Reduction in public speaking state anxiety during performance as a function of sensitization processes

Abstract

Recently, scholars have suggested that biological factors, such as temperament, influence human social behavior, particularly in the formation of traits, such as communication apprehension. Despite progress in this area, the relationship between temperament and states, such as speech anxiety, remains unclear. Theories of temperament predict that the rate at which subjects habituate to stress varies inversely with the degree to which they are sensitized during initial confrontation with stress‐producing stimuli. The inverse relationship between habituation and sensitization, in the context of public speaking state anxiety, is examined in this report. In two separate studies, using both physiological and psychological measures of state anxiety, the inverse relationship between sensitization and habituation was confirmed. Specifically, sensitization accounted for 69.1% and 50.3% of the variance in physiological and psychological habituation, respectively.

Key concepts:

• temperament
• speech anxiety
• public speaking
• habituation
• sensitization
• exposure therapy.