Communication Anxiety: Strategies to Overcome High Levels of Trait Communication Anxiety

This article discusses the strategies to overcome high levels of trait communication anxiety. It includes personal evaluation and reflection, PRCA scoring, and strategies to improve existing skills of communication and speech.

Running head: COMMUNICATION ANXIETY
COMMUNICATION ANXIETY
Name of the Student:
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1COMMUNICATION ANXIETY
Question 1
As per the Personal Report of Communication Anxiety (PRCA), acquired from
McCroskey (1982), my score for communication anxiety is 107, which indicates that I am in
possession of high levels of trait communication anxiety (CA). upon personal evaluation and
reflection, I was genuinely surprised at scoring such an unexpectedly high score since despite
significant levels of nervousness, I am generally enthusiastic to participate in group discussion
and engage actively in stating my personal opinion or ideas. The individual scoring for separate
sections of the PRCA test suggests that I gained an equal score of 18 for each category of
‘Meetings’, ‘Interpersonal’, ‘Group Discussion’ and ‘Public Speaking’. Further, reflecting and
assessing individual questions indicated that while I may encounter certain levels of anxiety,
agitation, tension and physiological implications of the same, my genuine to involve myself in
group discussion can be considered as a major strength or protective feature which enables me to
reduce my anxiety to states of relaxation and fearlessness during meetings or group
conversations. The PRCA scoring also suggests that if left unchecked the effects of
communication anxiety on my body in the form of tension or rigidness may aggravate to serious
implications of jumbling of words and forgetfulness. Hence, the PRCA tool motivated me further
to reflect on my scores and the skills of focus and energy which I may employ to improve my
present levels of communication anxiety.
Question 2
To further improve my existing skills of communication and speech along with for the
purpose of alleviating my present high score of communication anxiety, I will attempt to follow

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some of the strategies of focusing my energy and self motivation outlined in Chapter 9. One of
the first strategies which I must remember is to practice my speech thoroughly for which I can
undertake several strategies. Firstly, before finalizing the content of my speech, I will engage in
thoroughly reading the required contents so that I can identify which sections may seem
potentially difficult to remember and hence prioritize on those areas accordingly. Likewise,
another key practice strategy which I can employ is to practice the prepared speech in front of
my family members or any of my close friends, since they will be capable of providing me
honest perspectives and shortcomings or strengths in my speech which I may be unaware of
otherwise and hence, can improve on the same accordingly. Additionally, I must remember that
mistakes are part and parcel in every aspect of life making speeches no less different. Hence,
during a situation which may lead to me committing a mistake while giving a speech, I must
choose to not pay greater attention to it but simply take a brief pause and proceed nevertheless.
This strategy will not only prevent me from losing focus from my speech but will also reduce the
possible physiological agitation which may occur as a result of communication anxiety and fear
of making errors. Another key strategy which will assist me in focusing my energy towards
positive energy is the method of positive visualization. Often brooding over thoughts and
perceived situations where I am imagined myself giving a disastrous speech, may often hamper
my performance and heighten my anxiety. Hence, to prevent the same, I must engage in positive
visualization where I will try to imagine, visualize and perceive my success. This will not only
reduce my communication anxiety but will also boost my confidence during the event of
delivering opinions and speeches. Lastly, one of the most essential strategies which can assist me
towards focusing my energy prior to speech deliverance is the formulation of realistic
expectations. Often unrealistic and highly challenging expectations (such as expecting myself to

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not commit any mistake or deliver a speech without flaws) result in nervousness and loss of
optimism. Hence to prevent the same, I will engage in creating realistic expectations for myself
where instead of focusing only on prevention of mistakes, I will focus on the ways by which I
can recover quickly from speech errors, learn and improve from them in the future.

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References
McCroskey, J. C. (1982). An introduction to rhetorical communication (4th Ed). Englewood
Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.