Treating communication anxiety: Implications of the communibiological paradigm

Abstract

Recent advances in neuropsychology have led scholars to investigate the relationship between biological predisposition and communication anxiety. Growing evidence suggests that an individual's predisposition to experience anxiety when communicating is linked to biologically‐based personality factors (i.e., neuroticism and introversion). In fact, Beatty, McCroskey, and Heisel (1998), have proposed a communibiological paradigm and have reconceptualized communication apprehension as neurotic introversion. Given the compelling evidence, scholars in the field of communication are engaging in a discussion regarding the implications of a biological view of communication anxiety. This manuscript is an attempt to further the discussion by examining possible treatment implications of a biological model of communication anxiety for teachers of speech communication, particularly of public speaking. Pedagogical strategies are advanced, based upon the premise that novel stimuli and perceived threat of punishment are the key factors that trigger inhibition and anxiety associated with communicating.

Keywords:

• communication anxiety
• speech anxiety
• public speaking anxiety
• speech anxiety treatment
• communibiology
• communibiological paradigm