Three group treatments for reduction of speech anxiety among students

Conditions of group systematic desensitization (n = 8), group flooding (n = 7), and a group discussion-placebo control treatment (n = 4) were employed to reduce anxiety about public-speaking in university students. Three 90-min. sessions were provided. Pre- and posttreatment assessments employed self-report and behavioral measures. The desensitization group showed significant pre- to posttreatment change across all self-report measures, whereas the flooding and control groups showed similar improvement on only one such measure. No group showed significant improvement on the behavioral measure. Groups did not exhibit significant intergroup differences in improvement on any measure.