Facilitating and debilitating test anxiety among college students and volunteers for desensitization workshops

Abstract

Administered the Alpert-Haber Achievement Anxiety Test (AAT) to 54 students who expressed interest in participating in a test anxiety desensitization workshop. In addition, 182 students from the general college population were tested. Results indicated that both the debilitating and facilitating (AAT) scales were higher for the self-referred volunteer group. These data indicate that these scales are useful in distinguishing self-referred volunteers for behavior modification workshops from a general college population. In addition, the scales of the AAT were correlated with the number of sessions attended by those students who enrolled in the desensitization groups. Results indicated no relationship between attrition and debilitating anxiety. There was a correlation of r = .318 p less than .15 between facilitating anxiety scores and number of sessions attended. It is suggested that facilitating anxiety can function as a measure of S's ego strength in predicting workshop attendance.

More than just a game: Research developments and issues in competitive anxiety in sport

“…the Achievement Anxiety Test, AAT) provided a significantly stronger predictor of academic performance than a conventional debilitating anxiety scale. Subsequent investigations employing the AAT reported by, among others, Munz, Costello & Korabek (1975), Hudesman & Wiesner (1978, Gaeddert & Dolphin (1981), Couch, Garber & Turner (1983, and Carrier, Higson, Klimoski & Peterson (1984) are all examples of studies which demonstrate the value of distinguishing between debilitating and facilitating anxiety. Wine's (1980) bidirectional model of test anxiety further supports the notion of positive and negative dimensions in arguing for this greater specificity of the state anxiety response.…”

Explaining performance variance: The relative contribution of intensity and direction dimensions of competitive state anxiety

“…For example, Carrier, Higson, Klimoski, and Peterson (1 984), Couch, Garber, and Turner (1 983), and Hudesman and Wiesner (1978), all provided evidence which supports the merits of distinguishing between debilitating and facilitating anxiety in this context. Wine (1 980) also offered support for the notion of even greater specificity of state anxiety in proposing the bidirectional model of test anxiety, which was based around these positive and negative conceptions of the response.…”

Test Anxiety: A Case of ESL Vocabulary Testing Using Multiple-Choice Items and Error Identification Tests

“…Instruction and assessment must complement the complex nature of knowledge and take place in a form that makes the process of knowledge construction and transformation observable to some extent. Hudesman and Wiesner [16] found that attrition and debilitating anxiety are not in any logical relationship with each other. facilitating anxiety however functions in terms of a scale to the language learners' ego strength in forecasting workshop attendance.…”