Communication Apprehension and Origins of It

Today’s world requires a lot of communication in different situations and for different purposes. It can be an oral presentation for passing a course in university, job interview or speaking in front of large number of people in a scientific conference. Although need for public speaking is wide spread many people fear doing it. A research conducted in 1995 by Richmond and McCroskey indicated that 20% of 60 000 they surveyed people had high anxiety for public speaking (Richmond, McCroskey, 1995).
Psychologists call this fear of public speaking a communication apprehension (CA). There are several definitions for it, McCroskey defines it as “.. an individual's level of fear or anxiety associated with either real or anticipated communication with another person or persons” (McCroskey, 1970).…