Synergistic effect of self-relaxation and rehearsal feedback in the treatment of subjective and behavioral dimensions of speech anxiety.

Studied independent treatments concentrating upon the subjective behavioral dimensions of speech anxiety to assess the existence of independent, generalized, or synergistic effects. 40 males from a beginning college speech course received 1 of 4 individually administered treatment conditions: self-relaxation, focusing on internal tension and subjective anxiety; rehearsal feedback, focusing on overt manifestations of anxiety while speaking; self-relaxation plus rehearsal feedback; or no treatment. Change scores on measures (e.g., the Institute for Personality and Ability Testing Anxiety Scale and the Fear Survey Schedule) obtained unobtrusively outside the treatment setting show that the independent treatments had no favorable effect on either subjective or behavioral speech anxiety as compared to the progress of the control group resulting solely from the speech course. In contrast, the combined treatments promoted substantial improvement on both speech-anxiety dimensions and on measures of general anxiety. (33 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Misattribution and speech anxiety.

30 high-speech-anxious and 30 low-speech-anxious Ss participated in an experiment to test the hypothesis that misattribution would reduce the anxiety of speech-anxious Ss. The present study crosscut misattribution vs no misattribution (control) and high vs low speech anxiety and assessed the impact on Ss' nervous behavior and subsequent speech making. The misattribution concerning bodily preparation for Ss' speech-making events was delivered verbally to 15 speech-anxious and 15 nonanxious Ss prior to their speeches. Results show that misattribution did not significantly affect the behavior of Ss making speeches. Implications for misattribution when personality traits are involved are discussed. (8 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Cognitive and behavioral therapy for musical-performance anxiety.

Compared the efficiency of cognitive-behavioral therapy, emphasizing self-instruction and attention-focusing techniques, with behavior rehearsal and with a waiting-list control in the treatment of debilitating musical-performance anxiety. Ss were 53 pianists (aged 12–53 yrs old) who experienced extreme anxiety in performing situations. Therapy sessions were conducted over a 3-wk period; Ss met 3 times in small groups for 1?–2 hrs and also completed homework assignments. Self-report (e.g., Subjective Stress Scale, Expectations of Personal Efficacy Scale for Musicians), behavioral, and physiological indexes of anxiety were collected at baseline, treatment termination, and follow-up intervals. Multivariate analyses indicated that both the cognitive-behavioral therapy and behavior-rehearsal programs were effective in reducing musical-performance anxiety in comparison to the control condition at the follow-up assessment, although there were no differences among groups at treatment termination. Cognitive therapy was more effective than the behavior-rehearsal program on several measures. (40 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A comparison of completers and noncompleters of exposure-based cognitive and behavioral treatment for phobic and anxiety disorders in youth.

This article examined sociodemographic and clinical characteristics of child treatment completers, and noncompleters who received exposure-based cognitive-behavioral treatment. A total of 137 children (46% girls) and their parents (predominantly Euro-American and Hispanic/Latino) participated in this study (106 completers, 31 noncompleters). The majority of noncompleters, received an average of 5 sessions. Findings were generally consistent with past research in terms of lack of differences between completers; and noncompleters. Results are discussed in the context of previous child attrition research and directions for future research. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Applying a cognitive behavioral model of health anxiety in a cancer genetics service.

A cognitive-behavioral model of health anxiety was used to investigate reactions to genetic counseling for cancer. Participants (N = 218) were asked to complete a questionnaire beforehand and 6 months later. There was an overall decrease in levels of cancer-related anxiety, although 24% of participants showed increased cancer-related anxiety at follow-up. People who had a general tendency to worry about their health reported more cancer-related anxiety than those who did not at both time points. This health-anxious group also showed a postcounseling anxiety reduction, whereas the others showed no significant change. Participants with breast or ovarian cancer in their family were more anxious than participants with colon cancer in their family. Preexisting beliefs were significant predictors of anxiety, consistent with a cognitive-behavioral approach. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Structure of anxiety and the anxiety disorders: A hierarchical model.

The authors used a semistructured clinical interview and a self-report battery of questionnaires to measure key features of the anxiety disorders in a large sample of patients seeking treatment at an outpatient anxiety disorders clinic and in a no mental disorder group. Results were consistent with hierarchical models of anxiety and the anxiety disorders such as the model implicit in American Psychiatric Association (1987, 1994) and trait models positing a trait diathesis common to all the anxiety disorders. A higher order general factor differentiated each of the patient groups from the no mental disorder group. Several lower order factors provided the basis for differentiation among the patient groups. Conclusions regarding the degree to which models predicting a hierarchical structure of anxiety and the anxiety disorders are empirically supported must await replication of these results with additional samples. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The assessment of anxiety by physiological behavioral measures.

There is little research to support the contention that clearly defined patterns of physiological-behavioral responses associated with anxiety arousal can be distinguished from other arousal patterns. Intercorrelations among physiological measures of anxiety obtained under either resting states or under stress are generally low. No studies have been reported in which several measures of behavior were obtained simultaneously with a variety of physiological measures under conditions likely to be fear arousing. From Psyc Abstracts 36:02:2HN34M. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Misattribution, preparatory information, and speech anxiety.

In two experiments with undergraduate subjects, I compared the effects of misattribution versus information manipulations on speech anxiety. In Experiment 1, some subjects were allegedly exposed to subliminal noise while reading a speech in front of a camera. These subjects were told that subliminal noise makes people feel either unpleasantly aroused or pleasantly relaxed or that it has no effect. Subjects in a fourth condition were given accurate information about how they would feel (unpleasantly aroused) but were not exposed to the subliminal noise misattribution source. In Experiment 2, I replicated the arousing noise and accurate information conditions from the first study and added two new groups incorporating a delay that should preclude misattribution. In both experiments, the alleged presence of arousing subliminal noise reduced subjects' speech dysfluencies during the speech task, whereas the presentation of accurate information alone did not have a comparable ameliorative effect. Thus, both experiments supported the misattribution interpretation of why neutral labels for arousal can reduce emotionality. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Some relations between speech behavior and anxiety level.

The relationships between certain formal aspects of speech behavior and anxiety level, as defined by score on the Taylor Scale of Manifest Anxiety, are investigated. Interpretations of TAT cards for two groups of Ss, one "high anxious" and the other "low anxious" as determined by the Taylor scale, are scored for verb/adjective quotient, number of adjectives per 100 words, total number of words, latency, and number of words per minute. For all five measures, the "high anxious" groups showed higher scores; however, only the predicted difference in total word count, and the predicted difference in latent time, approached statistical significance. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A measurement model of women's behavioral risk taking.

The current study was designed to gain a better understanding of the nature of the relationship between substance use and sexual risk taking within a community sample of women (N = 1,004). Using confirmatory factor analysis, the authors examined the factor structure of sexual risk behaviors and substance use to determine whether they are best conceptualized as domains underlying a single, higher order, risk-taking propensity. A 2 higher order factor model (sexual risk behavior and substance use) provided the best fit to the data, suggesting that these 2 general risk domains are correlated but independent factors. Sensation seeking had large general direct effects on the 2 risk domains and large indirect effects on the 4 first-order factors and the individual indicators. Negative affect had smaller, yet still significant, effects. Impulsivity and anxiety were unrelated to sexual health risk domains. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

False physiological feedback and the maintenance of speech anxiety.

Assessed the effects of physiological feedback during actual exposure to a feared situation and during a subsequent exposure. 60 speech-anxious Ss were exposed during the 2nd of 3 consecutive speeches to 1 of 5 false feedback conditions: heart rate decreasing, no change in heart rate, heart rate increasing, and 2 control procedures. No anxiety differences were found among the groups on the 2nd (feedback) speech. The heart-rate-increase group displayed significantly higher self-reported anxiety, overt anxiety signs, and speech disfluencies during the 3rd (posttest) speech than the heart-rate-decrease and no-change groups. Initial exposure to the speech situation produced striking heart-rate reaction in the total group, and repeated exposures continued to elicit strong, though gradually habituating, reactions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Efficacy of a cognitive–behavioral treatment for generalized anxiety disorder: Evaluation in a controlled clinical trial.

Recent advances in the understanding of worry have led to the development of treatments for generalized anxiety disorder (GAD). The present study tested a GAD treatment that targeted intolerance of uncertainty, erroneous beliefs about worry, poor problem orientation, and cognitive avoidance. Twenty-six primary GAD patients were randomly allocated to a treatment condition (n?=?14) or a delayed treatment control condition (n?=?12). Self-report, clinician, and significant other ratings assessed GAD and associated symptoms. The results show that the treatment led to statistically and clinically significant change at posttest and that gains were maintained at 6- and 12-month follow-ups. Furthermore, 20 of 26 participants, (77%) no longer met GAD diagnostic criteria following treatment. With regard to the treatment's underlying model, the results show that intolerance of uncertainty significantly decreased over treatment and that gains were maintained at both follow-ups. Although nonspecific factors were not significant predictors of treatment outcome, their role in the treatment of GAD requires further investigation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Extinction versus credibility in the desensitization of speech anxiety.

Compared systematic desensitization with 2 control treatments—a nonextinction control procedure in which visualizations of hierarchy items were paired with an aversive shock, and a placebo treatment equal to desensitization in credibility. 97 undergraduates with public speaking anxiety (Personal Report of Confidence As a Speaker) served as Ss. Significant improvement was obtained for all 3 conditions on all outcome measures. Data indicate that Ss in all 3 conditions improved more than minimal treatment, simulation, and high-demand no-treatment-control Ss. Analyses failed to uncover any significant between-group differences. On 2 self-report measures, Ss' pretreatment ratings of treatment credibility accounted for significant and substantial proportions of the variance (12.6 and 36.5%). Data support the influence of perceived treatment credibility on outcome measures, and they tend to disconfirm conditioning explanations of the efficacy of systematic desensitization. A significant difference in treatment credibility ratings between actual Ss and pretest pilot Ss was also noted, suggesting the advisability of checking credibility manipulations with Ss who believe that they are to receive the treatment described in the rationale. (24 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Loud speech, conglomerate noise, and behavioral aftereffects.

On the basis of a recent model of information overload, it was predicted that loud speech, conglomerate noise, and tasks requiring attention would produce behavioral aftereffects in the form of lowered frustration tolerance and reduced cognitive complexity. This prediction was confirmed by the results of a laboratory experiment in which 80 undergraduate females were exposed to varying levels of background noise (43 vs 80 db), the presence or absence of loud (80 db) speech, and tasks requiring recall. Results indicate that loud speech, conglomerate noise, and taxing reduce an individual's ability to tolerate frustration and to differentiate among people occupying different roles. (16 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Supervised relaxation training: A model for greater accessibility of behavioral interventions.

Developed a method of relaxation training—supervised relaxation training—to address (1) problems of cost and availability, which limit the applicability of such training to relatively few individuals, and (2) the inherent limitations of self-help programs. Although this training method required less professional involvement than other methods, it was not intended as a self-help approach to relaxation. Using 55 volunteers (aged 19–67 yrs), 2 treatment groups and 1 control group were formed: One treatment group consisted of self-selected Ss from the community at large; the other represented Ss from a specific work site in the community. The procedure consisted of the use of a self-study manual in conjunction with professional training. Outcome was determined on the basis of changes in blood pressure, scores on the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory, and emotional indicators on human figure drawings. MANOVA indicated a positive effect for both treatment groups. Potential applications of the program are discussed, with recommendations for the use of this procedure as a model for other skill-developing interventions. (29 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Psychotherapy supervision: A cognitive–behavioral model.

A series of phases is proposed for the supervisory session. The goals of this model are to reduce negative emotions in the supervisee, to teach the supervisee to form and test hypotheses about the client's behaviors, and to teach the supervisee specific behavioral techniques. This model is also advanced in hopes of stimulating research on the little studied process of psychotherapy supervision. (16 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Group insight versus group desensitization in treating speech anxiety.

Compared 3 forms of group treatment for their relative therapeutic effectiveness in reducing speech anxiety: (a) desensitization, (b) insight, and (c) combined desensitization and insight. 53 18-26 yr. old volunteers were assigned to 9 groups including a discussion group (attention placebo) and a waiting list control group. Ss filled out several self-report measures (The Confidence of Speaking, Social Avoidance and Distress, and Fear of Negative Evaluation scales) and a speech anxiety questionnaire. Results indicate that the insight group was as effective as the desensitization group in significantly reducing speech anxiety over control group levels as assessed by behavioral, cognitive, and self-report measures given immediately after posttreatment and at a 3-mo follow-up. The desensitization group treatment appeared to be significantly more effective than insight treatment with Ss for whom speech anxiety was confined to formal speech situations; conversely, insight group treatment appeared to be significantly more effective with Ss who suffer anxiety in many varied social situations. (42 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Social anxiety and self-presentation: A conceptualization model.

Presents a self-presentation approach to the study of social anxiety that proposes that social anxiety arises when individuals are motivated to make a preferred impression on real or imagined audiences, but perceive or imagine unsatisfactory evaluative reactions from subjectively important audiences. The authors presume that specific situational and dispositional antecedents of social anxiety operate by influencing people's motivation to impress others and their expectations of satisfactorily doing so. In contrast to drive models of anxiety but consistent with social learning theory, it is argued that the cognitive state of the individual mediates both affective arousal and behavior. The traditional inverted-–U relation between anxiety and performance is reexamined in this light. Counseling implications are considered, including the recommendation that treatments be tailored to specific types of self-presentational problems. (142 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)