USE OF SOCIAL‐SKILLS TRAINING IN THE TREATMENT OF EXTREME ANXIETY AND DEFICIENT VERBAL SKILLS IN THE JOB‐INTERVIEW SETTING

Abstract

A 30‐year‐old recent college graduate, exhibiting extreme anxiety and deficient verbal skills in job interviews, was treated with a social‐skills training procedure that included instructions, modelling, behavior rehearsal, and videotape feedback. Three target behaviors—focused responses, overt coping statements, and subject‐generated questions—were presented using a multiple‐baseline design. Galvanic skin‐response activity was monitored during pre‐ and posttraining in vivo job interviews. In addition, independent judges unobstrusively rated the subject's social‐communicative behaviors in his temporary work‐setting before and after training. Training resulted in expected changes for all three target behaviors and a decrease in the rate of speech disturbances. Physiological data supported the subject's report that training enabled him to deal with his anxiety more effectively during job interviews. Training was found to generalize to novel interview questions and different interviewers. Furthermore, unobtrusive measures of eye contact, fluency of speech, appropriateness of verbal content, and composure supported the subject's report that training generalized to his daily social interactions on the job.