EVALUATION OF INTEGRATED VERSUS UNITARY TREATMENTS FOR REDUCING PUBLIC SPEAKING ANXIETY

Four groups of university students were administered the Personal Repo rt of Communication Apprehension (PRCA-24B) and the Personal Report of Public Speaking Anxiety (PRPSA) at the beginning of the semester and reevaluated at the conclusion. One group received three treatment proc edures (skills training, visualization, and COM therapy); another rece ived skills and visualization treatment; a third received only skills training; the fourth group served as a control group, receiving no tre atment. Multivariate and univariate analyses of variance revealed that the two groups receiving the combined treatments had significantly gr eater reductions in public speaking anxiety than the group receiving s kills training alone or the control group. The results support the con tention that the combined or integrative approach to reducing public s peaking anxiety is more effective than the use of a single treatment.