The purpose of this study was to examine the importance of an educational component to the stress inoculation training (SIT) package, as well as the generalization of such training to non-targeted stressors. Twenty-eight students from introductory speech classes at the University of Richmond were matched in sets of four and placed into one of the following groups: Ed only, Skills only, Combo, and No treatment Control. Pre and post measures of anxiety were obtained through the administration of the STAI, SE, TAS, and AAT scales. The three treatment groups attended a speech anxiety workshop where various components of the SIT package were presented. It was hypothesized that a treatment group receiving only the educational rationale of SIT would show as much fear reduction as a treatment group receiving both education and skills training would improve as well as other groups. In general, the results showed that Ed only group was as effective as the Skills only group in reducing state anxiety and increasing self-efficacy. In terms of generalization effect, the results do not provide much support. Overall, the results support the notion that education is an important ingredient in SIT. The question of generalization is still unanswered and requires further research
