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Anxiety in College Students

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Anxiety in College Students
The Effects That Test Anxiety Has On College Students
Sherwood Hartso
North Caro1ina Agricultural &Technical State University

Submitted To: Dr. Ford-Booker

Psychological Research Methods (PSYC440-002)

April 16, 2013

Abstract
Students attending a school of higher education experience levels of stress and anxiety. It is thought that students stress over tests and have high levels of stress and anxiety as a result. There are a few possible causes of this kind of reaction. Personality traits can a cause of a student’s stress level. This study examine if there is a change in state anxiety level in anticipating a test and if anxiety will be lower after. Participants included 43 North Carolina A&T State University students. These students were given a trait anxiety scale test, followed by a state 1 anxiety scale test, an examination and ended with a state 2 anxiety scale test. The results revealed that there was not a significant change in state anxiety after taking an exam, t(42) = 1.345. P= .19, r (33) = .47, p= .004. The results revealed that there was a Pearson Correlation between trait and state 2, p= .05. Trait and state 1 did not show a Pearson Correlation because p=.01. There was no Pearson correlations between State 1 and State 2, p= .000. The experiment showed that there was no significant difference in trait and test anxiety.

The Effects That Test Anxiety Has On College Students

In today’s education system, students endure lots of stress. It is believed that the thought of an upcoming test can cause students to stress over the outcome of their assessment. There are many different subjects in a college curriculum and there is a lot of information to learn. It would be common for some level of stress to be present in every college student’s life.
In the past researchers have studied test anxiety amongst college students. There are two articles in particular that this experiment will focus on. The first article by Zhao,



References: Zhao, J.-b., Xu, J., & Xie, Y.-n. (2007). Influence of cognition attitude on test anxiety in college students. Chinese Journal of Clinical Psychology, 15(5), 530-531. Deffenbacher, J. L., & Deitz, S. R. (1978). Effects of test anxiety on performance, worry, and emotionality in naturally occurring exams. Psychology In The Schools, 15(3), 446-450. Spielberger, C. D., Gorsuch, R. L., Lushene, R., Vagg, P. R., & Jacobs, G. A. (1983). State-Trait Anxiety Inventory for Adults.

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