EYE-MOVEMENT DESENSITIZATION OF PUBLIC-SPEAKING ANXIETY - A PARTIAL DISMANTLING

Forty college students suffering from public speaking anxiety and havi ng experienced a specific traumatic speech-related event were exposed to either a standard EMD protocol with eye movements; a moving audio s timulus in place of the eye movements; a protocol with eyes resting on the hands in place of the eye movement, or a no-treatment control con dition. The results revealed that EMD is comparable in limited effecti veness to the other procedures and that the eye movements are not a cr ucial component of the treatment with this population.