Public Speaking Anxiety Scale

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2016

Abstract

The Public Speaking Anxiety Scale (PSAS; Bartholomay & Houlihan, 2016) was designed to diagnose and track the treatment of speech anxiety. It consists of 17 Likert-scaled items across three subscales: 1. Cognitive (8 items), 2. Behavioral (4 items), and 3. Physiological (5 items). The PSAS was developed to assess the three-component model of anxiety as described by Lang (1971). Items for this scale were selected by revising and rewording items from numerous other public speaking anxiety scales. Additional items were created by assessing the overall manifestation of public speaking anxiety in order to produce a comprehensive measure of speech anxiety. Using a sample of undergraduate students in the U.S., exploratory factor analysis yielded two significant factors, with the general difference being positively versus negatively worded items. Reliabilities across the three subscales ranged from .747 to .881. Evidence of concurrent, convergent, and discriminant validity was established.

Department

Psychology

DOI

10.1037/t51140-000

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