Comedian Jerry Seinfeld once noted that, "According to most studies,
people's number one fear is public speaking. Number two is death.
Death is number two. Does that sound right? This means to the average person,
if you go to a funeral, you're better off in the casket
then doing the eulogy." Pretty funny, unless you're the one getting ready to
give a speech.
This lecture focuses on the very common experience of speech anxiety.
Specifically:what it is, how our bodies handle the stress that accompanies speech
anxiety
and some other causes of speech anxiety with a few suggestions that may
help.
The technical term for the fear of public speaking is
Glossophobia. Speech anxiety falls under the global category of what James
McCroskey at West Virginia University called
communication apprehension, defined as an individual's level of fear or anxiety
associated with either real or anticipated communication
with another person or persons. Note the word "level,"
meaning that there is a range. This means that some people have high levels of
apprehension about communicating with others--
or sometimes just even thinking about it-- while others have lower levels.
McCroskey identified two types of communication apprehension:
the first, trait apprehension, refers to a general trait
or characteristic at the individual. Communication scholars use the term
"high communication apprehension," or high com app. to describe those who fear
communication in general.
They are highly apprehensive about communicating with others,
whether it be one-on-one, in small groups, at meetings, etc.,
and low com app to describe those who enjoy communicating--
they have low levels apprehension about communicating with others.
Note the "high" and the "low" modify the word "apprehension,"
not "communication," and, of course, most of us are in the middle--
we have medium levels of apprehension. However,
many of us have lower levels of apprehension about communicating in
general,
but in one area, or one "state," we have higher levels.
So you may be a medium com app overall--that's your "trait"--
but have higher levels apprehension related to the state of public speaking
or, for that matter, even the state have leaving a message on someone's voicemail.
Some other terms used interchangeably
are communication anxiety, stage fright, performance anxiety,
or public speaking anxiety. Regardless at the label,
speech or performance anxiety is real and is exceedingly common.
President Abraham Lincoln, John F. Kennedy, actors Harrison Ford,
Sir Laurence Olivier,
actors and talk show host Oprah Winfrey, singer Barbra Streisand--
just to name a few. Don't make your goal to eliminate speech anxiety;
instead your goal should be to manage it and, if possible, help that work for you
rather than against you.
Famous television journalist Edward R Murrow was quoted as saying,
"The only difference between the professionals and the novices
is that the professionals have trained their butterflies to fly in formation."
Sometimes it helps to define terms.
Let's start first with, "anxiety." Checking my trusty dictionary.com, we find two
definitions,
the first being the one that you're probably thinking of: distress
or uneasiness of mind caused by fear danger or misfortune.
Pretty negative, huh? However the second definition puts a much more positive
spin on it:
earnest but tense desire, eagerness. If you are experiencing anxiety about an
upcoming speech,
you could think of it as eagerness, or a tense desire.
Another word may come to mind: Nervous,
which uses the word "excitable." Okay, let's try "excite":
at their root, all four definitions point to
arousal. So what does this mean? What you label as anxiety is not necessarily a
negative feeling.
You may just be interpreting and labeling it as that.
Oftentimes, just rephrasing what you were thinking in a positive light can go a
long way towards managing speech anxiety.
Rather than being anxious or nervous about giving a speech--
both carry negative connotations--you can think of yourself as being
excited about giving a speech.
Regardless of what you call it, there's no way to get around the fact that your
body is under some sort of stress.
If you know how your body typically handles stress, you might be more prepared
for it,
and hopefully interpret it differently. We turn to a scientist Hans Selye, who
introduced the General Adaptation Syndrome model in 1936.
Although most often used in the context of health, some of this model can be
applied to the stress that you may experience during public speaking
situations.
According to Selye, our bodies go through three stages:
The first is the alarm stage. This is a physical call to arms for the body,
releasing lots of chemicals to address the "flight-or-fight"
response. This significant increase in adrenaline causes both the
physiological reaction--here our hearts pound, our breathing quickens, our body sweat--
and the psychological reaction where we feel strong emotions like
terror, fright, anxiety, rage, or ange.r
Now both these reactions can actually save your life.
Think back to the days of the caveman you find yourself face-to-face with a
saber-tooth tiger and you have two choices:
ran like heck (flight) or stay
(to fight). In either case, you need the adrenaline to help you
run faster or fight stronger.
Fortunately, you are not facing a life-or-death situation with public speaking,
but your body responds that way anyway. This stage is of fairly short
duration, ranging from just a few seconds
to a few minutes. Understanding that it's going to happen may help you accept it
knowing that when you get through it, you'll go on to the second stage,
which is resistance. In this stage, your body reduces the general alarms and
channels energy to the
organs most capable of handling the tension.
Your body adapts, physical symptoms lessen in about one to two minutes.
The final stage, exhaustion, occurs after prolonged
activity--over a period days or years--
much longer than the speech will take. In the exhaustion stage, the physical and
psychological energy used to fight a stressor
has been depleted and may cause serious damage,
This is why college students tend to fall ill near the end of a trying
semester;
they've been adapting to stress for months. But, again,
the stress of giving a speech should not put you in the exhaustion stage.
General Adaptation Syndrome gives us some insight,
but let's go little bit deeper. We don't only respond to
anxiety physiologically we also respond cognitively;
So let's spend just a little more time on the physiological reactions...
what your body doe. Our autonomic nervous system is divided into two
branches:
the sympathetic division gets us going and protect this during those
threatening situations--
it's that shot of adrenaline--while the parasympathetic calms us down so that we
can rest and recuperate
from the sympathetic arousal. The sympathetic division is the part that
gets us "pumped up":
hearts race, breathing rate increases,
we sweat, blood pressure rises, digestion slows down, blood sugar is released
(giving us that quick energy)
and more blood gets directed to our muscles and less to the thinking part of
our brain,
which is why you may draw a blank when you are nervous. It allows us to fight
stronger or flee faster.
Parasympathetic arousal, on the other hand, calms us down.
Here, breathing and heart rate slow down, blood pressure drops,
our digestive processes increase and perspiration returns to normal,
Both these divisions are necessary and complement each other.
What does this mean? Yes, you will likely experience a fast heartbeat,
but it will slow down, and, yes, you may sweat, have a queasy stomach, and so on,
but the parasympathetic will help even it out> So, if you wake up feeling crummy
on the day that you're scheduled to speak.
it's likely just your sympathetic arousal trying to get you to flee, giving
you the excuse of saying that you can't do your speech
because you're ill. Don't let the sympathetic arousal win!
We also react cognitively when faced with anxiety.
Former U.C. Berkeley psychology professor Richard Lazarus
developed the Appraisal View of stress, which suggests that your stress level is
directly affected by how you think
of the event that triggers the stress. He identifies
two stages of cognitive appraisal, the first being primary appraisals.
You initially evaluate the situation to assess the type the potential threat:
Is it irrelevant? Benign (or positive)?)
Or stressful? Meaning that you perceive a potential for harm or loss
(which is an assessment of the damage already caused), a real threat
(meaning any future damage that may occur as a result)
or challenge (which is the potential of overcoming that situation and possibly
even benefiting from it ). If you perceive the threat that is stressful and negative,
you then move to stage 2, or secondary appraisals,
where you evaluate your ability to cope with the situation
and determine whether or not you have the resources to address it.
For example, if you perceive a spider is a threat in stage 1,
in stage 2 you may tell yourself that you have a large shoe
(the resource) and can use it (your ability to cope with the situation).
Your anxiety levels will be much less than if you found yourself barefoot with
no other resources available.
This secondary appraisal is based upon those same three types of threats we
addressed in stage 1.
Now let's connect this to a public speaking situation.
If ,in stage 1, you view an upcoming speech as stressful
in a negative way, and in stage 2 you reassess
and think that you have neither the ability nor the resources to get through
it,
your anxiety increases, likely increasing your physiological reaction--
you feel worse physically--which then affects your cognitive reactions,
creating a negative spiral. If, however, you view an upcoming speech positively in
stage 1,
your anxiety levels will likely subside (and some of your physiological reactions
as well).
You can make the spiral work for you.
A reassessment in stage 2 might reveal that you actually not only have the
resources to do the speech,
but you also have or can develop the ability,
again reducing your anxiety levels. You might also view the opportunity to speak
as a challenge that could benefit you; the experience might help you in
classes,
job interviews, et cetera. As you can see,
your thoughts, then, can work for you or against you.
Let's turn next to the causes of speech anxiety, many of which are related
to our thoughts.
Ffirst we tend to focus on ourselves rather than the audience for the message.
We doubt our abilities, focus on our weaknesses, and worry that we will make
mistakes.
Guess what? Everyone makes mistakes; no one gives a perfect speech,
and it is our mistakes that make us human and likable.)
We focus on our symptoms that nervousness, which affects our inner
thoughts, which
as you know from previous discussion, tends to escalate it.
One solution focus on the audience and getting your message across
not on yourself. We also tend to engage in negative self-talk,
telling ourselves that we are nervous, predicting failure--we expect the worst.
If we've had a bad experience in the past, that's what we focus on.
Remember, your thoughts affect your anxiety level.
Instead, give yourself lots a positive affirmations
and label the speech experience as an exciting opportunity that you can learn
from,
rather than a nerve-wracking experience. Many of us fear being judged, so we often
view the audience as enemies.
Instead think the audience as wanting you to succeed
or,at least, as a group for people who want to hear what you have to say.
We also may have misplaced our perspective. We tend to compare ourselves
with others
and may have unrealistic expectations. Not everyone is a great speaker,
and you know what not everyone has to be. Your goal should be to be a competent
speaker.
Many times we're anxious because we haven't prepared adequately.
Oftentimes this is due to a combination of procrastination
and perfection. We want the speech to be perfect so we want to write it and
memorize it word for word.
We put off writing anything that might not be perfect
and then the time passes all too quickly, meaning that we won't know our material
well
and become afraid that we will forget what we just wrote.
Instead start early so you can tweak it to improve it.
Prepare an outline instead of writing a memorizing word-for-word--
You'll likely forget the word order when you're in front of your audience anyway--
so you should concentrate on really knowing your material.
Lack of speaking practice also comes into play. We often spend all our time
preparing and run out of time to practice.
And novelty or lack experience is a factor as well.
If you've never delivered a speech before you're likely to be
apprehensive. Practice will help both with both of these causes;
and you can't just practice the speech in your mind. You must say it
out loud in front of an audience and preferably in the setting where you will be
speaking--
and not all those practices should be on the same day.
There are some physical causes of speech anxiety: poor posture can result in poor
breathing.
If you don't stand up straight and confidently, it makes it difficult to
breathe.
And if you breathe shallowly or hold your breath when nervous, you won't get the
necessary amount of oxygen to your brain.
Don't hyperventilate, but breathe deeply from your abdomen
(what's called diaphragmatic breathing). You'll need to determine if you have any
of these problems
and, if so, still work on improving them in your everyday life
so that you will have good habits when you are delivering your speech.
Processing time: How is speech anxiety related to communication apprehension?
And what are the similarities in the symptoms of anxiety and excitement?
Does knowing how our bodies respond to stress help you manage your anxiety?
And which suggestions for addressing the causes a speech anxiety
seem to be the most appropriate for you? Hopefully you can now approach
a public speaking situation with more confidence
and less anxiety.