Test anxiety and the self-disclosing coping model

Effects of auricular acupressure on test anxiety in medical students: a randomized parallel-group trial

BACKGROUND

Test anxiety is a prevalent issue among students, including those in the medical field. The present study aims to examine the impact of auricular acupressure on reducing test anxiety specifically among medical students.

METHODS

In this single-blind randomized parallel-group trial, a total of 114 medical students from Kermanshah, Iran, were allocated into two groups: intervention and control. Each group consisted of 57 students. The data collection instruments included a demographic information form and the Sarason Anxiety Inventory. In the intervention group, bilateral auricular acupressure was administered on the Shen Men point for a duration of 10 min. On the other hand, the control group received bilateral auricular acupressure on the Sham point, located in the earlobe, as a placebo, also for 10 min.

RESULTS

The mean test anxiety scores in the Shen Men acupressure group exhibited a significant reduction from 18.4 ± 5.3 before the intervention to 13.3 ± 4.8 after the intervention (P = 0.001). Conversely, in the Sham acupressure group, the mean test anxiety scores showed no significant change, with values of 16.36 ± 6.4 before the intervention and 16.4 ± 6.1 after the intervention (P = 0.963). Prior to the intervention, the majority of participants in both the intervention group (87.7%) and control group (86.0%) exhibited moderate to severe levels of test anxiety. Following acupressure, a significant improvement was observed in the intervention group, with 52.6% of participants experiencing a reduction to mild anxiety levels (P = 0.001); however, no notable change in anxiety levels was observed in the control group. Furthermore, a statistically significant difference in anxiety intensity after the intervention was found between the two groups (P = 0.001).

CONCLUSION

Shen Men auricular acupressure demonstrates efficacy in reducing test anxiety among medical students. However, to validate its effectiveness, further research using objective measures is warranted.

Aromatherapy with inhalation effectively alleviates the test anxiety of college students: A meta-analysis

Objective

Test anxiety is one of the common psychological and behavioral problems of college students, which can result in poor academic performance and even academic failure. Aromatherapy has been proposed as a promising method to reduce test anxiety in college students, but its precise efficacy has not been fully confirmed. This meta-analysis evaluated the effects of aromatherapy on the symptoms of test anxiety in college students to serve as a reference for future research and provide more scientific and exact evidence.

Methods

PubMed, The Cochrane Library, Web of Science, Embase, CINAHL, Science Direct, Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), Chinese Science and Technology Journal Full-Text Database (VIP), and Wanfang Data were electronically searched from inception to June 2022 to identify randomized controlled trials (RCTs) on aromatherapy for treating students' test anxiety. The Cochrane Risk of Bias Assessment Tool for RCTs was used by two reviewers to critically and independently assess the methodological quality of the included studies. Review Manager 5.4 was used for the meta-analysis. Stata 17.0 was used for sensitivity analysis and Egger's test.

Results

Seven RCTs included 425 patients, with a moderate risk of bias in the included studies. The meta-analysis found that aromatherapy effectively reduced test anxiety in college students (SMD = -0.67, p < 0.01), with high heterogeneity of results (I 2 = 72%). The different types of essential oil devices used in the study are the source of inter-study heterogeneity. Subgroup analysis suggested that most effective methods were aromatherapy with compound essential oils (SMD = -0.91, p < 0.01), and using cloths or pads as the essential oil devices (SMD = -1.03, p < 0.01). There was no difference between aromatherapy and placebo control groups (SMD = -0.65, p = 0.25).

Conclusion

Aromatherapy with inhalation can help relieve test anxiety in college students, but more and higher-quality studies are needed. This study provides a reference for future research designs in terms of the selection of essential oil types and devices and the design of research groups.

Systematic review registration

[https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/prospero/], identifier [CRD42022345767].

Adaptive body image can be contagious: An examination of college women facing situational body image threats

The present research examined whether and which adaptive body image displays in peers can promote more adaptive body image in self. In two studies, female-identified undergraduates recalled a personally distressing body image event. In Study 1, participants (N = 158) then heard an alleged female-identified peer responding to her own distressing body image event with either self-compassion, self-esteem enhancement, or distraction. Participants across conditions reported increased body acceptance and body image-related self-compassion, and decreased body image distress, but changes did not vary by condition. Study 2 sought to determine which component(s) common to Study 1's conditions explained the benefits participants experienced. Participants (N = 207) listened to an alleged peer: describe body image distress with which she coped adaptively; express body image distress but no adaptive coping; or deny body image distress and relate positively to her body. Hearing a peer cope adaptively with body image distress yielded the greatest body image benefits, whereas hearing a peer deny body image distress was generally least helpful. Results suggest that learning how a peer copes adaptively with body image distress may be most helpful in the face of personal body image distress, and support the overarching theory that adaptive body image may be socially transmissible.

Medical science students' experiences of test anxiety: a phenomenological study

Introduction

The studies show test anxiety is a common disorder in students that causes academic failure. There are not enough studies and specific theoretical background about test anxiety and ways to deal with it, so the purpose of this study was to do a qualitative study to fully understand the ways to deal with test anxiety in medical Sciences students.

Materials and methods

This is a qualitative study. The participants are the students of the last 2 years of pharmacy, medicine and dentistry at Isfahan University of Medical Sciences. Ten students were selected by purposeful sampling, and interviews continued until the data saturation stage and the lack of access to new data. The data were analyzed by seven-level Colaizzi method.

Findings

After analyzing data, about 50 codes were extracted. These codes divided into 16 subclasses, and among them, ultimately five main themes are extracted: “Prayer and Dialogue with God”, “Interaction and communication with friends and relatives”, “studying strategies”, “Finding ways to relax and self-care” and “Negative strategies” were extracted.

Conclusions

The result of this study showed that students often use positive strategies to overcome the test anxiety and try to use positive strategies, but some students are advised of undesirable strategies such as misuse of authorized drugs and writing cheating that that lead to a lot of complex problems. The educational system should do its utmost effort to empower students to manage the anxiety by learning the best strategies.

Oral but not written test anxiety is related to social anxiety

AIM

To examine the associations of test anxiety (TA) in written vs oral exam situations with social anxiety (SA).

METHODS

A convenience sample of 204 students was recruited at the Technische Universität Dresden (TU Dresden, Germany) and contacted via e-mail asking to complete a cross-sectional online survey based on established questionnaires. The study protocol was approved by the ethics committee of the TU Dresden. Full data of n = 96 students were available for dependent t-tests and correlation analyses on the associations of SA and TA respectively with trigger events, cognitions, safety behaviors, physical symptoms and depersonalization. Analyses were run using SPSS.

RESULTS

Levels of TA were higher for fear in oral exams than for fear in written exams (M = 48.1, SD = 11.5 vs M = 43.7, SD = 10.1 P < 0.001). Oral TA and SA were positively correlated (Spearman’s r = 0.343, P < 0.001; Pearson’s r = 0.38, P < 0.001) contrasting written TA and SA (Spearman’s r = 0.17, P > 0.05; Pearson’s r = 0.223, P > 0.05). Compared to written TA, trigger events were more often reported for oral TA (18.2% vs 30.3%, P = 0.007); which was also accompanied more often by test-anxious cognitions (7.9% vs 8.5%, P = 0.001), safety behavior (8.9% vs 10.3%, P < 0.001) and physical symptoms (for all, P < 0.001).

CONCLUSION

Written, but not oral TA emerged being unrelated to SA and may rather not be considered as a typical facet of SA disorder.

Test Anxiety Research in India: Twentieth Century in Retrospect

The twentieth century has been called "the age of anxiety". However, the concern with anxiety phenomena is as old as the history of humanity. For many years, theories of anxiety were rooted primarily in the experiences of clinical workers and the insight of the sensitive observers of the West The nebulous character of the phenomena, prompted many researchers to focus their attention on the sperific sources of anxiety in social, public speaking and test situations. The 1950s saw the spawning of test anxiety research in earnest, which began at Yale University in 1952. Almost two decades after this initiation, the first attempt to understand the antecedent of test anxiety of schoolchildren was made by Nijbawan (1972). Almost 12 years after this, a first comprehensive review of research on test anxiety was reported by Sharma and Rao (1984). This article is another attempt, scanning the brief overview of research on test anxiety in India during the twentieth century. Implications for future research in the twenty-first century have also been put forth.

Situational Stress as a Consequence of Sex-Stereotyped Software

This experiment examined the affective consequences of sex-stereotyped educational software on students in the sixth, seventh, and eighth grades of a private school. All students worked with the same two experimental programs either in the school computer center or at single computer stations. The results showed that situational stress was an affective consequence of working with cross-gender educational software if the students were asked to perform in the public context of the computer center. This was not true if the student worked in more privacy. It is concluded that such stress in females while using the more predominant male-stereotyped aggressive video game formats in the public, ego-involving environment of the computer center or classroom may be a possible factor in their avoidance of computers as documented in most recent literature.

The effect of pranayama on test anxiety and test performance

OBJECTIVES

In an educational setting, anxiety is often experienced by students when taking a test; which is called 'test anxiety'. This study intends to investigate the effect of doing pranayama on test anxiety and test performance.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

The participants consisted of 107 MA students who were randomly assigned to the control and experimental groups. The students of the experimental group practiced pranayama for one full semester. Sarason's (1980) test anxiety scale was given to both the control and experimental groups in the final session, before taking the examination.

RESULTS

After practicing pranayama, only 33% of the participants of the experimental group experienced high test anxiety, while this percentage was nearly twice in the control group (66.7%). Furthermore, the result of the t-test for test anxiety and test performance showed that the students of the experimental group had significantly lower mean test anxiety scores (M = 16.00) as compared to the students of the control group (M = 19.31). Also, the test performance scores of the experimental group were higher when compared with the control group. There was a negative correlation between the final test performance and test anxiety (r = -.204, P < .05).

CONCLUSIONS

Pranayama seems to have a significant positive effect on test anxiety and test performance. It could be used as an important technique by students prior to their examinations, to reduce their test anxiety and increase their test performance.

Differentiation and test anxiety in adolescents

The study tested several propositions about an important construct in Bowen's (Family Therapy in Clinical Practice, Aronson, New York, 1978; Family Evaluation, Norton, New York, 1988) theory of differentiation, using an Israeli sample of adolescents to examine relationships between differentiation of self, family differentiation, test anxiety, trait anxiety and cognitive performance. The main findings were that family differentiation (specifically, adolescents' relationships with their mothers) was negatively correlated with levels of test and trait anxiety and positively correlated with cognitive performance. All scales of differentiation of self, particularly emotional reactivity and I-position, were negatively correlated with both types of anxiety. Results suggest that differentiation is a meaningful construct for Israeli adolescents, and that less differentiated adolescents may be at risk for high levels of test anxiety and low levels of cognitive performance. Treatment of test-anxious adolescents therefore requires consideration of possible difficulties in individuating and differentiating from their families of origin.

Therapist self-disclosure in cognitive-behavior therapy

Although cognitive-behavior therapy emphasizes between-session change, therapist self-disclosure within the session can be an effective tool for strengthening the therapeutic bond and facilitating client change. After noting the use of self-disclosure in other theoretical orientations, we place self-disclosure in the context of cognitive-behavioral theories of reinforcement and modeling. Clinical vignettes illustrate the use of therapist self-disclosure to provide feedback on the interpersonal impact made by the client, enhance positive expectations and motivation, strengthen the therapeutic bond, normalize the client's reaction, reduce the client's fears, and model an effective way of functioning. Therapists need to observe appropriate boundaries when self-disclosing, and in particular, should consider their own motivations for self-disclosing. Although more research is needed on the effects of self-disclosure, cognitive-behavior therapists have found that self-disclosure can be a powerful intervention.

Toward a cognitive-behavioral model of child psychopathology and a critique of related interventions

A cognitive-behavioral model recognizes the interdependencies of cognitive, affective, social, developmental, and behavioral factors in the etiology and remediation of childhood psychopathology. The model is concerned with the cognitive distortions and deficiencies that surround behavioral events and emphasizes the combination of treatment strategies with the therapist as a remediation organizer. Recommendations are made regarding treatment expectations, the specificity of the cognition-disorder relationship, the quality of the application of the training, and the need for further involvement of the child in the therapeutic curriculum.

In vivo distraction-coping in the treatment of test anxiety: a 1-year follow-up study

Data obtained from 19 clinically test anxious students supported the efficacy of an 8-week treatment program that combined relaxation skill training, cognitive restructuring, and systematic desensitization for the reduction of test anxiety in a previous study by Thyer , Papsdorf , Himle , McCann , Caldwell, and Wickert (1981). Significant reductions in test, state, and trait anxiety, and increases in the rationality of personal belief systems were observed. Cognitive performance on an anagram solution task and behavioral performance on a test of manual dexterity also were improved posttreatment. In this present study, 12-month follow-up data on 14 (73.6%) of the original Ss are reported. The results indicate a maintenance of the significantly decreased levels of test anxiety and continued reductions in trait anxiety and irrationality . The significance of these findings is discussed.

Peer observation in decreasing uncooperative behavior in young dental patients

The behavior of uncooperative young boys during restorative dental treatment was examined in a multiple baseline design across the subjects. During baseline, the boys received standard dental treatment and noncontingent rewards at the end of each visit. Three of the boys then observed and were observed by a peer during treatment; two boys were only observed by a peer during treatment. Measures of uncooperative behavior, heart rate, frontalis EMG, and dentist-dental assistant ratings of anxiety and cooperation were recorded. All boys exhibited a substantial decrease in uncooperative behavior during the observation visits. Heart rate either decreased or remained at baseline levels, while EMG showed no consistent effect. Anxiety and cooperation ratings demonstrated either improvement or maintenance at low baseline levels.

In vivo distraction-coping in the treatment of test anxiety

Two groups (N = 19) of clinically test anxious college students received a common core treatment program of cognitive behavior therapy, progressive muscular relaxation training, and thermal biofeedback assisted relaxation training. The experimental group received an additional treatment component that consisted of in vivo distraction-coping training designed to facilitate focusing attentional processes onto task relevant variables and away from external distractors and dysfunctional self-statements. The overall efficacy of the program was demonstrated with reductions in test, trait and state anxiety, and increases in the rationality of personal belief systems. Performance on an anagram solution task conducted under highly distracting conditions and evaluative interactions was improved significantly, as was motoric performance on a manual dexterity task. In vivo distraction-coping was not found to result in more efficacious treatment as measured by self-report and performance variables.

Theories of Opiate Addiction: Time for Pruning

Both the United States and Canada have great difficulty achieving consensus on opiate drug policy. This, in some measure, is the fault of the scientific community, which has failed to provide the clear theoretical understanding of opiate addiction from which policy could be readily derived. We believe that the confusing mass of competing theories can be greatly simplified, and a measure of clarity achieved, through consideration of two opposing orientations which pervade the theoretical literature. We label these the “exposure” orientation and the “adaptive” orientation. Recent data shows clearly that the exposure orientation is obsolete. The adaptive orientation, though it fits the new evidence, is scientifically underdeveloped. A major reorientation of research is desirable and would, we believe, eventually provide a firmer basis for policy decisions.

Role of Model's Affect in Test Anxiety

Thirty high test-anxious and 30 low test-anxious undergraduate females were exposed to either an anxious model, a non-anxious model or no model before performing on a spatial visualization task. The STAI A-State scale was also given before and after performance to determine the effects of model conditions and task performance on state anxiety levels. Subjects were then asked to evaluate their performance. Highly test-anxious subjects performed more poorly, reported higher levels of anxiety, and evaluated their performance more negatively than low test-anxious subjects. Type of model had no differential effect on the anxiety level and performance of subjects. Thus, the vicarious effects of a model may sometimes be superceded by task demands even on highly test-anxious subjects.