A measurement of attitude changes related to beginning public speaking students

TL;DRAbstract

This thesis has investigated the effect of a beginning public speaking course upon students. The sample was drawn from students enrolled in courses taught at Ball State University during the Spring Quarter, 1971. An experimental group of thirty-three students enrolled in Speech 210 and a control group of twenty-five students enrolled in Theatre 100 were studied.The three attitudes examined were: (1) self-confidence, (2) leadership, and (3) cooperativeness. These attitudes were measured by the Leary-Attitudes Scale. The test was administered during the first week of the quarter and again during the final week. In addition, a semantic differential, incorporating questions relating specifically to public speaking, was given to Speech 210 students as a part of the post-test.Very few differences in scores were noted between the experimental and control groups as measured by the Leary test. With regard to self-confidence, it was found that (1) freshmen in the experimental group had a signifi

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