Effectiveness of study counseling and desensitization in alleviating test anxiety: A two-year follow-up.

Abstract

Participants in a program comparing study counseling and desensitization for reducing test anxiety evaluated the effects of each procedure two years after termination of treatment. Respondents who had been assigned to active psychotherapeutic conditions (including a placebo) maintained positive attitudes toward their respective treatments. A significantly larger proportion of subjects in the treatment groups showed individually significant improvement in grades during the first follow-up semester. Subjects in both the treatment and control conditions achieved significantly better grades and reduced selfreported anxiety by semester of graduation, obscuring treatment effects reported originally. These results suggest that the deleterious effects of test anxiety may be alleviated by entry into courses which minimize formal test evaluations and the easing of general grading standards which has occurred over the past several years.

The Measurement and Treatment of Test Anxiety

“…Allen (1971) found a combination of study skills and desensitization to be more effective in improving academic performance than either treatment by itself. A 2-year followup (Allen & Desaulniers, 1974) found that participants in all treatment and control conditions showed significantly less test anxiety and better grades than they had pretreatment. Participants in the combined and placebo conditions showed significant pre-post increases in grade-point average.…”

Improving academic competence in adults: A review of recent research.

“…Conversely, and somewhat in contrast to a second box-score speculation, brief singlecomponent interventions rarely produced robust or long-lasting improvements in academic competence. This conclusion is based on the nonsignificant effects obtained in studies of standard systematic desensitization (Allen & Desaulniers, 1974;Denney & Rupert, 1977;Melnick & Russell, 1976;Mitchell et al, 1975aMitchell et al, , 1975b, self-monitoring (Champlin & Karoly, 1975;Greiner & Karoly, 1976;Nelson et al, 1977;Tichenor, 1977), verbal conditioning (Miller & Sloane, 1974), and training in note taking (Robin et al, 1977). Current knowledge, therefore, seems to suggest that an ideal academiccompetence improvement intervention should be structured, but not necessarily very lengthy (e.g., effective interventions in Greiner &Karoly, 1976,'andPerri, 1978, lasted 3 and8 hr., respectively), and it should include training in study skills plus self-control (e.g., Fremouw & Feindler, Stanley, 1963;Reichardt, 1979).…”

“…The better-controlled investigations in the 1974-1978 literature used single-subject designs (Champlin & Karoly, 1975;Miller & Sloane, 1974;Nelson, Hay, & Hay, 1977;Robin, Martello, Foxx, & Archable, 1977), "attention placebo" controls (Allen & Desaulniers, 1974;Denney & Rupert, 1977;Fremouw & Feindler, 1978;Groveman, Richards, & Caple, 1977;Ziesat, Rosenthal, & White, 1978), and a combination of minimal treatment or comparison treatment plus no-treatment controls (Greiner & Karoly, 1976;Home & Matson, 1977;Lent & Russell, 1978;Melnick & Russell, 1976;Mitchell et al, 1975aMitchell et al, , 1975bRichards, 1975;Richards, McReynolds, Holt, & Sexton, 1976;Richards & Perri, 1978;Richards, Perri, & Gortney, 1976;Tichenor, 1977). Analysis of the outcomes obtained in these studies strongly supports one of the earlier conclusions reached based on a box-score tabulation (Table 2).…”

Traditional group therapy and computer-administered treatment for test anxiety

“…The group approach, typically adopted in university counseling centers, has proven effective as well as economical (e.g., Allen, 1971Allen, , 1972Allen, , 1973Allen & Desaulniers, 1974;Dawley & Wenrich, 1973;Ihli & Garlington, 1969;Paul & Shannon, 1966). Recently, computer software packages have become available for the treatment of particular psychological dysfunctions; one such package, Coping with Tests (Thoresen, Insel, Roth, Ross, & Seyler, 1986), presents cognitive and behavioral materials as a treatment for test anxiety.…”