As we are heading into
finals, my personal thoughts are constantly being about final projects, exams,
and presentations. I do not know about
you all, but even though we are in graduate school, I experience peak anxiety
during this time. While for some classes
we might not have written final exams, we continue to have finals that
determine large parts of our overall grades.
Test anxiety is a curious thing.
Why do some people feel it so harshly while others are hardly affected? What is the science behind this? Test anxiety is correlated negatively with
academic examination performance (Aysan et al., 2001). Salehi and Marefat categorized anxiety as
trait and state anxiety. Trait anxiety
is a tendency towards anxiety on a relatively stable scale. This type anxiety is basically a personality
trait. These are people that tend to
also have some level of anxiety. State
anxiety is situation-based anxiety.
State anxiety is also considered part of trait anxiety, but will arise
during situations that cause individuals stress. The researchers have found that test taking
while experiencing a language barrier is even worse (2014). Aysan et al. discussed different methods for
dealing with test anxiety. Their sample
population was Turkish MA postgraduate students. They recommended practicing yoga and meditation
to deal with everyday anxiety. The
researchers’ main focus was to look into performing pranayama or a type of
Hindu yoga. Pranayama is regulation of
breathing that has been shown to control and reduce anxiety during test taking
(2001). I chose this topic to write
about not to get everyone down with thoughts of finals, but to give at least an
understanding of test anxiety.
Hopefully, this blog makes you realize that everyone has the potential
for test anxiety. Good luck on all of
your finals whether they are exams, presentations, projects, etc. You can do it!
Aysan, F., Thompson, D., & Hamarat, E. (2001). Test anxiety, coping
strategies, and perceived
health in a group of
high school students: A turkish sample. The Journal of Genetic Psychology,
162(4), 402-11. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com.ezproxy.lib.purdue.edu/docview/228397512?accountid=13360
Salehi, M., & Marefat, F. (2014). The effects of foreign language
anxiety and test anxiety on
foreign language
test performance. Theory and Practice in Language Studies, 4(5), 931-940.
Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com.ezproxy.lib.purdue.edu/docview/1527307504?accountid=13360
Hey Erin,
ReplyDeleteThanks for bringing this point up! (Also, cute title! :) ) I remember learning about trait vs state anxiety in communication class related to speech giving. I think these two types of anxiety require very different approaches. It is also important to be able to determine the difference! I wonder how many clinicians prescribe anti-anxiety and anti-depressants more frequently towards the end of the semester, when some of these cases could be time-dependent state anxiety that would be better managed with a destress routine and adequate preparation for exams. Looking at this globally, I think we need to be particularly aware of the potential for globalization here. This issue is obviously quite pervasive in the United States and likely other Western countries as well, and is impacting our mental health. We do not want to export these problems globally but rather import strategies to handle our stressors -- finals, work, personal life, etc -- and keep ourselves feeling in control and ready to deal with whatever situations arise. Work-life balance must be maintained. Thus, we can develop a sustainable pattern of working through state anxiety, rather than diagnosing everyone with trait anxiety when this simply is not the case.