Cognitive-behavioral therapy is widely known as one of the most effective treatments for social anxiety disorder(Feske & Chambless, 1995; Gould, 1997; Taylor, 1996). In the cognitive-behavioral therapy tradition, a third wave emphasizing psychological...
Cognitive-behavioral therapy is widely known as one of the most effective treatments for social anxiety disorder(Feske & Chambless, 1995; Gould, 1997; Taylor, 1996). In the cognitive-behavioral therapy tradition, a third wave emphasizing psychological acceptance has recently emerged. Acceptance is the active nonjudgmental embracing of private events such as emotions and thoughts. Both theory and research about the treatments of emotional disorders suggest that experiencing and processing anxious emotions fully is a core component of anxiety management and exposure therapy for phobia(Foa & Kozak, 1986) and that experiencing depressed mood fully is an effective treatment for overcoming depressed mood(Hunt, 1998). In line with this trend, there is growing evidence on the efficacy of acceptance-based treatments. However, while a number of studies have also demonstrated the effects of traditional cognitive-behavioral therapy in Korea, there are few published studies evaluating the efficacy of acceptance-based treatments. Moreover, for speech-anxious subjects, the effects of acceptance-based treatments for alleviating their anxiety have not been examined yet. The purpose of the present study was to examine the efficacy of an acceptance-based treatment for speech-anxious college students. The hypotheses for this study were as follows: first, the acceptance-based treatment would be effective for decreasing anxious response to an impromptu speech; second, the acceptance-based treatment would produce more beneficial effects for anxious response to a speech than the non-acceptance treatment.
34(10 males, 24 females) speech-anxious college students were randomly assigned to the two treatment conditions. After the first speech task, participants received the acceptance-based treatment or the non-acceptance treatment, and the second speech task followed. Prior to and following the two speeches and one session of treatment, multimodal assessment tools, including the measures of performance anxiety, anticipatory anxiety, probability and cost estimates for anxiety appearance, self-focused attention, performance expectation, self-perception of performance, systolic pressure, diastolic pressure, and pulse were administered. Scores on all dependent measures in the participants who received the acceptance-based treatment were significantly improved, suggesting strong support for the first hypothesis. The acceptance group experienced a decrease in their systolic pressure more than non-acceptance group and the former produced a significant decrease in anticipatory anxiety, cost estimates for anxiety appearance before speech, initial anxiety during speech, self-focused attention, belief in feared consequence, and systolic pressure measured after speech compared to the latter, providing partial support for the second hypothesis. The results of this study provide the first empirical evidence for the efficacy of an acceptance-based treatment for college students with high speech anxiety.