Abstract
High test-anxióus college students (N =78) were placed in one of four treatment conditions or a no-treatment group. Treatments included (1) training in an emotional coping skill of differential relaxation, (2) training in a cognitive coping skill of replacing anxiety-creating, task-irrelevant self-statements with adaptive self-statements, (3) a combined cognitive and emotional treatment, and (4) an attention placebo condition. All treatments included theoretical explanations, role-played tests, and homework assignments. Self-report, performance, and physiological measures were administered pre- and posttreatment. The self-report measures showed the only significant differences between conditions. The Cognitive and Cognitive +Emotional treatments showed consistent improvement on all but one of the self-report measures. A 5-week follow-up generally indicated that self report changes were maintained.
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Wine, J. D.Test anxiety and self-attention. Paper presented at the meeting of the American Psychological Association, New Orleans, August 1974.
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This study is based on the doctoral dissertation of the first author. Thanks are given to the dissertation committee at the University of Texas at Austin, which included Michael D. Spiegler, Paul Blaney, Robert Helmreich, George Parker, and Frank Richardson. Special thanks go to Jerry Marshall and Bill Kirkpatrick for serving as therapists.
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Cooley, E.J., Spiegler, M.D. Cognitive versus emotional coping responses as alternatives to test anxiety. Cogn Ther Res 4, 159–166 (1980). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01173647
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01173647