Behavioral inhibition and the attribution of public speaking state anxiety

Abstract

This study applies H. J. Eysenck's (1967) theoretical perspective on the development of anxiety to explain audience perceptions of public speakers. Specifically, the effects of social conditioning, particularly punishment, and the relative conditionability of an individual's nervous system combine to predict behavioral responses to state anxiety. Speakers presented five‐minute speeches under normal classroom conditions, were videotaped, and speaker anxiety behaviors and audience‐observed speaker anxiety were assessed by teams of raters. The hypothesis that behavioral rigidity and inhibition are significant, additive predictors of audience perceived speaker state anxiety was confirmed. The authors discuss these findings in light of treatment strategies, such as flooding and systematic desensitization, designed to counteract behavioral inhibition.