Effectiveness of the Penn State Program in changing beliefs associated with reticence

In his conceptualization of reticence Phillips (1968, 1977, 1984, 1986, 199 1) included a cognitive component. Specifically, he argued that reticent in dividuals subscribe to a set of beliefs that contribute to their communicat ion difficulties. A study by Kelly, Keaten and Finch (1996) found some supp ort for the notion that reticents hold these beliefs and that the Penn Stat e Reticence Program produced changes in some of those beliefs. The current research was done as a follow-up study to further assess the extent to whic h reticent participants subscribe to the set of beliefs outlined by Phillip s and to further test the ability of the Penn State program to alter those beliefs. Results revealed significant pre-treatment differences between ret icent and comparison group participants on seven of the sixteen beliefs, al though for only two of those beliefs did a majority of reticents report agr eement. This finding suggests that the set of reticent beliefs needs refine ment. Furthermore, there were significant treatment effects for several of the beliefs, but some findings were inconsistent with the Kelly et al. (199 6) study, indicating a need for future research.