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Components of Cognitive-Behavioural Treatment for Performance Anxiety

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 June 2009

Geoffrey L. Thorpe
Affiliation:
The Counselling Centre, Bangor Maine and Bangor Mental Health Institute
Laurence E. Burns
Affiliation:
Birch Hill Hospital, Rochdale

Extract

Research in cognitive-behaviour modification (CBM; Meichenbaum, 1978) continues apace, and a particularly important area is the study of the “crucial ingredients” of successful CBM programmes. However, findings reported to date are not unequivocal. For example, in a recent article, Glogower, Fremouw and McCroskey (1978) report that the rehearsal of coping self-statements was a more effective component of cognitive restructuring than imparting insight into unhelpful self-statements in reducing performance anxiety about speaking in a group. A treatment condition which combined both procedures was most successful in general, but was not significantly better than rehearsal alone. The study was well-designed and implemented, and the authors were able to support their conclusions by referring to both self-report and behavioural data. The results directly contrast with those of Thorpe, Amatu, Blakey and Burns (1976), who sought to test similar hypothesis in a similar experiment in Britain. Glogower et al. correctly point out the differences between the studies include the relative youth of subjects, brevity of treatment, and few kinds of coping self-statement used in the Thorpe et al. study. They further indicate that a combination group has fared well in studies other than their own (e.g. Fremouw & Zitter, 1978), but that in the Thorpe et al. study the combination procedure, similar to the instructional rehearsal procedure, was significantly less effective than “insight” on self-report measures.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © British Association for Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapies 1980

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References

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