Analysis of Public Speaking Anxiety

Chrisnel Clark Caoile BSN 2B

Objectives of Task:

1. To describe your experience in speaking

2. To determine your level of speech anxiety based on McCroskey’s Personal Report of
Public Speaking Anxiety (PRPSA)
3. To create a specific set of behavior changes designed to increase effectiveness in
speaking, specifically managing stage fright in speaking

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Briefly describe your experience as a public speaker. Where and when have you delivered
public speeches? What were the purposes of the speeches (informative, persuasive, ceremonial).
On a scale of 10 (10 being the highest), what would be your score? Explain your score by
describing how you performed. (100-125 words)

When I am in high school is where I started to learn the various types of public speaking, or
the giving of speech, and our teacher required us to complete all of them and present. As I
remember and understand, the purpose of an informative speech is to provide interesting,
useful, and unique information to the audience that they may apply to their lives. Second, a
persuasive speech is that it provides the audience with favorable or acceptable ideas that can
influence their ideas and decisions. Then, the purpose of ceremonial speech is to captivate an
audience and create a felt sense of response to the situation or occasion. Lastly, I will score
myself on how I perform a speech is 7 because even though I know that I always look
nervous and keep stutter in my speech, I have good and sincere content and that is important.

Determine how nervous can you be by accomplishing McCroskey’s Personal Report of Public
Speaking Anxiety (PRPSA). (see uploaded material and make sure to follow instructions
indicated at the end part of the material).

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Personal Report of Public Speaking Anxiety (PRPSA)

My score is ________36_________

This is interpreted as ___Low Anxiety

NOTE:
Step 1.
Add scores for items 1, 2, 3, 5, 9, 10, 13, 14, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 25, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, and 34

Step 2. Add the scores for items 4, 6, 7, 8, 11, 12, 15, 16, 17, 18, 24, and 26

Step 3. Complete the following formula:

PRPSA = 72 minus (Total from Step 2) plus (Total from Step 1)

Your score should be between 34 and 170. If your score is below 34 or above 170, you have made a mistake
in computing the score.

Scores above 131 indicate High Anxiety

Scores between 98 and 131 indicate Moderate Anxiety
Scores below 98 indicate Low Anxiety

What did you realize after knowing your score and level of anxiety?
I realize that I am moderately confident in giving a speech particularly
persuasive and informative but still there is a feeling of anxiety about
discussing because everyone is watching me. I think the reason my level
of anxiety is low in each of my speeches is my preparation before the day
of my speech, I always make certain that I have my script for I not to rush
and cram at the last minute of the presentation.

More recent studies have defined PRPSA scores of 111-119 as “moderately high anxiety” and
scores of 120-170 as “very high anxiety.” In the US, the national average (mean) for the PRPSA
is 114.6 which indicates that most are in the moderately high anxiety group. This data only
corroborates what has always been said that nervousness onstage is the number one fear which
makes it quite normal for everyone (that includes you!) to have anxiety about speaking in

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public. It is a physiological response which cannot be totally eliminated but managed. You can
either make it help you or work against you. If even seasoned or experienced speakers feel
nervous, why can’t you too? The more important thing is how to manage it so that it will not ruin
your performance. You may have been using effective strategies already or you may need to
search for some.

What are the physical manifestations of your nervousness and how have you learned to
manage them if you have already? If not, what can you do to deal with these outward
manifestations so that they will not be bothersome to your audience? Take note that most
listeners are not trained to detect signs of nervousness so if you manage to keep it inside or
deal with the physical signs, nobody except you will know you are actually very nervous. You
need to give specific answers. For example, if your anxiety manifests through fixing,
flipping or touching your hair, a specific strategy can be to tie your hair in a neat bun or
ponytail so that you will know that there is no free hair to toy with.

Thus;

Manifestations of Nervousness Specific Strategies

1. fixing, flipping or touching my hair to tie my hair in a neat bun or ponytail

Your answers here:

Manifestations of Nervousness Specific Strategies

1. Stuttering Analyze and Keep practicing
2. Overthink Be calm and play a soft music
4. Dry lips, Tired eyes, and wet palm Always have water on my side to keep
hands hydrated
5. Fast heartbeat Use a Breathing technique
6. Frequent urination I will empty my bladder before presenting
and moderate in water.

Besides some tactics which you may have found effective (or you think so), there are
other strategies which are suggested. Explain each briefly and give specific examples.

1. Prepare, prepare, Because if we are prepared, we have the opportunity to

prepare! rest and enhanced our presentation, rather than rushing
our data and not having time to practice the speech which
can result in an uninstructive presentation to the audience.

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2. Cognitive restructuring This technique is important to help individuals to change
the way they think, it is preventing people to get stressed
and the box thoughts are being dominant or working
without stress.
3. Visualization Using our Imagination can picture the sequence of our
story or our info, it makes us organized and focuses on our
speech.
4. Don’t expect perfection I agree with it because there is no perfect speech, we will
and accept always make a little mistake and that is normal, attaining
perfect speech makes you more pressured and rumbled
your mind, instead let ourselves talk and finish the speech
clearly, nobody expecting perfect but a genuine and kind
is.
5. Do some exercises Doing some exercises makes your mind refreshed and
ready for the presentation, also it will make you stand out
because of the energy you shared and the body posture
you possess. Also, I think an exercise for our speech and
language is the use of Tongue twister, this will exercise the
parts of our mouth because of its repeated sounds, with
this technique our pronunciation and fluency will
improve.
6. Work the audience It is important also to involve the audience in our speech,
including them as they are the example, and just like
communicating using non-verbal cues like smiling,
greeting, and asking them makes the atmosphere of the
room friendly. Moreover, is know your audience, for you
to formulate the script according to their age and level of
understanding.