Psychology

The aim of the study was to determine whether making eye contact with an audience while rendering a speech directly increase the anxiety level of a person as manifested by physical changes.  The level of sweating, anxiety and speech performance were recorded in 105 participants while they maintained an eye contact with the observant and while they faced a wall upon delivery of a speech. 

The participants were grouped into four and took turns to be subject and experimenter.  A rating sheet was also used to determine the physical changes specifically sweating and anxiety level.  Both subjects and experimenter filled out the rating sheet and was handed over to a tutor for further evaluation.

Findings were measured using Biopac MP35 to record electrodermal activity and to measure skin conductance and the Acqknowledge v3.9.2 software a fully automated electro dermal response score tool was used to locate skin conductance responses visually identifies them in the record and measures them.

Physiological response in the form of anxiety was greater in eye contact than in no eye contact.  The level of anxiety was found to be greater in the eye control group as opposed to the no eye control group.    As a conclusion, there is a significant increased anxiety among people who have eye contact during a public speech compared to people who did not have eye contact.  Both groups responded that direct eye contact augmented their fear of a negative evaluation of the other person as well as becoming self-conscious. 

Introduction
The fear of public speaking is linked to the effect of negative evaluation on the levels of anxiety felt by a person when giving a speech.   Anxiety is typically perceived as a response to recognized threat (Beck  Emery, 1985) The information-processing models of anxiety have inspired cognitive theories of social phobia. They propose that cognitive biases can partially explain the etiology and effects of negative evaluation to level of performance. Research paradigms adopted from experimental cognitive psychology and social psychology had been used to investigate these hypotheses. Studies of similar area of interest were done in the past.    For instance, socially anxious people report experiencing greater anxiety in formal situations and opposite sex interactions (Dodge et al., 1987 Turner et al., 1986a).  It was also found that the size and perceived importance of the audience influence the degree of anxiety (Latane, 1981). 

A diagram of the model of anxiety in social evaluative situation starts with a notion that people with social phobia (Rapee and Heimberg, 1997, p. 744) assume that other people are inherently critical thus are more likely to evaluate them in a negative way (Leary, Kowalski  Campbell, 1988). 
Based on the findings of the past studies, it has been found out that anxiety and negative evaluation is closely associated.  This study seeks to determine whether eye contact or no eye contact play a role in increasing anxiety levels.

Methods

Participants
The participants in the study were chosen based on the following criteria students who were enrolled in PSY452 at Deakin University, who are male and female. Participants were required to take part in the study as a component of their course requirement.

Apparatus
Two different conditions were applied in the current study. One condition entailed subject and experimenter to establish a direct eye contact while the other condition was where subject and experimenter had no eye contact during the speech.

The Biopac MP35 was used to record the electro dermal activity. The MP35 uses a constant voltage technique to measure skin conductance. Acqknowledge v3.9.2 software a fully automated electro dermal response score tool was used to locate skin conductance responses visually identifies them in the record and measures them.

Procedure
Participants were organized into group of four and took turns to be the subject and experimenter.   Experiment was conducted in a cubicle of a classroom. An electrode was spread over with electro dermal gel then was affixed and taped around the second finger of the participants hand to record changes in electro dermal activity.

Subject and experimenter were required to fill in a rating sheet before the experiment pertaining to subjects sweating and anxiety level.

The observant pressed the event marker and participant was asked to relax quietly and was told to stay still for a period of 5 minutes.  After which, the following 2 minutes was when the baseline record was taken. At the end of 5 minutes, the event marker was pressed again to start the speech.

Experimenter then started to ask questions from selected topics.  The subjects were instructed to either look at the experimenter or face the wall during the speech and experimenter was required to take note on the subjects physical changes (sweating and anxiety level).  Each of the subjects was given 2 minutes to give a speech in relation to the topic.   The observant then pressed the event marker after 5 minutes to stop the speech.

Immediately right after the speech, experimenter and subjects were asked to fill in the rating sheet again to rank their level of sweating, anxiety and speech performance. Subjects were also required to indicate what they expect the experimenter would rate them in terms of sweating and anxiety what evaluation they think the experimenter would give their speech and whether the experimenter would judge them positively or negatively. Experimenter was also required to rate on the rating sheet having the same set of questions.

After all groups finished the experiment, every participant was asked to fill out the Negative Evaluation questionnaire. All data gathered were handed in to tutor for further analysis.

The mean for electro dermal activity during baseline and speech was obtained through the reading from Acqknowledge v3.9.2 software.

Results
Participants
The study was conducted based on a total of 105 participants wherein 69 are female and 36 were male as shown in Table I.  Table 2 shows participants grouped into two namely the no eye contact group with 53 subjects and the eye contact group with 52 subjects.  The number of participants was considered valid with a valid percent of 65.7 for female and a valid percent of 34.3 for male shown in Table 3. 

Table 1.  Frequencies
FrequencyPercentValid PercentCumulative PercentValid     Female
Male
Total69
36
10565.7
34.3
100.065.7
34.3
100.065.7
100.0

Table 2.  Between Subjects Factor
Value LabelNCondition        .00
1.00No eye contact
Eye contact53
52
Based on Table 3 below, a mean of 1.0189 was gathered for the no eye contact group while the other group had a mean of .8077.    It is known that the standard deviation of .72032 (female) and .74198 (male). 

Table 3.  Descriptive Statistics

ConditionMeanStd. DeviationNBl_eda_abs          no eye contact
Eye contact
Total1.0189
.8077
.9143.72032
.74198
.7353053
52
105Spe_eda_abs         no eye contact
Eye contact
Total.0000
1.5385
.7619.0000
1.86255
1.5160953
52
105
Table 4.  Multivariate Tests
EffectValueFHypothesis dfError DFSig.Period     Pillais trace
Wilk Lambda
Hotellings trace
Roys Largest Root.007
.993
.007
.007.699a
.699a
.699a
.699a1.00
1.00
1.00
1.00103.000
103.000
103.000
103.000.405
.405
.405
.405Period cond Pillais trace
Wilks Lambda
Hotellings Trace
Roys Largest Root.200
.800
.250
.25025.765a
25.765a
25.765a
25.765a1.00
1.00
1.00
1.00103.000
103.000
103.000
103.000.000
.000
.000
.000
Table 5.  Group Statistics

95 confidence intervalAnxiety RatingsMeanStd. ErrorLower boundUpper bound13.313.2182.8803.74525.012.1754.6655.360
Table 5 reflects an increase of the level of anxiety during the speech.  The baseline mean of 3.13 increased to a level of 5.012 upon delivery of the speech. 

Table 6
t-test for Equality of MeansdfSig. (2-tailed)Mean differenceDiff_Exp_Anxiety_prepost      Equal variances assumed 103.002-1.23149Equal variances not assumed75.160.002-1.23149

Table 6 shows that there is a difference of anxiety between before and during the speech.  A mean difference of -1.23149 resulted in comparison of the eye contact and no eye contact groups.  The eye contact group experienced a higher level of anxiety compared to no eye contact group.

Table 7
95 Confidence IntervalConditionMeanStd. ErrorLower boundUpper boundNo eye contact.509.081.349.670Eye contact1.173.0821.0111.335

Table 7 indicates that the direction of the main effect of condition of the eye contact group had a higher mean EDA (exploratory data analysis) than the no eye contact group.  The direction of the condition eye contact group demonstrated a higher anxiety rating than the no eye contact group.

Discussion

The research hypothesis of the effect of eye contact and negative evaluation to a persons anxiety level was supported in the study.  Participants reported a significant escalation of anxiety when eye contact is established during the speech as manifested by sweating and ratings of performance.  It is noted on the findings that both eye contact group and no eye contact group reported anxiety by the mere fact that an experimenter is observing them. 

Several tables in the findings showed differences during the pre-test and post-test ratings.  Both groups showed that there was a moderate positive correlation between the anxiety before and after the speech.  When subjects and experimenters were asked to rate their anxiety during the speech, the eye contact group reported higher rate of anxiety compared to the other group.  Vast majority of patients reported that eye contact impacted their anxiety and had identified eye contact as a

On the basis of the findings, we would suggest that subjects speech performance measured in the clarity, spontaneity, and impact of the speech and monitoring of heart rate for cardiac accelerations should also be considered.  Anxiety can greatly affect the delivery of a public speech hence further studies should be done based on this recommendation.  This finding indicates that eye contact may be a fear-related feature for socially anxious individuals in social interactions.