Chapter 3 Concepts Flashcards
Situational anxiety vs. Dispositional anxiety
Situational: normal anxiety people feel when they find themselves in a stressful situation
Dispositional: anxiety felt in most social situations
How do people develop dispositional anxiety?
Inadequate positive reinforcement
Poor skill development
Lack of good models
Inadequate positive reinforcement
Receiving positive reinforcement for being quiet and not talking
Getting no response when you make the effort to communicate
Learned helplessness: getting a different response each time
Poor skill development
Acquired fewer communication skills as a child or acquired them later in life
Inadequate or poor models
Growing up seeing people who can’t comfortably and competently communicate causes people to not be as comfortable with it
Why do people get stage fright?
Fear of evaluation
Increase stage fright by: Not being prepared Feeling conspicuous Holding yourself to rigid rules Using negative self talk
Fear of evaluation
You’re inviting judgment when you give a presentation; imagine being confident and understand that the audience wants you to do well
Unprepared
Preparation can reduce anxiety
Conspicuous
Thinking about being the center of attention and being self-focused; focus on the audience
Rigid rules
Rigid rules about what a presentation should look like
Negative self-talk
People talk themselves into being more nervous than they should be
How to manage stage fright
THINK; go through everything that could go wrong and solve them in advance
How to treat severe communication apprehension
Systematic desensitization
Cognitive therapy
Cognitive restructuring
Visualization
Systematic desensitization
Associating communication with relaxation
Cognitive therapy
A type of therapy that helps alleviate people’s fears through directed conversation
