The role of self‐monitoring processes in the communication of public speaking anxiety

Previous research (Behnke, Sawyer & King, 1987) has suggested that investigators should focus upon the underlying mechanisms affecting the accuracy with which public speakers communicate performance related anxiety to their audiences. In this study, Snyder's (1974) self‐monitoring construct is explicated as a factor which may influence the accurate encoding of emotion by speakers and the accurate decoding by audience members. The results indicate that the self‐monitoring construct is important to an understanding of how audiences decode a speaker's emotional state. However, the role of speaker self‐ monitoring ability in the accurate encoding of emotion was not confirmed.