Anxiety and test performance : an emotion regulation perspective
Abstract/Contents
- Abstract
- It is widely recognized that anxiety can influence performance in test-taking situations. However, surprisingly little is known about the mechanisms that underlie these effects. In this dissertation, I first review the literatures on test anxiety, stereotype threat, and choking under pressure in order to clarify the mechanisms that underlie the association between test anxiety and test performance. In my review of the literature, I describe how test anxiety is triggered, how it unfolds over the learning-testing cycle, and how it may influence test performance. I then consider how test anxiety may be (and often is) regulated, and consider the direct and indirect effects emotion regulation might have on performance in test-taking situations. Next, I present data from a series of studies in which I examined the effects of cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression on test anxiety and test performance. Specifically, in Studies 1-2, I investigated expressive suppression as a source of interference during diagnostic test-taking, finding that those high in trait test anxiety use more expressive suppression, and expressive suppression is associated with poorer performance and measures of cognitive interference. In Studies 3-4, I investigated cognitive reappraisal as a test anxiety intervention, finding that cognitive reappraisal of the test situation improves outcomes for the highly test anxious, but that cognitive reappraisal of arousal can lead to paradoxical performance decrements consistent with test anxiety. Finally, in Study 5, I compared and contrasted expressive suppression and cognitive reappraisal in a test-taking paradigm, finding no significant effects of these manipulations on outcome measures. However, within the control group, I found that the association between test anxiety and cognitive interference is mediated by the use of expressive suppression. Taken together, the findings from these 5 studies suggest that test anxiety often triggers an increased usage of the strategy of expressive suppression, which can lead to worse performance, and that test anxiety performance decrements can be alleviated by cognitive reappraisal of the test situation.
Description
| Type of resource | text |
|---|---|
| Form | electronic; electronic resource; remote |
| Extent | 1 online resource. |
| Publication date | 2013 |
| Issuance | monographic |
| Language | English |
Creators/Contributors
| Associated with | Jacobs, Scott Edward |
|---|---|
| Associated with | Stanford University, Department of Psychology. |
| Primary advisor | Gross, James J, (Professor of psychology) |
| Thesis advisor | Gross, James J, (Professor of psychology) |
| Thesis advisor | Dweck, Carol S, 1946- |
| Thesis advisor | Tsai, Jeanne Ling |
| Advisor | Dweck, Carol S, 1946- |
| Advisor | Tsai, Jeanne Ling |
Subjects
| Genre | Theses |
|---|
Bibliographic information
| Statement of responsibility | Scott Edward Jacobs. |
|---|---|
| Note | Submitted to the Department of Psychology. |
| Thesis | Thesis (Ph.D.)--Stanford University, 2013. |
| Location | electronic resource |
Access conditions
- Copyright
- © 2013 by Scott Edward Jacobs
- License
- This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial 3.0 Unported license (CC BY-NC).
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