Matching stress inoculation's treatment components to client's anxiety mode

65 speech-anxious undergraduates (determined by the Personal Report of Confidence as a Speaker) were classified as experiencing primarily cognitive or somatic symptoms of anxiety as measured on the Cognitive-Somatic Anxiety Questionnaire. Ss received cognitive restructuring, coping relaxation, a combined cognitive-somatic treatment (stress inoculation), or no treatment. Indices of anxiety (e.g., the Anxiety scale of the Affect Adjective Check List) were obtained. The cognitive indices of anxiety provided the strongest support for the "matching" hypothesis, in that matched treatments resulted in more facilitative patterns of cognitions relevant to the stressor. All treatments were more effective than the no-treatment control in reducing behavioral indicants of anxiety, although a self-report measure of speech anxiety failed to show such treatment effects. Results are discussed in the context of treating focused anxieties by attending to the individual's concerns in the anxiety-arousing situation. (12 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved). © 1982 American Psychological Association.

Duke Scholars

Author Mark R. Leary Psychology & Neuroscience