Psychological factors and prevention of stage fright

Stage fright is a psychological phenomenon that everyone has to a greater or lesser extent. It is closely related to personal psychological factors, temperament and personality. Generally speaking, people with introverted personality and depressive temperament are more likely to experience this condition. Stage fright is actually largely controlled by fear, which leads to the inability to perform normally or even greatly abnormal performance. In some social activities, especially in unfamiliar environments, people tend to be unnatural, shy, and even feel uneasy, and some even experience panic and sweating.

There are many reasons for stage fright, and they often vary from person to person. But the following reasons are extremely common:

1. Evaluation concerns. This is the main factor causing stage fright. Modern psychology believes that in any situation where there is evaluation, it is generally difficult for people to perform at their original level. Most people aren't completely satisfied with how they performed on a first date. In a speech, since the evaluation is one-way, that is, the audience is "judging" the speaker, the speaker has more worries and a heavier psychological burden.

2. The status of the audience. We become particularly nervous when speaking to an audience that is higher in status than us or that we think is more important than us. Job applicants often behave unnaturally in front of the evaluation panel. On the one hand, this is because they are worried about the evaluation, and on the other hand, it is undoubtedly because the evaluation panel "holds the power".

3. Number of audience members. Most people prefer to speak in a "small circle". If the audience is large, the speaker will be doubly cautious. Because they feel that if they make a mistake or perform poorly, “so many people” will know about it at once. Excessive caution increases the possibility and severity of stage fright.

4. Familiarity with the audience. Most people speak more naturally in front of "acquaintances". The reason we are nervous when facing unfamiliar audiences is that we know almost nothing about them, and they will make judgments about us within tens or even more than ten minutes.

5. The audience’s point of view. If you know that your audience or the majority of your audience holds the same view as you do, you will feel more confident. Otherwise, you will have a lot of worries.

6. Whether the preparation is sufficient. If the speaker feels that he is not well prepared for the speech and feels that there is a possibility of "making a fool of himself", then his self-preservation consciousness is likely to betray him.

Above we analyzed the main causes of stage fright, and below are several "remedies".

1. Be fully prepared. The most powerful weapon to deal with stage fright is to tell yourself sincerely that you are very well prepared for this speech: your topic is attractive not only to yourself but also to the audience; you have thought carefully about the topic and collected all the necessary information; your speech is closely related to the theme and well-organized; after repeated rehearsals, you can grasp the speaking time just right; you have full confidence in your appearance and on-the-spot performance; you are capable of dealing with various unexpected situations that may arise during the speech.

2. Adapt to changes. What would you do if you originally planned to give a speech to 20 to 30 people, but when you arrived you found that there were 200 to 300 people in the audience? You prepared a very formal speech, but when you walked onto the stage you found that everyone was wearing jeans and T-shirts. What would you think? You prepared a two-hour speech, but before you went on stage the host told you that you only had 15 minutes to speak. What would you do? Situations like these are not uncommon in speeches. Therefore, if you are invited to give a speech, don't forget to collect the following information in advance: 1 Is there a fixed topic? Scope of the topic? 2 Audience composition (including number of people, age, gender, education level, religious beliefs, nature of work, reasons for attending the speech, etc.); 3 Location of the speech (including its geographical location, size of the venue, whether there are microphones and other internal facilities). If possible, it is best to go to the venue of the speech in person to have a look and have a clear idea of ​​it; 4 Time of the speech; 5 Whether there are any questions from the audience.

3. Practice relaxation. If you still feel nervous before giving a speech, the following methods can help you relax: (1) Take a deep breath. The purpose of taking deep breaths is to supply you with sufficient oxygen to help you better control your voice during a speech. The "breathing" mentioned here of course refers to abdominal breathing rather than lung breathing. Singers and actors know the importance of abdominal breathing in controlling the voice. (2) Muscle balancing exercises. Muscle balancing exercise refers to consciously tensing and relaxing the muscles of a certain part of the body in a regular manner. For example, you can clench your fists first and then release them; you can also fix the soles of your feet, stretch your legs, and then relax. The purpose of doing muscle-balancing exercises is to tense a certain part of your muscles for a period of time, so that you can not only relax that part of the muscles better, but also relax your entire body and mind better. (3) Divert attention. Before your speech, actively listen to the host and the audience so that you can temporarily divert your attention and better relax your body and mind.

4. Have a sense of humor. Humor is the salt of speech. A good speaker and attractive speech content can only create a successful speech with just the right amount of humor. So when you are attacked by stage fright, you might as well treat it as "humor" and free yourself from the audience's relaxed laughter.

Public speaking is an adventure. There is always fear in the adventurer's business, but successful adventurers have ways to deal with fear. You should always keep this in mind when giving a speech.