Instructional Demand and Anxiety Level

The effects of instructional expectancy (fear testing in a clinic versus simulated effects of relaxation therapy in a clinic) on behavioral, physiological, and self-report indices of speech anxiety were tested for three levels of speech-anxious subjects. Sixty-five subjects (32 male, 33 female) who reported being "speech anxious" completed a preliminary test battery and were assigned to anxiety levels (high, medium, or low) according to their scores. Within sex and anxiety level, subjects were randomly assigned to one of the instructional demand conditions. During a second experimental session two weeks later, each subject received the appropriate demand instructions, completed a subjective report of anxiety, and performed a four-minute speech in front of four raters. The results indicated that the low-anxiety subjects exhibited more anxiety under the simulate therapy instructions than did low-anxiety subjects in the fear assessment condition or medium-anxiety subjects in the simulate therapy condition. Subjective report data reliably distinguished between high, medium, and low anxiety levels as determined by the preliminary test battery. Implications of these findings for analogue and clinical outcome research were discussed.