Treating Test Anxiety through Bibliotherapy
This is a knowledge translation piece based on: Register, Angela C., Jean C. Beckham, Jack G. May, and David J. Gustafson. “Stress Inoculation Bibliotherapy in the Treatment of Test Anxiety.” Journal of Counseling Psychology 38.2 (1991): 115–19. Web.
Background :
Test anxiety is a significant issue faced by 15% of college students; it causes poor academic performance among students, leading them to doubt their overall aptitude. College students face three problems which stem from test anxiety: worry (1), emotionality (2), and task-generated inference (3).
- This worry relates to negative beliefs about one’s own academic ability. In addition, test-anxious individuals tend to have lower self-esteem.
- Emotionality describes the physical effects of test anxiety, these include increased heart rate and muscle tensions.
- Task-generated inference describes how test-anxious individuals are unable to ignore irrelevant aspects of tests. For instance, they tend to have a preoccupation with attempting to solve problems that they are unable to complete.
Purpose of the Study
This study examining the treatment of test anxiety was conducted because methods of therapy for this sort of anxiety are not widely available. Additionally, if traditional therapy is available for test-anxious students, they tend to not use it.
In order to ameliorate these issues, the study utilizes stress-inoculation bibliotherapy as a way to treat test anxiety. Stress-inoculation training involves the use of relaxation training, coping tactics, and the imagination of feared situation. Bibliotherapy is the use of literature (in the case of this study: self help guides) to treat mental and physical issues such as anxiety and various phobias. It has the advantage of being low-cost, and requires only minimal contact with a therapist. The stress-inoculation aspect of the bibliotherapy refers to training individuals to reduce their stress and anxiety.
The researchers developed two hypotheses:
- A stress-inoculation bibliotherapy would allay the test anxiety of the subjects.
- The effects of the bibliotherapy would last for at least one month following the completion of the treatment.
Method of the Study
121 undergraduate introductory psychology students took part in this study. In order to measure the anxiety and academic performance of the subjects, subjects completed questionnaires such as the Test Anxiety Inventory and the State Test Anxiety Report. Furthermore, test scores and grade point averages of the subjects were analyzed.
The researchers randomly assigned subjects to one of four groups:
- A treatment group where the subjects would make weekly contact with a therapist.
- A treatment group where there was no contact with a therapist.
- A control group where the subjects were placed on a wait list, that had weekly contact with a therapist.
- A control group where the subjects were placed on a wait list, with no contact from a therapist.
The treatment group’s bibliotherapy was a manual that had the purpose of reducing test anxiety. The literature included information about anxiety, relaxation training, and coping strategies. The control group was given no such bibliotherapy.
Results and Discussion
Overall, test anxiety was reduced in the treatment groups due to the bibliotherapy. There was an initial decrease in anxiety while subjects partook in the treatment, and this decrease persists in the month following the conclusion of the treatment.
The results show that stress-inoculation bibliotherapy is an effective way of treating test anxiety. However, one interesting result of the study was that bibliotherapy had no effect on academic performance. Researchers suggested adding a study skills or test taking section to the literature so that the bibliotherapy could potentially be more effective in the future.
While bibliotherapy may not be the most effective way of treatment for numerous groups (i.e: Those without strong reading ability, the under-educated.), it is still an effective way to treat test anxiety in college students due to its convenience and accessibility, as opposed to traditional therapy methods.
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