Evaluating Public Speaking Performance: A Quest to Discover an Empirically-Supported Public Speaking Task

Location

CSU Ballroom

Start Date

10-4-2018 2:00 PM

End Date

10-4-2018 3:30 PM

Student's Major

Psychology

Student's College

Social and Behavioral Sciences

Mentor's Name

Jeffrey Buchanan

Mentor's Department

Psychology

Mentor's College

Social and Behavioral Sciences

Second Mentor's Name

Samuel Spencer

Second Mentor's Department

Psychology

Second Mentor's College

Social and Behavioral Sciences

Description

This study investigated various influences on the level of anxiety in public speaking tasks such as the presence of audience members, audience evaluation, and public speaking topics. Based on previous research indicating that audience presence, audience evaluations, and public speaking topics influence public speaking performance, we hypothesized that evaluative audiences would create a higher level of anxiety in participants, as opposed to a non-evaluative audience. Further, it was anticipated that an autobiographical speech topic would induce a moderate amount of anxiety. 204 college students completed an online survey and were asked to evaluate 12 separate hypothetical public speaking task situations. Participants were asked to imagine that they will be giving a speech in front of an audience, with five minutes to prepare the videotaped speech. The structure of each vignette remained the same for all vignettes (e.g., time given to prepare for speech, speech will be videotaped, etc.), except for manipulations of the presence of audience, (i.e., an audience present or not), and public speaking topics. Contrary to our hypothesis, there was no effect of audience present on participant ratings of perceived distress. The polemic and scientific article review public speaking task topics were rated as most distressing, and the autobiographical task rated as the most relatable to real life. Therefore, future experimental research should utilize autobiographical public speaking task topics. This research can lead to development of future interventions to alleviate the stress and anxiety experienced by people faced with an intense fear of engaging in public speaking.

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Apr 10th, 2:00 PM Apr 10th, 3:30 PM

Evaluating Public Speaking Performance: A Quest to Discover an Empirically-Supported Public Speaking Task

CSU Ballroom

This study investigated various influences on the level of anxiety in public speaking tasks such as the presence of audience members, audience evaluation, and public speaking topics. Based on previous research indicating that audience presence, audience evaluations, and public speaking topics influence public speaking performance, we hypothesized that evaluative audiences would create a higher level of anxiety in participants, as opposed to a non-evaluative audience. Further, it was anticipated that an autobiographical speech topic would induce a moderate amount of anxiety. 204 college students completed an online survey and were asked to evaluate 12 separate hypothetical public speaking task situations. Participants were asked to imagine that they will be giving a speech in front of an audience, with five minutes to prepare the videotaped speech. The structure of each vignette remained the same for all vignettes (e.g., time given to prepare for speech, speech will be videotaped, etc.), except for manipulations of the presence of audience, (i.e., an audience present or not), and public speaking topics. Contrary to our hypothesis, there was no effect of audience present on participant ratings of perceived distress. The polemic and scientific article review public speaking task topics were rated as most distressing, and the autobiographical task rated as the most relatable to real life. Therefore, future experimental research should utilize autobiographical public speaking task topics. This research can lead to development of future interventions to alleviate the stress and anxiety experienced by people faced with an intense fear of engaging in public speaking.

Recommended Citation

Krein, Quincey. "Evaluating Public Speaking Performance: A Quest to Discover an Empirically-Supported Public Speaking Task." Undergraduate Research Symposium, Mankato, MN, April 10, 2018.
https://cornerstone.lib.mnsu.edu/urs/2018/poster-session-B/6