Page 90 - Between One and Many The Art and Science of Public Speaking

17. While conversing with a new acquaintance, I feel very relaxed.
18. I’m afraid to speak up in conversations.
19. I have no fear of giving a speech.
20. Certain parts of my body feel very tense and rigid while giving a speech.
21. I feel relaxed while giving a speech.
22. My thoughts become confused and jumbled when I am giving a speech.
23. I face the prospect of giving a speech with confidence.
24. While giving a speech I get so nervous, I forget facts I really know.

Scoring

To determine your anxiety level, compute the following formulas. The higher your score, the
more signifi cant your level of anxiety. (The numbers in parentheses in the formulas refer to the
numbered questions above.)

Group 18 (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6)
Meeting 18 (7) (8) (9) (10) (11) (12)
Dyadic 18 (13) (14) (15) (16) (17) (18)
Public 18 (19) (20) (21) (22) (23) (24)
Overall CA Group Meeting Dyadic Public

Making Sense of Your Score

Your combined score for all 24 items should fall somewhere between 24 and 120. If your score
is lower than 24 or higher than 120, you need to recalculate it. A score above 83 indicates
high communication apprehension; a score between 55 and 83 indicates moderate appre-
hension, which is the norm for most people. Low apprehension is anything less than 55. Your
subscores indicate the degree to which you are anxious when speaking in public, talking in a
group, or engaging in conversation with another person. These scores can range between 6
and 30. The higher your score is, the more anxiety you feel. A score above 18 on the public
speaking subset suggests you feel a manageable level of speech anxiety. Regardless of your
score on this subset, you can signifi cantly benefi t from the skills and techniques presented in
this chapter. A score of 18 or above on the other two subsets also suggests you feel some
anxiety about interpersonal and group communication.
Source: James C. McCroskey, An Introduction to Rhetorical Communication, 7th ed. (Needham Heights,
Mass.: Allyn & Bacon, 1997).

coping skills
Mental and physical
The key to overcoming this undesirable and illogical reaction is to fi nd a
techniques used to con-
way for people to alter their interpretation of the situation and their physical
trol arousal and anxiety
response to it. That may not be easy, but it can be done. In fact, thousands of
in the course of speaking
people each year are able to go out in a crowd or give a speech because they have in public.
learned coping skills that help them control their fear of large groups or fear
of speaking. 57