| Abstract |
| This study investigated relationshps
between three categories of hesitation phenomena, anxiety as measured by Welsh's Anxiety
Index, and self-control as measured by Welsh's Internalization Ratio. The three
categories of hesitation phenomena were ah and its variants, non-ah (stutters,
repetitions, etc.), and silent pause. Since previous research had concentrated
primarily upon psychiatric interviews, this study focused on a normal, interpersonal
communication situation. Previous research also had not utilized Welsh's
Internalization Ratio. Subjects were 15 male and 15 female undergraduate beginning
speech students engaged in small-group discussion. It was hypothesized that data
from these suibjects, as with that from subjects in a clinical communication situation,
would reveal that non-ah phenomena would be positively correlated with anxiety, but that
there would be no other significant correlations among the variables. The findings
confirmed the hypotheses, except that a significant r was found for the relationship
between non-ah phenomena and the Internalization Ratio. The normal subjects in this study
exhibited behavior quite similar to that of the clinical subjects of previous
research. As their anxiety Indexes and Internalization Ratios increased, so did
their stutters, repetitions, sentence changes, and the like. |
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