The Effectiveness of Virtual Reality Exposure Therapy on Public Speaking Anxiety in University Dormitory Students

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of Virtual Reality Exposure Therapy (VRET) on reducing public speaking anxiety in dormitory students.

The research methodology was a semi-experimental design with pretest-posttest and a control group. The research statistical population consisted of all dormitory students of Allameh Tabataba'i University in the academic year of 2017-2018. Of these, using purposive sampling technique, thirty students who met the research criteria and experienced high levels of public speaking anxiety were selected and randomly assigned into two groups: the experimental group (15 individuals) and the control group (15 individuals). The experimental group received eight sessions of VRET while the control group received no intervention. Data were collected using Public Speaking Anxiety Scale (PSAS: Bartholomay & Houlihan, 2016) in two stages of pretest and post-test. The data were then analyzed using ANCOVA statistical method.

The results showed a significant difference between the experimental and control groups (p<0.001) indicating that VRET is beneficial for reducing public speaking anxiety of dormitory students.