engleski

Helping Students Overcome Fear of Public Speaking – Short Group CBT Treatment

Introduction Fear of public speaking is highly prevalent among university students, with higher prevalence among women. Some findings indicate that 63.9% of the college students reported fear of public speaking and 89.3% of them would like their undergraduate program to include classes to improve public speaking (Marinho et al., 2017). Among students with social phobia, fear of public speaking was the most common social fear. This problem is often unrecognized at the university, but has adverse impact on academic performance and overall quality of student life. Negative automatic thoughts, exaggerated fear of embarrassment or humiliation, as well as intensive somatic symptoms while giving a public speech can have a deleterious effect on the quality of the presentation as well as on the perception of self as a speaker. Dissatisfaction with the presentation and oneself generates future negative expectations leading to increased fear. This vicious circle can result in students' avoidance of public speaking situations and, in extreme cases, dropping out of the courses with this requirement. As public speaking is a common academic activity and social fears are associated with lower educational achievement and impaired academic performance, fear of public speaking is a common reason for students to seek help at the University Counseling Centre in Rijeka. Method The goal of this paper is to present the results of the brief group CBT treatment designed for university students with fear of public speaking, based on the cognitive-behavioral group therapy (CBGT ; Heimberg and Becker, 2002). We have run seven groups with 45 students from University of Rijeka. Treatment was conducted in small groups (6 to 8 students) that met once a week in 2 hour sessions, range from 4 to 6 times, depending on the number of students in the group. Therapeutic intervention included psychoeducation, cognitive restructuring and behavioural experiments, with the main focus on exposure. Each student had a minimum of three performance assignments with the group members as the audience. The following measures were used for the evaluation: The Speech Anxiety Thoughts Inventory, Personal Report of Confidence as a Speaker and Beck Anxiety Inventory. Results At the end of treatment all students had lower results on the scales. They also reported higher satisfaction with their performance, less fear during the exposure and decrease in attention focused on their somatic symptoms. They have also described positive experiences while performing in front of their class at school. Discussion Short group CBT of students with fear of public speaking was very successful and it is highly recommended as a useful intervention for college students who often face this type of anxiety.

fear of public speaking, cognitive-behavioural therapy, group treatment, university students

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