Causes of Stress (^15)
Review the
ChaPter
Learning
Objectives
and Start
with a quick
warm-up
activity.
These students all identified elements of communication apprehension (CA),^1
which is commonly defined as “the fear or anxiety associated with either real or
anticipated communication.”^2 It is the dread of possible negative reactions you might
experience when you communicate.^3 Although CA is linked to inborn temperament
traits such as shyness,^4 even self-confident people can and do experience it.
Public speaking strikes fear into many, even most hearts. Whether you call it
stage fright or public speaking anxiety (PSA), it is a form of CA that refers to the
common feelings of dread people experience at the thought of performing a speech
in front of an audience.^5 There are two types of PSA: process anxiety (not knowing
how to create a speech) and performance anxiety (worries about actually giving
the speech). The goal of this chapter is to demystify the speech-making process and
give you strategies for dealing with your performance anxiety. Putting this informa-
tion into practice will increase your overall speaking competence.
Causes of Stress
Athletes commonly experience stress when they must perform under pressure.
Consequently, sports psychologists have developed strategies to help athletes manage
their anxiety. Rainer Martens,^6 a psychologist from Michigan State University, came up
with a useful model that includes both process and performance anxiety. It’s applicable
not only to athletes, but to beginning speakers as well. Martens says, stress comes from
your uncertainty about an outcome and the importance of that outcome. Consequently,
stress results from three perceptions: your perceived imbalance between an objective
demand and your perceived response capability, where you perceive failure to have serious
consequences. Martens’s model gives three areas to manage, change, or improve:
- Sometimes you can change the objective demand; sometimes you can’t. In this course,
you don’t create the speech assignment, so you can’t really change it. But you can
start your preparation long before the speech is due, leaving you enough time to
meet the objective demands of the assignment. - You can increase your response capability for the required task. Think of an old-fashioned
scale where you pile the demands on one side and your response capability on the
communication apprehen-
sion (Ca) the fear or dread
of negative responses you
might experience because
you speak out
public speaking anxiety
(psa) fear or dread specifi-
cally related to speaking in
public
process anxiety fear due to
lack of confidence in knowing
how to prepare a speech
performance anxiety fear
of forgetting or of poorly
presenting a speech
Read, highlight, and take
notes online.
Stress results from a
perceived imbalance between
your capabilities and the
requirements and importance
of the task. To relieve stress,
increase your abilities to
create and perform speeches.
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