen to deter- mine their level of ability in subjects such as math and Eng- lish. On the basis of these tests, students who Show a 6 deficient comprehension of the subject are required to enroll in. remedial courses designed to correct their individual problems. The same procedure needs to be followed with a person's interpersonal communicative ability. This would help a student with debilitating anxiety interact not only in a specific speech class but in all of his academic work. Wolpe and Lazarus (1966) describe a behavior therapy technique for the extinction of anxiety termed "Systematic Desensitization" (S.D.). They suggest the following: A habit (anxiety response) is a consistent way of responding to defined stimulus con- ditions. Behavior therapy is the applica- tion of experimentally established princi- ples of learning to the overcoming of the persistent habit. In order to change a habit it is always necessary to modify the individual responses that constitute it. Change thus depends on eliciting behavior that can modify these individual responses. (p. 1) Specifically, S.D. breaks down anxiety response habits by using a physiological state incompatible with a state of anxiety or tension in order to inhibit the anxiety response to a weaker stimulus, repeating the exposure until the stimu- lutn completely loses its anxiety-evoking ability. The same procedure is repeated with progressively stronger stimuli, extinguishing each separate stimuli through the completion of an anxiety hierarchy. Barrick, McCroskey, and Ralph (1968) adapted the S.D. technique of Wolpe and Lazarus for the purpose of reducing student anxiety in test and speaking situations. They found that speech-anxious students treated by S.D. for Speech anx- iety showed a significantly greater reduction in speech 7 anxiety than those speech-anxious students who did not re- ceive the S.D. treatment, and that S.D. treatment could be administered successfully by speech educators trained in S.D. but with limited psychological backgrounds. The authors stated'tHNF following: "It would appear, therefore, that S.D. is a relatively 'safe' technique for assisting students to overcome test and speech anxiety." (p. 17) .An earlier study by Paul (1966) also indicates support for the success- ful implementation of lay personnel as trainers in the S.D. method. The original problem was to develOp a method of re- ducing anxiety associated with speaking. The method of S.D. has been found successful in decreasing the anxiety level of students who originally suffered from a debilitating level of speech or test anxiety. The problem area of this study con— cerns 1) broadening the technique of S.D. to include other communicative situations beyond the usual one-to-many Situa- tion of the speech classroom, and 2) increasing the useful- ness of the technique by determining what changes in procedure might be needed in order to increase the size of group that can receive treatment at one time. Review 2£.Anxiety Studies Anxiety as we view it today is not unlike the viewpoint expressed by Freud (1936). Freud considered anxiety as a consciously painful experience which arose from excitations of the internal organs of the body. In a conscious state the person iS' able to distinguish anxiety from other experiences 8 of pain. The feeling of anxiety is never unconscious, al- though its origins could be. Freud distinguishes three types of anxiety: 1) "reality anxiety," anxiety felt from 1 the outside world; 2) "neurotic anxiety,‘ anxiety coming ' Shame or guilt expe- from the "id;" and 3) "moral anxiety,‘ rienced by the "ego." All three are unpleasant to the indi- vidual and differ only in their sources. Freud suggests that all three types of anxiety share the main function of acting as a "warning signal" to a person. He posits that the sig- nal is to the ego to do Something about the problem.by evading, escaping, overcoming, or building up defenses. If the ego can do nothing about the anxiety, the result is the "overwhelming" of the personality and eventual nervous break- ddwnn or: psychosis. Sarnoff and Zimbardo (1961) using Freud's (1936) con- ceptual distinctions between fear and anxiety conducted an empirical study in which they observed a tendency for an anxious person to seek out isolation while the fearful per- son seeks out affiliation. They suggest, as does Freud, that when fear is demonstrated in a person, it is a result of stimuli from an external object that is inherently dangerous, and the person responds directly to the external stimuli by "flight" from the object at one extreme or "conquest" at the other. Freud's "neurotic anxiety" elicits the same response as does fear. When people's anxieties are aroused, they be- come more preoccupied with the reassertion of inner self- controlL than with ways of dealing with the external anxiety evoking stimuli. "Because the anxious person tends to be 9 aware of the element of inapprOpriateness in his feelings, he is loathe to communicate his anxieties to others." (p. 58) Sarnoff and Zimbardo hypothesized that SS in a high fear con- dition would choose to be together, while Ss in a high anx- iety condition would choose isolation. Their hypotheses were confirmed. The importance of this study is that people in an intense State of anxiety seek isolation rather than inter— action as a means of reducing their anxiety.' Accordingly, when an anxious person is forced to interact, his level of anxiety may well become intensified. In recent years a number of experimental studies have been conducted which view anxiety from the standpoint of learning theories. Estes and Skinner (l9hl) demonstrated in- tense anxiety states in laboratory animals. They conditioned rats to press a bar for food in the normal mode of Skinnerian instruments; learning on a reinforcement schedule of four min- utes. After this response was established, they designed a stimulus response Situation to create a state of anxiety in the rats. They sounded a tone continously for five minutes followed by an electric shock. The same sequence was re- peated over and over while the rats were engaged in bar- pressing for food. The result was a general decrease in the rate of bar pressing. As the sequence of tone and shock were repeated, the rate of bar pressing decreased more and more. In order to control for the possibility of the Shock's acting as a direct punishment causing extinction, the bar pressing response was never immediately followed by a shock. The ani- ImaIS' learned to associate a neutral stimulus (the tone) with lO impending danger (the shock) and, as a result, increasingly avoided the external object (food) following the start of the tone. They also found that the decrease in response rate following the tone happened significantly more often with the experimental animals than with a control group of animals who received "unanticipated shocks" without any warning. Al- though anxiety could not be directly measured, as with self- report measurements in human experimentation, Estes and Skinner suggest that the behavioral response of the rats was similar in nature to the type of behavioral "response peOple demonstrate in a state of anxiety. An early study demonstrating anxiety and anxiety gen- eralization in humans was reported by Diven (1937). In this study SS were told to read out loud a list of words in asso- ciation to a neutral stimulus word presented by the experi- menter. The SS were asked to respond from the list for a pe- riod of twelve seconds. The experimenter then presented another word stimulus and the S responded for twelve seconds. This sequence was repeated over and over again. Whenever the 83' list of words had the word "red" followed by the word "barn" the experimenter would present an electric shock to the S at the end of the twelve-second interval. The shock sequence appeared intermittently Six times for each S. Using the Sis GSR rate as a measurement of anxiety, Diven found that the strongest anxiety reaction occurred when the word "barn" was presented. He also noted significant reactions to the word "red" and to a lesser extent the Ss reacted to other I 1 words such as "Sheep," "plow,' and "pasture.' The anxiety gll reaction had generalized from the original word that was al— ways shocked to words that were close to it in time or mean- ing. Another interesting finding was that half Of the SS were not able to remember what word had been followed by the shock.‘:This study is significant in that it helps explain why some people live in a chronic state of anxiety as a re- sult of generalizing from a specific stimuli to a large num- ber of stimuli to the extent that the person is unable to discriminate between stimuli. Accordingly a person who re- ceived an aversive stimulus in a one—to—one communicative re- lationship may generalize the state of anxiety to all commu- nication situations and live in a chronic state Of anxiety due to any form of interpersonal communicative interaction. Lundin (1961) in discussing the physiological responses of anxiety in humans states the following: ...the behavior has many manifestations, in- cluding both respondent and parent reactions. Included among thesevare changes in physio- logical functioning as well as overt actions... when the internal changes occur, they can operate as stimuli for verbal responses that add to the description of anxiety. The re- sponses may be implicit or become verbalized as "feelings"...many changes in activity are a function of the autonomic nervous system: increases in blood pressure and pulse rate, cessation of digestion, frequency of urine— tion and defecation. Breathing often becomes shallow and rapid, pupils dilate, excessive perspiration appears, with cessation of nor- mal salivary secretion. More overtly anxiety is expressed in an increase in motor activity, sometimes described as restlessness of height- ened muscular rigidity. ...Readfion time is reduced, "jumpiness is evident at even the presentation of mild stimuli. Increased muscular rigidity Operates to interfere with sleep, and if intense enough, dis- turbs co-ordinated movements. (pp. 271-272) l2 Lundin's description of the physiological responses of anx- iety suggest two additional forms of anxiety measurement be- yond the S's self-report: l) a direct behavioral measurement such as blood pressure, pulse rate or perspiration rate, and 2) measurement by trained observers of the more overt re- sponses such as restlessness, reaction time or jumpiness. Barrick, McCroskey, and Ralph (1968) found a significant re- lationship between GSR and self—report data. Many of the studies of stage fright have used a form of physiological measurement coupled with self-report. Review of Relevant Interpersonal Communicative Aanety (Stage Fright) Literature The literature in this area divides as follows: a) studies dealing with the definition and measurement of commu- nicative anxiety, and b) studies that deal with the extinc- tion of communicative anxiety. Clevenger (1955) in a review article seeking to define "stage fright" suggests that all of the writers are "talking‘ abOut the same emotional continuum." He defines a continuum of stage fright as a class of unpleasant emotions ranging from a mild level, "which may be useful to the speaker" to an intense or severe level, "which disrupts the communicative process altogether." Clevenger in his review states: Baird and Knower say that stage fright is a conditioned form of fear involving complex predisposing and precipitating factors. Hollingworth's Opinion is that it is a fairly simple conditioned response. ...Thonssen and Gilkinson further modify the fear hypothesis by calling our 13 particular problem one of 'social fear’ accompanied by bodily tensions. ...Authors have called it (stage fright) fear, anxiety, selfeconsciousness, nervousness, excite- ment, incipient neurosis, and lack of poise, among other names; but in virtually every case the assumption has been implicit that stage fright presents a single, more or less easily definable, emotional state. Clevenger further suggests that studying peOple who display a mild level of stage fright adds insight to the cause of the problem, but they are not the principal concern; instead "since stage fright is a behavior problem we are primarily concerned with the speaker whose communication is disrupted in some fashion." Clevenger's article points out that the writers in the speech field are in close agreement with the writers in psychology that were reviewed in the preceding section. Therefore, stage fright presumably may be viewed as a form of anxiety that may be extinguished according to procedures based on learning theories in the same manner as other forms of anxiety. Clevenger (1959) in a subsequent article reviewing ex- perimental research in stage fright focuses on the problems associated with the measurement of stage fright. Clevenger, like Lundin (1961), found three categories of measurement: "observer rating scales, introspective measures, and devices for measuring physiological changes during speaking." In re— viewing experiments employing observer rating scales, Clevenger reports that the data suggests that judges are "less reliable" in judging "fearful" speakers than in . judging confident ones. Clevenger states that "Teachers of 11+ speech are evidently in stronger agreement concerning what constitutes the absence of stage fright than what constitutes its presence." Clevenger found that introspective measures of stage fright measure a different variable than is measured by judges' ratings. He suggests that "a group of observers tends to notice less disruption in the speaker than the speaker reports having experience." As a result of his syn- thesis Clevenger formulated several hypotheses. The hypo- theses relevant to this study were: Between over—all measures of experi- enced stage fright and observational indices of certain specific behaviors, a positive but very weak relationship prevails. Observed stage fright bears a strong negative relationship to judgments of speakin ability, while experienced stage fright introspective measures) bears a weak negative relationship to judgments of speaking ability. (p. IHS) Clevenger also noted that inventory accounts of social ad- justment (Social Adjustment scores on the Minnesota Person- ality Test) tended to correlate with introspective accounts of anS's experienced stage fright but did not tend to cor- relate with Observers' judgments of stage fright. Concern- ing physiological measures, Clevenger states the following: Obviously, the reliability of instruments for measuring physiological reactions to the speech situation is the most highly reliable of the three classes of stage fright measures (Observer, self report, physiological). Though test, retest, and split-half coefficients cannot be per- formed on pulse rate, psychogalvanometer, and sphygmomanometer readings, one may assume high reliabilities for such measurements. (pp. 136-137) 15 The important point of Clevenger's synthesis is that,of the three known forms of measuring communicative anxiety, the di- rect phySiological measure and the individual's self-report of experienced anxiety tend to be related measures, but these measures do not seem to be highly related to observer ratings. The above point is consistent with anxiety theory in that anx- iety is a state of mind within an individual's cognitive structure accompanied by physiological changes, both of which are internal elements within the individual. Observer raté ings, on the other hand, are external elements to an individ- ual and are subject to the misperception and biases of the ob- server. Low and Sheets (1951) in a study of the performance of studenthiii beginning speech classes on a group of psycho— metric tests noted many significant differences between the groups termed "most stage fright" and the groups termed "least stage fright." The tests'results indicated that‘the' "most stage fright" group in comparison to the "least stage fright" group had not engaged in as much platform speaking, had not been as active in extra—curricular and social acti- vities, showed difficulty in making adequate social adjust- ment, and had less interest in activities which involve self- expression in verbal activities. The researchers did not find a significant difference between the groups in general intelligence, quantitative reasoning ability, the "more imr portant" phases of personality, or their interest in fields of science, mechanics, nature and business. Low and Sheets 16 state that the finding of greatest Significance was the dif- ference in the amount of speaking experience reflected in the backgrounds of the two groups. The researchers state the fol- lowing: In making practical application of this apparent difference (speaking experience) between the two groups of students, the obvious solution in reducing stage fright would seem to be placing fearful students in‘situations where they would get the requisite speaking experience. Although this approaCh would undoubtedly have merit in many instances, the results of this present study seem to point to the need for a broader interpretation of the findings. There were many indications, for example, that students with unusual stage fright did not lack for Opportuni- ties to obtain speaking experience. They came from essentially the same environment as did students with "least stage fright;" however, they had consistently avoided speaking situations. The fact might be interpreted to mean that the lack of Ispeakingiexperience;waSupnlytsymptomatic of a more deep-seated personality problem suggesting the need for a clinical approach to the more severe cases, either to pre- ceed or parallel the public speaking class. (p. 271) The-c: importance of the Low and Sheets experiment is the sug- gestion that severe or intense cases of communicative anxiety be treated outside of the speech classroom.employing a con- trolled therapy training approach to the extinction of the anxiety. There have been several successful experiments that have complied with this suggestion. Kondas (1967) experimented with three types of therapy treatment in an effort to extinguish communicative anxiety (stage fright) in a group of high school students and a group of. college students., With both the high school and college 17 subjects Kondas established a control group plus three ex- perimental conditions: 1) relaxation alone, 2) imagination of hierarchy items, and 3) S.D. adOpted from Wolpe (1966) which incorporates both relaxation and imagination of hier- archy items. The S.D. training method is essentially composed of two parts. The first is training in deep muscular relaxation which acts as an inhibitive agent on anxiety. Tension theo- retically is not compatible with a state Of deep relaxation. The second part of the S.D. training involves the subject's ability to imagine anxiety-provoking Situations. The situa- tions are presented in a hierarchal order based on the amount of anxiety potential each one has. Kondas was interested in the specific effect of each of the above components of A.D. separately and the effect of com- bining them, as is done in S.D. training. In the eXperih mental conditions, treatment groups of five SS or less were employed. Kondas used three means to measure the results of the experimentation: 1) personal interviews, 2) a speech Fear Survey Schedule, and 3) the Ss' GSR reading. There was a pre- test, posttest and a five-month delayed posttest taken on the Fear Survey Schedule of speaking anxiety (F.S.S.). The results of the experimentation showed that the S.D. method reduced anxiety in both groups significantly more than did relaxation alone and that relaXation alone was sig- nificantly better in reducing the anxiety level than imagi- nation of hierarchy items alone when measured on the pre- and 18 posttest. When the 83 were measured on the five-month de; layed posttest the results showed that S.D. was the only method that demonstrated a significant decrease in the SS anxiety level over time. Kondas noted that during the interview g1; students re- ported a reduction or elimination of stage fright after S.D. Although not specifically stated by Kondas, the implication is that he did not obtain 100% success with the other two methods. In the conclusion of the article Kondas states: The results show that the method of S.D. is efficient in reducing stage fright. The present outcome is similar to Lazarus' work on the method of group S.D. in adults; group desensitization it appears is also possible with children. ...Similarly to snake phobias (Lang and Lazovik, 1963) or spider phobias (Rachman, 1965), social- evaluative anxiety, examination anxiety or stage fright are suitable problems for experiments in desensitization (also from the standpoint of the ethics of ther- apeutic research). ...It may be mentioned that according to the data collected from students as well as common observation that stage fright seems to be considerably re- sistant to extinction by natural events. Despite the fact that students, for example, have a large number of Opportunities for public speaking, the stage fright reaction had not been eliminated in many cases--even though some of them had tried deep breathing or to think aboutpleasant things when stage fright had arisen. Contrary to the ineffi- cient extinction occurring in natural circum- stances immediate reduction of fear occurs by S.D., and 'the desensitization of imaginal stimuli does ideed generalize to real-life situations.’ (Rachman, 1966). Of particular importance in the Kondas experiment are the findings that: l) S.D. is successful with high school stu- dents as well as college students, 2) The method of S.D. is 19 effective over at least a five-month extended period of time, and 3) In the cases Of serious anxiety, increasing the Ss' speaking Opportunities is ineffective in reducing the Ss' anxiety whereas the method of S.D. causes an "immediate re- duction of fear." Another experiment employing behavioral therapy meth- ods for the purpose of reducing communicative anxiety was conducted by Paul (1966). The design of the experiment em- ployed four experimental conditions and a control group. The experimental groups were: 1) S.D. treatment--N = 15, 2) In- sight Psychotherapy--N = 15, 3) Attention Placebo--N = 15, and h) Classroom Only-~N = 29. A control group of 22 was also established. A battery of tests were administered to 710 college speech students. The battery of tests included- the Anxiety Differential (Husek and Alexander, 1963); the I.P.A.T. Anxiety Scale Questionnaire (Cattell, 1957); the Pittsburgh Social Extroversion-Introversion and Emotionality Scales, including the MMPI L-Scale (Bendig, 1962); the Inter- personal Anxiety Scales from the 8-H Inventory of Anxiousness (Endler, Hunt, and Rosenstein, 1962); and a short form of the Personal Report of Confidence as a Speaker (PRCS) based on Gilkenson's (l9h2) early work. Those students who indicated a debilitating level of communicative anxiety (N = 96) were chosen and assigned to the experimental and control groups. Cognitive (Anxiety Differential), physiological (pulse rate), and observer ratings (Timed Behavioral Checklist for Perform- ance Anxiety) were administered as the pre- and posttest 20 measures. Paul obtained the services of five experienced psychotherapists who worked individually with three SS in each of the three treatment groups: S.D., insight-oriented psychotherapy, and attention-placebo. Each therapist worked with each individual for five hours over a six-week period of time. Six weeks after the experiment the screening bat- tery of tests was administered as a delayed posttest. Using analysis of variance and a comparison of individual improve- ment rates, Paul found the following: S.D. was consistently superior (100 per cent success); no differences were found between the effects of the insight-oriented psycho- therapy and the nonspecific effects of the attention-placebo treatment (h? per cent success), although both groups showed greater anxiety reduction than the no-treatment controls (17 per cent). Improvement was maintained at follow-up with no evidence of 'symptom substitution.‘ No differences were found between effects produced by different therapists nor was improvement predictable from major personality variables. (p. 98) Paul indicates that treatment based on a "learning" model (S.D.) was "clearly superior" to treatment based on the tra- ditional "disease" model (insight-oriented psychotherapy) in extinguishing communicative anxiety. Paul states the fol- lowing: Desensitization therapy produced a con— sistently greater measurable reduction in the cognitive, physiological, and motoric aspects of stress-engendered anxiety, a re- duction that was found to be maintained at the six-week follow-up period. Perhaps even more impressive is the fact that experienced psychotherapists, whose experience and biases were in the direction of the insight approach, rated subjects treated by S.D. not only as improving more, but also as having a signi- ficantly better prognosis. (p. 71) p p v 21 Paul's study points out three relevant findings: 1) There is no significant difference of anxiety reduction cauSed as a result of employing different therapists, 2) The method of S.D. is superior to insight therapy, and 3) The behavioral therapy approach to the extinction of communicative anxiety is superior to classroom participation in speaking. Paul and Shannon (1968) conducted a follow-up study in which they compared individual treatment and group treatment. This study was essentially a‘ replication of the prior study with the exception of the addition of S.D. in a small group format. In this study the four experimental conditions were S.D., insight-oriented psychotherapy, attention-placebo treat- ment, and group desensitization employing the method of S.D. The results indicated that the method of S.D. found effective in individual treatment in the prior study can be "effie ciently combined with group discussion and administered in small groups without loss of effectiveness fiJD the treatment of interpersonal performance anxiety." The researchers re— port the following: 'When these results are compared with changes Obtained for comparable subjects treated by individual programs of S.D., insight-oriented psychotherapy, and nonspecific attention- placebo techniques, the combined group de- sensitization treatment was superior to both the individual insight-oriented and attention— placebo programs. There were no significant differences in the effects of individual de- sensitization and the group desensitization on individual scales, even though such group absence of concurrent enrollment in a speech me: (p. 13) The important findings of this study are as follows: 1) The 22 S.D. method is as effective in a group setting as it is on an individual basis, and 2) The method of group S.D. for the extinction of communicative anxiety may be employed any time during the 83' college experience and does not necessitate enrollment in a Speech course. Barrick, McCroskey and Ralph (1968), adOpting the S.D. method of Wolpe (1966), investigated the use of "lay person- nel" as trainers. The researchers in their review found that the prior experimentation with S.D. in communicative anxiety reduction had employed professional psychologists as trainers. Application of the S.D. method on a large scale employing several professional psychologists would tend to be economically prohibitive. If, however, trained "lay person- nel" could be used as trainers, the cost would not be prohi- bitive. This led the researchers to test the following null hypothesis: "There will be no significant differences in im- provement scores for treatment groups between professional and sub-professional trainers." The researchers also hypothe- sized the main effect of the method of S.D.: "Speech-anxious students receiving S.D. for speech anxiety will indicate a greater reduction in speech anxiety than will speech-anxious students not receiving S.D." Of importance here is the idea that, in order to apply the S.D. method to a large population such as all debilitated students in a given high school or college, the cost of em— ploying the services of professional psychologists as train- ers would be economically prohibitive, but if existing per- sonnel (seniors, graduate students, etc.) could be 23 implemented as trainers, the cost would not be prohibitive. The four trainers selected for the experiment were a graduate student from the Counseling Department of the College of Edu- cation at Michigan State University who was professionally trained and experienced in the S.D. method and three lay trainers from the Department of Speech (a professor and two graduate students). All groups were assigned to trainers on the contingency that no Speech trainer would train a S that he had concurrently enrolled in his classroom. In discussing their results, the researchers state the following: The first analysis of the data obtained from all measures was a comparison between SS treated by the counseling psychologist and those treated by the lay trainers. In only one case on the TAI (Test Anxiety Inventory) was a significant difference observed. The observed difference favored the lay trainers. (Underlining by this author for emphasis.) Because of the number of independent tests (9) computed and the fact that if a true superiority for lay trainers existed, it Should have appeared on other related vari- ables and in other conditions, it was con- cluded that this single significant differ- ence was insufficient to conclude that lay trainers were superior to the counseling psychologist. Therefore, the hypothesis of no difference between trainers was not re- jected. (p. 1A) Further analysis of the data showed that the S.D. method was effective in reducing speech anxiety. The finding that lay trainers can be effectively employed as trainers has estab- lished a major breakthrough in the practical application of the S.D. method as a means of extinguishing communicative anxiety on a large scale. 2A The review of the literature has pointed out that anx- iety in general is an emotional state that is caused by a re- action to personal threats accompanied by changes in the in- dividual's psychological responses; that through the passage Of time the level of anxiety becomes intensified; that com- municative apprehension is an example of the anxiety phenome— non; that people in an intense state of communicative anxiety seek isolation rather than interaction as a means of reducing their anxiety; that when an anxious person is compelled to in- teract, as is the case when a student is required to enroll in speech classes, his level Of anxiety will become intensi- fied; that an individual's level of anxiety may be signifi- cantly reduced through the method of S.D. which is theoreti- cally based on a reinforcement learning model; and finally, that the method of S.D. does not require the employment of professionally trained psychologists as trainers but instead existing "lay personnel" may be trained and effectively im- plemented as S.D. trainers. Generation 2; the Experimental Hypothesis The existing research that experimented with the method of S.D. has followed the procedure of individual training or training in small groups Of fiVe members or less. A pilot study by this author and McCroskey has shown that of the over 2,000 students measured at Michigan State University more than 10% report extreme communicative anxiety. Accord— ingly, of the 2,000 students measureimore than 200 indicated 25 a critical need for anxiety reduction treatment. An addi- tional 30% of the students indicated moderately severe anx- iety. With an increasing enrollment of students in speech courses reflecting the demand for all students to have an im— proved ability to cope with interpersonal communicative Sit- uations, a successful method of reducing debilitating commu- nicative anxiety on a large scale must be develOped. At pres— ent the S.D. method, in light of its past success, offers the most promising solution to the problem. However, using groups of five students per training group requires a large number of trainers. The fact that trainers do not need to be professionally trained psycholo- gists, although relevant, does not negate the problem of num- bers of trainers. The larger the Freshman class enrollment of either a high school or college, the larger the problem of sheer numbers becomes. It is general knowledge that Freshman enrollment has been and will be increasing for some time to come. Not only are the number of students on an increase, but society's demands on the students' ability to communicate have increased as well. ItEbecomes readily apparent that with an increasing pOpulation the use of five students per group in S.D. treatment creates a demand for trainers that becomes inhibitive for practical application. The problem then is finding out how large a group one trainer can success— fully treat. Does the method of S.D. require that it be ad- ministeredgiil small groups of five or can the Size of the group be increased to twenty or more SS at one time? There'are essentially two problems that are created 26 when the size of the group is enlarged. The first problem stems from the procedural method of S.D. itself. During the training sessions all communication by any S regarding per- ceiving anxiety arising from the induction of a given hier- archal stimuli is done visually, maintaining verbal silence so that mental imagery on the part of the SS will not be dis- rupted. In prior experimentation, using groups of five or less, indication of anxiety by a S has been accomplished by the means of raising the right index finger. If the group size were to be increased to twenty or more, some electronic Signalling system would have to be adOpted. This may be ac- complished in a simple faShiontq'using an electrica1.05, see Table 6) indi- cating that over a three-month period of time between the posttest and the delayed posttest the SXperimental treatment groups and the control group did not differ Significantly in hl Table A Summary of One-Way Analysis of Variance: PRCA Pre-Delayed Post Change Scores ..A A_. M? L - Source of Sums of Degrees of Mean Variance Squares Freedom., Squares F Between 157h.67 2 787.3h 6.27% Within 3391.19 27 125.60 Total h965.86 29 *Significant at the .05 level Table 5 X PRCA Pro-Delayed Post Change Scores by Treatments L LF 1 V’ Experimental Condition L_ . V 3 Homogeneous ' ' Heterogeneous COntrolfi X’ Change* 18.75e 18.85b 3.00,,b H *Means with same subscript are significantly different from each other at the .05 level Table 6 Summary of OneAWay Analysis of Variance: PRCA Post-Delayed Post Change Scores f Y Source of Sums of Degrees of Mean Variance Squares Freedom. Squares F Between 70.83 2 35.n2 l.h0 Within 680.53 27 25.20 Total 751.37 29 As the amount of change in their level of anxiety. SAI Post and Post-Delayed Post Shift Analysis of the SAI posttest data shows that the hypo- thesis was not confirmed. Although a significant F-ratio was obtained for differences among treatments (F = 3.26, P‘<.05), see Table 7), subsequent t-tests indicated that those results reflected significant differences between the heterogeneous treatment and control condition (3 = 4.39, P.A0). A significant F-ratio (F = 3.03, P‘(.05, see Table 7) was also obtained for differences among anxiety score interval levels. Subsequent t—tests indicated a significant differ- ence between the score interval 79 and over and 73-78 (E = H-33, P<:.05, see Table 8),between the score interval 79 and over and 67—72 (E = 1.75, P‘<.05), between the score in- terval 79 and over and 61-66 (E = 5.12, P<(.05), between the score intervals 73-78 and 67-72 (E = 2.58, P‘<.05), and be- tween score intervals 67-72 and 61-66 (E = 3.37, P<.05). Analysis of the SAI post-delayed post shift-scores re- sulted in a non-significant F-ratio (F = 2.19, PJ>.05, see Table 9). As with the PRCA post-delayed post shift-scores, the SAI post-delayed post date indicated that the level of anxiety change over time was not significantly different among the experimental groups and the control group. #3 Table 7 Summary of Two-Way Analysis Of Variance: SAI Posttest Scores Source of Sums of Degrees of Mean Variance Squares Freedom Squares F Treatments 878. 0A 2 A39. 02 3. 26-: Levels(Groups) 1223. A3 3 A07. 81 3. 03* Interaction 77. 58 6 79. 60 .59 Error A A2. 72 36 13A.52 Total 7A21.77 H7 %Significant at the .05 level Table 8 X SAI Posttest Scores by Treatment and Level Experimental and Control Groups Homo- Hetero- . X for Levels geneous geneous Control Levels* 79-100 100.75 11A. 50 135.25 116.838”),c 78-73 92.75 8h. 00 109.50 95. a,d 72-67 112.25 10A. 25 108.00 108.17b d e 66-61 8A.00 83. 00 107.50 91. 50C e X Across 97 AA 96 AA 115 06 Levels-X- ' f ' 8 ' f,g *Means with same subscript are significantly different from each other at the .05 level AA Table 9 Summary of OneAWay Analysis of Variance: SAI Post-Delayed Post Change Scores r 1' V‘ Source of { Sums of Degrees of Mean Variance Squares Freedom Squares F Between 225.%3 2 112.72 1.03 Within 2965. 5 27 109.8A Total 3081.2A 29 1' Table 10 Chi-square Test of "Cure" Success Between Experimental Conditions Treatment Frequency "Cured" .Frequency Not "Cured" Homogeneous 8 Heterogeneous 12 A x2 = 2.13, P >.05 _+ Table 11 Chi-square Test of "Cure" Success Between Experimental and Control Conditions Treatment Frequency "Cured" Frequency Not "Cured" Experimental 20 12 Control A 12 X2 = 5.99, P<.05 1+5 "Cure" Success A Chi-square analysis of the frequencies of the "cured"- not "cured" SS in the homogeneous groups and the "cured"- not "cured" SS in the heterogeneous groups did not Show a sig- nificant difference (X2 = 2.13, see Table 10). However a Chi-square analysis between the frequencies of the "cured"- not "cured" experimental SS and the "cured"-not "cured" con- trol SS did Show a significant difference (X2 = 5.99, see Table 11). The experimental treatments resulted in signifi- cantly more"cured"Ss than the control condition. CHAPTER IV SUMMARY, DISCUSSION OF RESULTS, AND IMPLICATIONS FOR FUTURE RESEARCH A review of the relevant literature disclosed that stage fright is a form of a more general level of communica- tive apprehension which, in turn, is a type of anxiety. Anx- iety is a perceived state of mind that is usuallyemcompanied with overt behavioral changes such as an increase in heart- beat, nervous tension of various muscle groups, or with- drawal. Prior research has demonstrated that communicative anxiety is a learned response to a negative stimulus that is usually associated with personal threat to one's self-esteem. In an effort to reduce the level Of anxiety the individ— ual will seek to avoid those situations that act as a stimu- lus to the formation of the anxiety state. If the stimulus situation cannot be avoided or is perceived as inevitable, the individual's level of anxiety intensifies. Over time the intensified level of anxiety tends to generalize to all like situations, and the individual develOps a level of debili- tating anxiety that interferes with his interpersonal communi- cation to the extent that he is no longer effective in commu- nicative interaction. Research also suggests that enrollment in a performance—oriented public speaking course only serves he A7 to intensify the level of anxiety for those students who have a prior history of debilitating communicative anxiety. The problem then is the develOpment of a method to reduce commu- nicative anxiety to a level that is perceived by the individ- ual as :no longer debilitating which, in turn, will help the individual develop his ability as an effective communicator. The S.D. method of training has been successfully dem- onstrated as effective in curing chronic anxiety of phobias such as claustrobphobia or acrOphobia. AdOpting the S.D. method, as used by clinical psychologists, Kondas (1967), Paul (1966, 1968), and Barrick, McCroskey, and Ralph (1968) have all empirically demonstrated the successful use of the S.D. training method with test anxiety and stage fright ap- plied on an individual or small group basis. The present study was conducted in an attempt to deal with those problems associated with applying S.D. training in large groups and broadening the training to include other communication Situa- tions beyond the public speaking situation described in the literature as "stage fright." Specifically the present study was designed to test two forms of grouping individuals for training. If large train- ing groups are to be employed, then it is important to deter- mine the effect of the highly anxious 83 on the extinction rate of the less anxious SS. Are there any detrimental ef- fects caused by heterogeneous grouping? The S.D. method requires that all the members of a training group proceed at the extinction rate of the most anx- ious member of the group, regardless of individual anxiety A8 levels. Will the slow rate of extinction of a highly anxious member cause a detrimental effect on the less anxious members? If there is a detrimental effect, than the method of homogen- eous grouping must be employed when S.D. training is applied. As the training groups size increases, the importance of in— suring homogeneous grouping increases. 0n the other hand, if there are no detrimental effects caused by heterogeneous HI grouping, then assignment to large groups may be at random or A F at the convenience of the 83' time schedules. f The above questions led to the experimental hypothesis F that those groups of SS that are homogeneously assigned to S.D. training on the baSis of grouping by ranks of Six score units (1/2 standard deviation from mean of population) on the anxiety scale (PRCA) will report a Significantly greater reduction in anxiety than will those groups of SS that are as- signed to S.D. training on the basis of heterogeneous group- ing who will, in turn, Show a significantly greater reduction in anxiety than will a comparable group of SS receiving no treatment. Forty-eight students that had indicated an above aver- age level of anxiety (PRCA score 61-100) were assigned either to one of the experimental conditions or to a control group: 16 students for the heterogeneous groups, 16 students for the homogeneous groups, and 16 students for a control group. A PRCA pretest, immediate posttest and delayed posttest and a SAI immediate posttest and delayed posttest were administered. The data were analyzed by analysis of variance with subse- quent t-tests when justified and the cure rate was analyzed A9 by Chi-square analysis. Discussion 2: Results The analysis of the PRCA pro-posttest change scores and the SAI post scores resulted in the rejection of the experi- mental hypothesis which stated that homogeneous grouping would be significantly better than heterogeneous grouping in reducing communicative anxiety. Not only was the experi; mental hypothesis rejected, but the Observed difference was in the Opposite direction on the PRCA pre-post change scores. This finding suggests that there are no detrimental effects in heterogeneous grouping; heterogeneous grouping may even re- sult in a greater reduction of communicative anxiety than does homogeneous grouping. A possible explanation of the ob- served difference may be that an increase in the number of presentations of a given hierarchy stimulus Situation during a state of relaxation serves as a positive reinforcement to an individual and results:in'a greater reduction of the anx- iety caused by the stimulus. Further research would have to be conducted to confirm the correctness of the above assump- tion, but at least at this point there are no data to suggest that homogeneous grouping produces better results than het- erogeneous grouping. It would appear that individuals who indicate debili- tating communicative anxiety may be assigned randomly to large groups for S.D. training without the need for creating special groups according to anxiety levels. Accordingly, one large S.D. training group might be formed instead of four 50 small groups, a procedure which would cut trainers' hours from four to one and would increase the efficiency and reduce the cost of training. Instead of running four S.D. training groups of five members each, as was the case with past S.D. programs, a program may be established employing one group of 20 members. In the case of the present study 72 students vol- unteered for training. Forming groups of five members each would require a total of 15 groups. Each group would receive one hour of training per week for five weeks thus making a total of 75 training hours needed to desensitize those who indicated a desire for training. With no difference between heterogeneous grouping and homogeneous grouping, three large groups of 25 members each could be employed. This would cut the total training hours from 75 to 15 for the trainer. The efficiency of large heterogeneous groups becomes rapidly ap- parent. One part-time trainer working three hours per day for five weeks could offer S.D. training to 375 students in- stead Of 75. The analysis of the PRCA pro—posttest change scores and the SAI post scores also showed that both the heterogeneous and homogeneous experimental groups reduced communicative anx- iety significantly more than the control group. This finding was to be expected and serves to re-affirm the effectiveness of S.D. training established in prior research. 0f more im- portance is the fact that both the experimental SS and the control SS were concurrently enrolled in the basic speech course. This suggests that S.D. training tends to be signi- ficantly more successful in reducing communicative anxiety 51 than does a course in public speaking. Analysis of the PRCA post-delayed posttest change scores and the SAI post-delayed posttest change scores indi- cates that the effects of S.D. training in reducing communi- cative anxiety remain stable over at least a three—month pe- riod of time. Although this finding is not a definitive an- swer to the question of stability, it does suggest a trend in a positive direction. The Chi-square analysis of the frequency of "cured" and not "cured" Ss is extremely important not only because it shows the effectiveness of S.D. training, but also because it clearly demonstrated the degree of S.D. effectiveness. Of the students who received S.D. training while in the basic speech course, 63% were "cured" of their communicative anx- iety, while of those students in the control group who went through the basic speech course without receiving S.D. train— ing, only 25% were "cured" of their communicative anxiety. A comparison of the severe cases (scores of 73-100) of commu- nicative anxiety showed that 56% of the experimental SS were "cured" while none of the control SS were "cured." Although the number of people who were available for comparison was small in relationship to the number of peOple who indicated a need for S.D. training, the fact remains that S.D. training "cures" a significant number of the people who receive train- ing. Implied in the above statement is the assumption that all students who by their own self-report indicate a need for the extinction of communicative anxiety should be given S.D. training. 52 Implications for Future Research The present study has offered some insight into pos- sibly fruitful areas of investigation in future research. The finding that homogeneous grouping was not significantly more effective than heterogeneous but instead showed a trend in the opposite direction suggests that a study Should be con- ducted in an attempt to answer the question concerning pos- sible positive reinforcing effects caused by an increase in the number of presentations of a hierarchy stimulus during a state of deep muscular relaxation. Paul's (1966) study used Simple reduction of score be- tween pretest and posttest as the basis for determining the success of S.D. training. Any S who had a reduction of one or more points between his pretest and posttest was termed a success. In the present study only 2 of the 32 experi- mental Ss failed to Show a reduction. Using Paul's (1966) criterion the present study would have a "cure" rate of 9A% instead of 63% as was reported in Chapter III. Reduc- tion although a necessary criterion does not seem to be a sufficient criterion by itself for the designation of "cured." The and level of reduction seems to be more relevant than the amount of reduction. It was for this reason that the "cure" criterion was arbitrarily established at the score of 61 (one point above the pOpulation X). In the present study several of the highly anxious SS (scores 73 and above) showed a great deal of reduction even though they may not have reached the 61 score criterion. The present study consisted of five S.D. training hours. Possibly if the SS who did not reach the 53 "cured" criterion were given one or two more S.D. training hours, they might obtain scores lower than 61. Future re- search is needed to establish the Optimum number of S.D. training hours necessary to insure a high "cure" rate. Another area of investigation should determine more specifically the stability over time of S.D. training. If S.D. training could be given during the Freshman year, a succession of delayed posttests could be administered at six-month intervals over the remaining three years of educa- tion. Inherent in a program of this nature is the assess- ment of the possible need for a retraining session later for the purpose of reinstating the original effect. Two ques— tions need to be answered: 1) Is S.D. training stable over a long period of time, and 2) If S.D. training is not stable over a long period of time, how much retraining will be needed to reinstate the original effect of S.D. training? Prior research and the present study have dealt only with those students who have volunteered for S.D. training. What happens when S.D. training is required? Future research must investigate the difference in the amount of communica- tive anxiety reduction between volunteer Ss and Ss who are re— quired to take S.D. training. It is hOped that very little difference, if any, will exist, but empirical support for no difference must be obtained before S.D. training should be forced on any student that indicates a debilitating amount of communicative anxiety. The present study as well as those in the past have not attempted to ascertain the effectiveness of S.D. training 5A for communicative anxiety beyond the so-called "middle class" college student. Many of the critics of behavioral science research have, and rightly so, criticized the researcher for not expanding his findings beyond the middle class cultural environment of the predominantly white college student. Will S.D. training be as effective with the increasing number of ghetto students who are enrolling in college? Not as a re- sult of research design but rather by chance, three black students received S.D. training in the present study. A post hoc investigation of the individual response rate of per- ceived anxiety and tension (indication of anxiety and/or ten- sion by raising the index finger) indicated that all three of the black students demonstrated an extremely high rate of anxiety indication in relationship to the white students who received training. However, all three black students showed a major reduction of communicative anxiety between their pre- and posttest measurement on the PRCA. Further research in this area may show a need to establish a revised hierarchy for students who come from the ghetto. An extreme differ- ence in environmental conditions may cause a considerable difference in the ability to imagine a given hierarchy stimu- lus situation. Although there is certainly a need for continuing re- search on the procedures and effects of S.D. for communica- tive anxiety, such research should not be considered neces— sarily antecedent to widespread adoption of this technique in the secondary schools and colleges. Hundreds of thousands of young peOple suffer from debilitating communicative anxiety, 55 not to mention the untold thousands of adults facing the same problem. The speech profession has recognized the problem for decades, but has not been able to provide a solution. The technique of systematic desensitization is not a panacea, but it does enable the majority of even the most anxious in- dividuals to control their communicative anxiety. A profes- sion dedicated to improvement of human communication has an obligation to implement methods which have been proven suc- cessful in attaining this goal. The speech profession is such a profession. Systematic desensitization is such a method. REFERENCES REFERENCES Barrick, J., McCroskey, J. D., & Ralph, D. The effects of systematic desensitization on Speech and test anxiety. Unpublished paper presented at Speech Association of American Convention, Chicago, 1968. Bendig, A. W. Pittsburgh scale of social extroversion- introversion and emotionality. Journal 2f Psychology, 53, 199-210. Brady, J. V., & Hunt, H. F. An experimental approach to the analysis of emotional behavior. Journal 2: Psychology, 1955: AC. 313'32u0 Cattell, R. B. The IPAT Anxiety Scale. Champaign, 111. In- stitute for Personality and Ability Testing, 1957. ~Clevenger, T., Jr. A definition of stage” fright. Central States Speech Journal, 1955, 7,2 Clevenger, T., Jr. A synthesis of experimental research in stage fright. Quarterly JOurnal 23 Speech, 1959, A5, 13A-1A5. Clevenger, T., Jr., & Phifer, G. 'What do beginning college speech texts say about stage fright? Speech Teacher, 1959. 8 1- 7. COOper, L. The Rhetoric of Aristotle. New York: Appleton- Century -Cro fts, In no., 1960. Diven, K. Certain determinants in the conditioning of anx-, iegy reactions. Journal 2: Psychology, 1937, 3, 291- 30 ‘ Emery, J. F., & Krumboltz, J. D. Standard versus individual- ized hierarchies in desensitization to reduce test anx- iety. Journal gf Counseling Psychology, 1967, 1A, 20A- 209. Endler, N. 8., Hunt, J. McV., & Rosenstein, A. J. An S-R inventory of anxiousness. Psychology Monograph, 1962, 76. 536 Estes, W. K., & Skinner, B. F. Some quantitative prOperties of anxiety. Journal 3: Experimental Psychology, 19Al, 29, 390*”00 a 56 57 Fraud. 8. Inhibitions, Symptoms and Anxiety. London: Hogarth Press, 1936. Gilkenson, H. Social fears as reported by students in col- lzge speech classes. Speech Monographs, 19A2, 9, 1A1- l O. Husek, P. R., & Alexander, F. The effectiveness of the anx- iety differential in examination stress situations. Education Psychological Measurement, 1963, 23, 309-318. Kondas, 0. Reduction of examination anxiety and stage fright. Behavior Research and Therapy, 1967, 5, 279-280. Low, G. N., & Sheets, B. V. The relation of psychometric factors to stage fright. Speech Monographs, 1951, 18, 266-27 1 a Lundin, R. W. Personality: Ap Experimental.Approach. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1961. Murry, E. J. Motivation and Emotion. New Jersey: Prentice Hall, Inc., 196A. Paul, G. L. Insi ht YE: Desensitization ip Psychotherapy. California: Stanford University Press, 1966. Paul, G. L., & Shannon, D. T. Treatment of anxiety through systematic desensitization in therapy groups. Journal pf Abnormal Psychology, 1966, 71, l2A-l35. Rachman, S. Studies in desensitization. Behavioral Research 22d Therapy, 1966, A, 1-15. Sarnoff, I., & Zimbardo, P. G. Anxiety, fear, and social af— filiation. Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 1961, 62’ 356-3630 — Wolpe, J., & Lazarus, A. A. Behavior Therapy Techniques. New York: Pergamon Press, 1966. APPENDICES APPENDIX A PERSONAL REPORT OF COMMUNICATIVE APPREHENSION This inSrument is composed of 20 statements regarding feelings about communicating with other peOple. Indicate the degree to which the statements apply to you by marking whether you (1) strongly agree, (2),agree, (3) are undecided, (A) disagree, or (5) strongly disagree with each statement. Work quickly, just record your first impression. Do 223 mark on this page. "Please use the answer sheet provided. 1. I look forward to an Opporunity to l 2 '3 A 5 speak in public. SA .A U D SD 2. My hands tremble when I try to handle objects on the platform. SA A U D SD 3. I dislike to use my body and voice expressively. SA A U D SD A. My thoughts become confused and jumbled when I speak before an audience. SA A U D SD 5. I have no fear of facing an audience. SA A U D SD 6. Although I am nervous just before getting up, I soon forget my fears and enjoy the experience. SA A U D SD 7. I face the prospect of making a speech , with complete confidence. SA A U D SD 8. Although I talk fluently with friends I am at a loss for words on the platform. SA A U D SD 9. I feel relaxed and comfortable while r '.- Speaking. SA A U D SD 10. I always avoid speaking in public if possible. SA A U D SD 11. I enjoy preparing a talk. SA A U D SD 12. My posture feels strained and unnatural. SA A U D SD 13. 1A. 15. l6. 17. 18. 19. 20. I am fearful and tense all the while I am speaking before a group of peOple. I find the prospect of speaking mildly pleasant. I look forward to expressing my Opinion at meetings. While participating in a conversation with a new acquaintance I feel very nervous. Conversing with peOple who hold posi- tions of authority causes me to be fearful and tense. I would enjoy presenting a speech on a local television Show. I feel that I am.more fluent when talk- in to peOple than most other peOple are. I am tense and nervous while'partici- pating in group discussions. 58 SA SA SA SA SA SA dku err SD SD SD SD SD SD SD APPENDIX B STUDENT SCHEDULE SHEET Thank you for your cooperation and assistance in establishing this program. Please provide the following information whether you wish training or not. Name Student Number Freshman SOphomore Junior Senior Sex: M F Campus Address Phone Number Section Number of Communication 101 I wish to receive training I do not wish to receive trainingf If you wish to participate in the training sessions, indicate the hours that you canNOT come with an "X." M T nghLF 5:00 - 6:00 P.M. 6:00 - 7:OO'P.M. 7:00 - 8:00 P.M. 8:00 - 9:00 P.M. 59 APPENDIX C COMMUNICATION ANXIETY HIERARCHY I WANT YOU TO IMAGINE THAT: 1. 2. 10. ll. 12. 13. 1A. 15. YOu are talking with a friend. You are trying to make a point at a bull session and you notice that everyone is looking at you.. You have been assigned to give a presentation in a panel discussion. Your inStructor tells you to report on an assigned ar- ticle before the class. You are next to speak, the person speaking now is making a fool of himself. A potential employer calls you in for an interview. Each member of a panel discussion has given his Opinion and it is your turn. You have returned to your high school for a brief visit, and the principal asks you to talk about MSU to a class of students. It is the night before an important speech and you are practicing your presentation. Your instructor has asked you to Speak to 15 staff members at a meeting. You are about to give your next speech, and a substitute instructor walks in the door. You are about to speak before an unfamiliar audience. Your instructor has just called on you to give an im- promptu Speech. You are getting up to give a speech on a tOpic that the previous speaker just covered thoroughly. You are about to give your speech and the instructor tells you that you cannot use your notes. 60 APPENDIX D you by marking whether you (1) strongly agree, SPEECH ANXIETY INVENTORY This instrument is comp0sed of 3A statements regarding feelings about communicating with other peOple. Indicate the degree to which the statements apply to (2) agree, (3) are undecided, (A) disagree, or (5) strongly disagree with each statement. Work quickly, just record your first impression. 1 1. While preparing for giving a speech I tense and nervous. SA 2. I feel tense when I see the words "speecH" and "public speech" on a course out- line when studying. SA 3. My thoughts become confused and jumbled when I am giving a speech. SA A. Right after giving a speech I feel that I have had a pleasant eXperience. SA 5. I get anxious when I think about a speech coming up. SA 6. I have no fear of giving a speech. SA 7. Although I am.nervous just before starting a speech, I soon settle down after starting and feel calm and comfortable. SA 8. I look forward to giving a speech. SA 9. When the instructor announces a speaking assignment in class I can feel myself getting tense. SA 10. My hands tremble when I am giving a speech. SA 11. I feel relaxed while giving a speech. SA 12. I enjoy preparing for a speech. SA 13. I am in constant fear of forgetting what I prepared to Say. SA 1A. I get anxious if someone asks me some- thing about my tOpic that I do not know. SA 61 2 A 3 U A 5 D SD D SD D SD D SD D SD D SD D SD D SD D SD D SD D SD D SD D SD D SD 15. l6. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. 2A. 25. 26. 27. 28. 29. 30. 310 320 I face the prospect of giving a speech with confidence. I feel that I am in complete possession of myself while giving a speech. My mind is clear when giving a speech. I do not dread giving a speech. I perspire just before starting a speech. My heart beats very fast just as I start a speech. I experience considerable anxiety while sitting in the room just before my speech starts. Certain parts of my body feel very tense and rigid while giving a Speech. Realizing that only a little time re- mains in a speech makes me very tense and anxious. While giving a speech I know I can con- trol my feelings of tension and stress. I breathe faster just before starting a speech. I feel comfortable and relaxed in the hour or so just before giving 3 Speech. I do poorer on speeches because I am anxious. I feel anxious when the teacher announces the date of a speaking assignment. When I make a mistake while giving a speech, I feind it hard to concentrate on the parts that follow. During an important speech I experience a feeling of helplessness building up inside me. I have trouble falling asleep the night before a speech. My heart beats very fast while I pre- sent a speech. 62 SA SA SA SA SA SA SA SA SA SA SA SA SA SA SA SA p 3>2>3I>31> d dddd LI- 5 D SD D SD D SD D SD D SD D SD D SD D SD D SD D SD D SD D SD D SD D SD D SD D SD D SD D SD l 2 3 A 5 33. I feel anxious while waiting to give my speech. SA A U D SD 3A. While giving a speech I get so nervous I forget facts I really know. SA A U D SD 63 Milli/(IAINflfljifllljfljflflffllflllfi