In this video, we'll define public speaking apprehension and talk about how we experience it. But before we get into that, let me tell you a story and this story is not mine. This comes from another speech teacher, Richard who used to teach at Chapman University. And it just sort of shows how bad public speaking apprehension can be and how much it can hurt. So anyway, he was teaching an introduction to public speaking course and it was his first day. Now typically on the first day what you do is ask the students to do introductory speeches, here's who I am, here's what I do, so on and so forth. And in this class we had about 25 students. Now the majority of these students are what we would call traditional age students, so they'll probably be between 18 and 21 years old. But he did have one woman who was returning to school after a couple of decades in the workforce. So she is coming back to get her degree. And so first day stuff. He's having people come up and do their speeches. Now this class just happened to be in a piano recital room. So there were seats, there was a stage, and there was a piano up on the stage. So he was having students go up, deliver their speech on the stage, and be done. So it comes time for this woman who's probably in her mid-40s to come up and do the speech. So she goes up there and she's very nervous, that's obvious, and she starts doing this speech and then just freezes, just stops talking. This is totally common. Speech teachers see this all the time. So, Richard does what a lot of people do. He's like no, that's fine. Go ahead, take a moment, whenever you're ready just tell us what you're interested in. That sort of stuff. None of that's working. All the standard tricks just not working to get her to talk again, and so finally she just kind of, it's been going on for so long, she just kind of snaps and she crawls under the piano. Now remember, it's elevated stage, so you can still see her. It's not like she disappeared all of a sudden. So, she crawls under the piano, and so teacher's like, well this is a new one. Not experienced this before. So, he goes up and he's trying to coax her out from underneath the piano. He's like, yeah, come on, it's fine. We're all just, we're curious to hear what you have to say. So nothing's working. So, his mind racing and he says, okay, well, here's what I'll do. He dismisses the class. So he says, okay, we're going to be done for today. So all the other students leave. So that just leaves the teacher and the woman on the piano. And he's still trying to get her to come out. Nothing. She's not saying a word. So he runs out of ideas and he's like maybe I can just make it easier for her to get out of there. And he goes and he turns off the lights and he leaves. And then he never sees her again. She never comes back to class. Nothing. And it's awful, that's an awful story. That tears at your heartstrings. But it shows how bad public speaking apprehension can be. It's an awful story and it's a little funny, it's tiny bit funny. I mean it's kind of funny. It's not a healthy funny, it's like when you laugh at each other like, that's hilarious and I'm broken inside, why am I laughing at that? But it shows that apprehension hurts, okay? And everyone asks the same question. Why do I fear public speaking? And the answer is, because you're human. You experience apprehension before, during, and after a speech because that's kind of the right reaction. Speaking publicly is a potentially face-threatening act. Now, when you speak, your body is quickly assessing the threat, and getting ready to respond. This is fight or flight type stuff. And it's the same basic reaction you would have if you had just wandered across an angry bear in the woods. Are you going to stand there and fight the bear? Or are you going to run away, and hope that your trail of fear pee doesn't lead him right back to you? So I hope your next speech has a relatively low chance of disembowelment. But in some ways your body doesn't know that. We call the fear of speaking, public speaking apprehension. And it's a communication-based anxiety where speakers in response to an actual or just an expected presentation, experience physiological, cognitive, and behavioral responses. So let's talk about each one of those. When you get apprehensive about a speech your physiological system kicks in because your body wants to prepare for fight or flight. So you have a cardiovascular response. Your heart rate might go up. Your blood pressure might go up. You can have increased electrodermal activities. That means you get sweaty palms. There's also a cognitive response, so your mind starts processing and interpreting all these physiological systems. Basically, this is you inner voice categorizing and experiencing everything that's going on at that moment. So in your head, you're like, God, God, I'm failing, they can see my pit stains, they can't, they can't see inside your head. Despite what you think at that moment, the audience can't actually see your heart beating, they can't read your mind. But now your behavioral response is what they actually can see. And these are things like trembling, or fiddling with a pen, or nervous itching, or whatever. So public speaking apprehension gets you on all fronts, physiological, cognitive, and behavioral. But we all experience it differently, and that's because public speaking apprehension can show up as a trait and a state. Now a trait means that some people have more public speaking apprehension than others. It's a trait that makes up their personality. Some would argue that maybe there's some genetic aspects to speech apprehension but the trait itself is not purely inborn. It's not like the color of your eyes. But you can develop a trait for speech apprehension like you would any other fear. So if you had a really traumatic experience on a plane, you might develop a fear of flying. Now a state fear of public speaking means that your apprehension shows up more in certain situations or in certain states. So for example, even the most seasoned airplane traveler is probably going to get a little sweaty when the really bad turbulence sets in, because that's a natural reaction. So trait and state are not opposites, people with trait based speech apprehension will probably feel more state based apprehension. So if you fear speaking in general then yeah probably each speech is going to be pretty nerve-racking. But people who experience some state based apprehension don't necessarily develop strong trait based fears. So just because you had one bad speech doesn't mean all the sudden you're going to fear every single speech. But ultimately everyone experiences some type of speech apprehension. It's not just you. Some people experience it more than others, but almost everyone experiences it more in particular types of situations. Speech apprehensions will always be a factor. But thankfully with a little bit of training it's a completely manageable one. [MUSIC]
