The Effect of Breath Therapy and Emotional Freedom Technique on Public Speaking Anxiety

Summary

Introduction Public Speaking Anxiety (PSA), also referred to as public speaking anxiety, is a costly (Lépine, 2002) and disabling fear (Blöte et al., 2009), with prevalence rates ranging from 21 (Pollard and Henderson, 1988) to 33% (Stein et al., 1996; D'El Rey and Pacini, 2005) in community samples. FoPS has been reported as the single most commonly feared situation in both university and community samples (Pollard and Henderson, 1988; Holt et al., 1992; Stein et al., 1996; Tillfors and Furmark, 2007).EFT is an energy psychotherapy derivative application consisting of cognitive and somatic components used to improve personal negative emotions and related emotional and physical ailments.It is reported that the most recognized and used EFT among Energy Therapies is an effective method especially on anxiety, depression, burnout, stress management, and fears (Feinstein 2008; Irmak Vural \& Aslan, 2018; Sezgin, 2017; Sezgin \& Özcan, 2009).Breatihin therapy is another one. Purpose of the study The current study aims to determine the effect of the Breath Therapy and Emotional Freedom Technique on public speaking anxiety in Turkish Nursing Students.

The purpose of the study was to evaluate two research hypotheses as follows:

H1: Emotional freedom technique is effective in reducing public speaking anxiety H2: Breath Therapy is effective in reducing public speaking anxiety A randomized controlled experimental research design will be used. The study complied with the guidelines of the Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials (CONSORT) checklist. The data will be collected with demographic information form, Subjective Discomfort Unit Scale, The State-Trait Anxiety Inventory, and Speech Anxiety Scale.demographic information form: This form contains 5 questions including the age, gender, economic status, place of residence of students in the form developed by the researchers.

Subjective Units of Disturbance Scale SUDS. It was developed by Wolpe (1970). This scale, which is used in energy therapies and evaluates the individual's own discomfort, is scored between 0 and 10. 0 no discomfort 10 is considered to be unbearable discomfort (Wolpe, 1973). The individual should evaluate the discomfort he feels at that moment and give a score. This score serves as a concrete and basic starting point for the patient's condition at the time of application and reflects the change at the end of the application. According to the Church; EFT; Individuals' discomfort assessments are made using the Subjective Units of Disturbance (SUD) scale used by Wolpe (Church, 2013a).

he State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI Tx-1 and Tx-2) It was developed by Spilberg et al to detect the state and trait anxiety levels of individuals. Its validity and reliability in Turkish was done by Öner and Lecompte. The scale consists of a total of 40 questions, 20 questions of state anxiety and 20 questions of constant anxiety. State anxiety scale; to state how the person feels at any time and under any circumstances; It is asked to answer taking into account the feeling related to the situation. On the scale of trait anxiety; one is often expected to interpret how he feels. There are positive and negative expressions on the scale. These statements; are expressed as plain and inverted expressions. Straight expressions, negative emotions; reversed statements reflect positive emotions. There are 8 reversed statements on the state anxiety scale and 7 on the trait anxiety scale. Items on the state anxiety scale 1, 2, 5, 8, 10, 11, 15, 16, 19, 20, and on the trait anxiety scale 1,6,7,10,13,16,19. items are reversed statements. The emotions, thoughts and behaviors stated in the state anxiety scale are answered as 1: none, 4: completely according to the violence level of the experiences. Feelings, thoughts and behaviors stated in the trait anxiety scale are also marked as 1-almost never, 4-almost always according to the frequency level. For both scales; 0-19 points (none), 20-39 points (mild), 40-59 points (moderate), 60- 79 points (severe), 80 points and above are considered as very severe anxiety. Cronbach alpha value of the state anxiety scale was 0.93; The Cronbach alpha value of the trait anxiety scale is 0.94 (Öner, 1998). In the present study, Cronbach's alpha value was found to be 0.81 for the STAI Tx-1 and 0.76 for the STAI Tx-2.

Speech Anxiety Scale (CUR): It was developed by Yaman and Sofu (2013) to evaluate students' speech anxiety levels. The scale consisting of 25 items is scored as 5-point Likert type and 1: strongly disagree, 4: strongly agree. In the scale, items 5, 6, 9, 10, 13 and 14 are reversed. A high score indicates that the person's anxiety to speak is high. Cronbach alpha value of the scale was found to be 0.79. In this study, Cronbach alpha value is 0.78.

Conditions

• Public Speaking
• Anxiety
• Emotional Stress

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

emotional freedom technique, breathing therapy

emotional freedom technique, breathing therapy

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Istanbul Medeniyet University

  lead OTHER

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

SUPPORTIVE_CARE

Masking

SINGLE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

19 Years

Max Age

30 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2020-06-05

Primary Completion

2020-06-10

Completion

2020-11-10