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Acceptance and Commitment Therapy for Public Speaking: A Self-Help Format
A thesis
submitted in fulfilment
of the requirements for the Degree of
Masters of Social Sciences in Psychology
at
The University of Waikato
By
Prya Beharry
The University of Waikato
2008
Abstract
A non-concurrent multiple baseline design across eight participants was used to
determine whether working through Hayes and Smith’s (2005) book would help those
with public speaking anxiety. Hayes and Smith (2005) is based on Acceptance and
Commitment Therapy. It encourages people to accept internal experiences as opposed to
avoiding and struggling with them. For the purposes of this study, the book was divided
into nine components, which participants discussed with the researcher. They also
completed measures daily, during baseline and over the intervention period, as well as a
battery of tests pre-baseline, mid and post intervention. The multiple baseline data
showed that self-reported willingness to approach public speaking situations increased
while self-reported avoidance decreased over the intervention. The pre and post measures
also showed avoidance of internal experiences decreased significantly after the
intervention. These outcomes are in line with changes suggested to result from engaging
in such a therapy. The pre and post results also showed that quality of life increased
significantly from mid to post-intervention. However, engagement with values did not
change. While this measure is expected to change after such an intervention, this result
may have occurred because the ideas about values were introduced last in the book. The
intervention also led to significant decreases in anxiety, significant changes in thoughts
about public speaking and significant increases in anxiety control as shown by the test
battery. These findings are positive but are not predicted by processes posited for this
therapy. However, there was no control group so these pre vs post comparisons must be
interpreted with caution. Despite this limitation, the results suggest that the book,
together with therapist contact, can help those with public speaking anxiety.
i
Acknowledgement
I would like to thank all the people who have shown their support and kindness to
me during this process.
To the participants who took part in this study, thank-you for being so open and
sharing about the experiences that you had while you worked through this intervention. I
wish you all the best for the future.
Thank-you, Mary Foster, for your supervision, guidance, patience and knowledge
during this process, Doctor Carrie Barber for her proof-reading and Eric Messink and
Mizuho for mat-lab. I would also like to thank my colleague James Pope for being my
second interviewer and being supportive.
To Steven Hayes for giving me permission to use this book in this study and to
Jennifer Block-Learner for being so responsive in her emails.
Thank-you to my family for the supporting me for as long as I can remember. I
would like to thank my dad his ever growing interest in mindfulness, my mum for her
sense of humour, my sister for the offer of proof reading and my brother for being a good
sport.
ii
To all my friends who have supported me during this time, especially Lydia and
Sabine. I would also like to thank Arnie. You have been a great friend to me over all
these years.
Thank-you Kurt. You have been incredibly patient with me during the highs and
the lows of the completion of this work. I would like to thank you for showing as much
interest in this project as me and helping me finish it to the best of my abilities. I cannot
express how grateful I am for this.
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Table of Contents
Abstract…………………………………………………………………………………… i
Acknowledgements………………………………………………………………………. ii
Table of Contents………………………………………………………………………... iv
List of Figures………………………………………………………………………….... vi
List of Tables…………………………………………………………………………… vii
Introduction………………………………………………………………………………. 1
Public Speaking Anxiety……………………………………………………………... 1
Social Anxiety Disorder……………………………………………………………… 2
Cognitive Behavioural Models...…………………………………………...………... 2
Social Skills Models……………………………………………………………... 6
Avoidance Model……………………………………………………………….... 6
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy………………………………………………. 8
Experiential Avoidance……………………………………..……………………. 9
ACT processes………………………………………………..………………… 12
Evidence for ACT and Anxiety…………………………..…………………….. 15
Evidence for ACT and Social Fears…………………...……………………….. 18
Self Help Interventions.…………………………………………………………….. 20
Self-help Interventions and ACT……………………………………………….. 23
Summary……………………………………………………………………………. 24
Present Study……………………………………………………………………….. 25
Study Design……………………..…………………………….……………….. 26
Daily Measures……………..…………………………………………………... 27
Test Battery………………..……………………………………………………. 28
Method………………………………………………………………………………….. 31
Participants…………………………………………………………………………. 31
Ethical Approval……………………………………………………………………. 31
Materials……………………………………………………………………………. 31
Measures……………………………………………………………………………. 33
Study Design………………………………………………………………………... 42
Procedure…………………………………………………………………………… 43
Results…………………………………………………………………………………... 48
Daily Measure………………………………………………………………………. 48
Willingness to Communicate Scale…………………………………………….. 48
SUDs Ratings…………………………………………………………………… 59
Daily ACT Ratings……………………………………………………………... 64
Statistical Analysis of Daily Measures…………………………………………. 67
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Test Battery ………………………………………………………………………… 68
Group Analysis…………………………………………………………………. 68
Individual Analysis of Test Battery...…………………………………………... 78
Component Ratings…………………………………………………………………. 80
Understanding………………………………………………………………………. 82
Exercises……………………………………………………………………………. 84
Overall Ratings of the Book………………………………………………………... 88
Discussion……………………………………………………………………………….... 91
Main Hypotheses…………………………………………………………………...… 91
Conclusions on the Hypotheses……………………………………………………... 101
Related Findings…………………………………………………………………...... 102
Book…………………………………………………………………………………. 108
Individual Analysis………………………………………………………………...... 115
Study Design………………………………………………………………………… 118
Limitations…………………………………………………………………………... 121
Summary…………………………………………………………………………...... 123
References……………………………………………………………………………... 124
Appendix A……………………………………………………………………………. 136
Appendix B……………………………………………….…………………………… 138
Appendix C……………………………………………………………………………. 141
Appendix D……………………………………………………………………………. 144
Appendix E……………………………………………………………………………. 147
Appendix F……………………………………………….……………………………. 150
Appendix G……………………………………………………………………………. 152
Appendix H……………………………………………………………………………. 155
Appendix I…………………………………………………………………………….. 157
Appendix J…………………………………………………………………………….. 163
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List of Figures
Figure 1a………………………………………………………………………………... 49
Figure 1b………………………………………………………………………………... 50
Figure 2a………………………………………………………………………………... 52
Figure 2b………………………………………………………………………………... 53
Figure 2c………………………………………………….…………………………….. 54
Figure 2d………………………………………………….…………………………….. 55
Figure 3a………………………………………………………………………………... 60
Figure 3b……………………………………………………………………………….. .61
Figure 4a………………………………………………………………………………... 65
Figure 4b………………………………………………………………………………... 66
Figure 5…………………………………………………………………………………. 68
Figure 6…………………………………………………………………………………. 70
Figure 7…………………………………………………………………………………. 71
Figure 8…………………………………………………………………………………. 71
Figure 9…………………………………………………………………………………. 73
Figure 10………………………………………………………………………………... 75
Figure 11………………………………………………………………………………... 76
Figure 12………………………………………………………………………………... 77
Figure 13a..……………………………………………………………………………... 79
Figure 13b………………………………………………………………………………. 79
Figure 13c………………………………………………………………………………. 79
Figure 13d………………………………………………………………………………. 79
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Figure 14a..……………………………………………………………………………... 81
Figure 14b......................................................................................................................... 81
Figure 14c......................................................................................................................... 81
Figure 14d......................................................................................................................... 81
Figure 14e......................................................................................................................... 81
Figure 14f.......................................................................................................................... 81
Figure 15a..……………………………………………………………………………... 83
Figure 15b......................................................................................................................... 83
Figure 16a………………………………………………………………………………. 84
Figure 16b........................................................................................................................ 85
Figure 17a...…………………………………………………………………………….. 85
Figure 17b......................................................................................................................... 86
Figure 18a...…………………………………………………………………………….. 87
Figure 18b......................................................................................................................... 87
Figure 19….…………………………………………………………………………….. 88
vii
List of Tables
Table 1………………………………………………………………………………….. 32
Table 2………………………………………………………………………………...... 45
Table 3………………………………………………………………………………….. 67
Table 4………………………………………………………………………………….. 69
Table 5………………………………………………………………………………….. 89
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