Systematic desensitization and relaxation of high-test-anxious secondary school students.

This study was designed to 6nswer two questions: I) Is the systematic desensitization of test anxiety effective with secondary school students; 2) Is relaxation per se as useful a technique as systematic desensitization. High test anxious secondary school students were assigned to one of two experimental conditions, desensitization or relaxation, and met for 20 minutes daily for a period of 6 weeks. Their results were compared to those of a no treatment control group. It appeared that the experimental Ss underwent a significant reduction in anxiety, however, only among grade 13 Ss was there a trend toward improved academic performance. The relaxation t-NJ CJ per se treatment was more effective in reducing general anxiety than (1) systematic desensitization. C:11 The results and their implications for future research were discussed. U.S. DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH, EDUCATION & WELFARE OFFICE OF EDUCATION THIS DOCUMENT HAS BEEN REPRODUCED EXACTLY AS RECEIVED FROM THE PERSON OR ORGANIZATION ORIGINATING IT. POINTS OF VIEW OR OPINIONS STATED DO NOT NECESSARILY REPRESENT OFFICIAL OFFICE OF EDUCATION POSITION OR POLICY. R. M. Laxer, J. Quarter, A. Kooman and K. WE,Iker THE ONTARIO INSTITUTE FOR STUDIES IN EDUCATION University of Toronto Over the past decade evidence has accumulated lo show that the-e is a negative correlation between scores on +est anxiety scales and academic performance (I.G. Sarason, 1961; Mandler & Sarason, 1952; Alpert & Haber, 1960). It has been suggested that, in situations involving implied personal threat or fear of failure, high test anxious Ss evoke task irrelevant and defensive responses such as blocking or tremering that impair performance. (Mandler & Sarason, 1952; Child, 1954). There is evidence, too, that the retarded performance of high test anxious students in threatening situations does not necessarily indicate inferior intelligence because high anxious Ss perform comparably with low anxious Ss in non-threatening situations (Mandler & Sarason, 1952; Sarason, 1956; Sarason, 1961; Sarason, 1963). From these findings, it has been postulated that in a threatening situation, lowering the arousal level of high test anxious ..S..s should reduce the number of task irrelevant responses, increase the proportion of task relevant responses and consequently cause a concomitant increment in performance.* * In iheir study of test anxiety, Alpert & Haber (1960) proposed a bimensional theory consisting of the debilitaiing factor (task-irrelevant responses) suggested by Mandier & Sarason (1952) and a facilitating factor (task-relevant responses). These two anxiety dimensions have a low negative correlation (about .35) and are therefore relatively independent of each other. Persons displayirg a large number of task irrelevant responses do not-necessarily have very many task relevant responses and vice versa.