Individual differences in statistics anxiety: the roles of perfectionism, procrastination and trait anxiety

Abstract Recent research detected small but significant associations between perfectionism and statistics anxiety [Onwuegbuzie, A., & Daley, C. (1999). Perfectionism and statistics anxiety. Personality and Individual Differences, 26, 1089–1102]. The current study re-examined this relationship whilst simultaneously controlling for trait anxiety and procrastination, variables which are known to be associated with perfectionism and which also have a likely association with statistics anxiety. Measures of all four constructs were obtained by questionnaire from a sample of 93 students, and multiple regression analyses were employed. Statistics anxiety constituted the criterion variable whilst perfectionism, trait anxiety and procrastination were regarded as predictor variables. Results indicated very modest links between inter-personal perfectionism and components of statistics anxiety, whereas intra-personal perfectionism, trait anxiety and procrastination were each found to have good predictive utility. It was concluded that aspects of ego-involvement such as fear of failure and evaluation concern, which are thought to pervade each of these predictors, may be responsible for statistics anxiety.

[1]  J. Ferrari,et al.  Procrastination and Task Avoidance: Theory, Research, and Treatment , 1995 .

[2]  P. Hewitt,et al.  Perfectionism and depression: longitudinal assessment of a specific vulnerability hypothesis. , 1996, Journal of abnormal psychology.

[3]  E. Rothblum,et al.  Affective, Cognitive, and Behavioral Differences Between High and Low Procrastinators. , 1986 .

[4]  A. Onwuegbuzie,et al.  The Effect of Time Constraints and Statistics Test Anxiety on Test Performance in a Statistics Course , 1995 .

[5]  J. D. McCarthy,et al.  Issues of Validity and Reliability in the Use of Real-Ideal Discrepancy Scores to Measure Self-Regard , 1983 .

[6]  P. Hewitt,et al.  Dimensions of Perfectionism and Procrastination , 1995 .

[7]  E. Rothblum.  Fear of Failure , 1990 .

[8]  S. Blatt.  The destructiveness of perfectionism. Implications for the treatment of depression. , 1995, The American psychologist.

[9]  Lawrence R. Burns,et al.  Career mothers and perfectionism: stress at work and at home , 1998 .

[10]  W. Missildine.  Your Inner Child of the Past , 1963 .

[11]  P. Hewitt,et al.  Perfectionism in the self and social contexts: conceptualization, assessment, and association with psychopathology. , 1991, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[12]  C. Fairburn,et al.  The specificity of the Eating Disorder Inventory. , 1985, The British journal of clinical psychology.

[13]  D. Dyck,et al.  Self-oriented perfectionism, neuroticism and anxiety , 1989 .

[14]  E. Higgins,et al.  Self-discrepancies and emotional vulnerability: how magnitude, accessibility, and type of discrepancy influence affect. , 1986, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[15]  P. Slade,et al.  POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE PERFECTIONISM , 1995 .

[16]  C. D. Saddler,et al.  Predictors of Academic Procrastination in College Students , 1999 .

[17]  C. Spielberger,et al.  Manual for the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory , 1970 .

[18]  C. MacLeod,et al.  Cognitive functioning and anxiety , 1987, Psychological research.

[19]  D. Hamachek.  Psychodynamics of normal and neurotic perfectionism. , 1978 .

[20]  Anthony J. Onwuegbuzie,et al.  Perfectionism and statistics anxiety , 1999 .

[21]  Michael W. Eysenck,et al.  Interpretive biases for one's own behavior and physiology in high-trait-anxious individuals and repressors. , 1997 .

[22]  C. Lay,et al.  At last, my research article on procrastination. , 1986 .

[23]  N. Endler,et al.  A multidimensional measure of trait anxiety: the S-R inventory of general trait anxiousness. , 1975, Journal of consulting and clinical psychology.

[24]  P. Hewitt,et al.  Perfectionism and Suicide Ideation in Adolescent Psychiatric Patients , 1997, Journal of abnormal child psychology.

[25]  R. Heimberg,et al.  Self-Monitoring of Mistakes Among Subjects High and Low in Perfectionistic Concern over Mistakes , 1997, Cognitive Therapy and Research.

[26]  R. Baumeister,et al.  Suicide as escape from self. , 1990, Psychological review.

[27]  A. Malla,et al.  The Relationship of Two Aspects of Perfectionism with Symptoms in a Psychiatric Outpatient Population , 1998 .

[28]  L. Lundh,et al.  Perfectionism, self-consciousness and anxiety , 1997 .

[29]  D. Gould,et al.  Burnout in Competitive Junior Tennis Players: III. Individual Differences in the Burnout Experience , 1997 .

[30]  D. Roberts,et al.  Validity of a Statistics Attitude Survey: A Follow-Up Study , 1982 .

[31]  Anthony J. Onwuegbuzie,et al.  The Components of Statistics Anxiety: A Phenomenological Study. , 1997 .

[32]  J. Mattia,et al.  A comparison of two measures of perfectionism. , 1993 .

[33]  L. K. G Hsu,et al.  OUTCOME OF ANOREXIA NERVOSA , 1979, The Lancet.

[34]  H. Leitenberg.  Handbook of social and evaluation anxiety , 1990 .

[35]  P. Sullivan,et al.  Outcome of anorexia nervosa: a case-control study. , 1998, The American journal of psychiatry.

[36]  A. Pacht.  Reflections on perfection , 1984 .

[37]  D. Roberts,et al.  Reliability and Validity of a Statistics Attitude Survey , 1980 .

[38]  W. Parker,et al.  Perfectionism and suicidal preoccupation. , 1996, Journal of personality.

[39]  E. Rothblum,et al.  Academic Procrastination: Frequency and Cognitive-Behavioral Correlates , 1984 .

[40]  P. Hewitt,et al.  Components of perfectionism and procrastination in college students , 1992 .

[41]  V. Huta,et al.  Dimensions of perfectionism across the anxiety disorders. , 1998, Behaviour research and therapy.

[42]  M. Zeidner,et al.  Statistics and mathematics anxiety in social science students: some interesting parallels. , 1991, The British journal of educational psychology.

[43]  M. Eysenck,et al.  Interpretation Bias in Test Anxiety: The Time Course of Predictive Inferences , 1997 .