Rhetoritherapy revisited: A test of its effectiveness as a treatment for communication problems

Abstract

The present study examined the effectiveness of rhetoritherapy (Phillips, 1986) as a treatment for individuals with communication difficulties, such as communication apprehension, reticence, and shyness. Following Glaser's (1981) comments on problems in previous studies, the present study employed several standardized tests of social communication problems and used a pretest‐posttest design with a control group and two treatment groups: one was identical to the rhetoritherapy program developed at Penn State University and the other was a speech communication class. Participants in all three groups completed the PRCA‐24, the McCroskey, Andersen, Richmond, and Wheeless Shy Scale, and the Jones and Russell Social Reticence Scale (SRS) during the first and last weeks of the semester. In addition, participants had a friend complete the Shy and SRS measures about them at both points in time. Dummy variable regression analyses were used to identify significant differences between the three groups in their relationships between posttest and pretest scores. On the self‐assessed SRS measure, rhetoritherapy appeared to offer significant advantages over the speech treatment, but only for those with high pretest scores. A significant sex X condition interaction on the self‐assessed Shy measure indicated that rhetoritherapy females gained significantly more than any other sex X condition groups, except males in the speech class. For the PRCA and other‐assessed Shy measures, both rhetoritherapy and the speech communication class showed significant differences from the controls, but not from each other. No differences were observed for the scores on the other‐assessed SRS measure. Examination of the subscales also indicated a similar set of mixed results. Suggestions for future studies are provided.