Test Anxiety

Test Anxiety

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Anxiety has been found to universally affect daily functioning in a variety of ways . Many studies have shown that anxiety tendencies develop in early childhood /adolescence and can cause mental health problems later in life

When does anxiety begin ? Feelings of anxiousness are not unique to over-burdened adults . Individuals develop anxiety in childhood , as Freud explains . According to Freud , human personalities are developed generally before individuals reach the age of seven . Freud defines anxiety as "a felt , affective , unpleasant state accompanied by a

br physical sensation that warns the person against impending danger (Feist Feist , 2002 ,

. 33 . Freud divides anxiety into three different types : neurotic anxiety , moral anxiety , and realistic anxiety . He defines neurotic anxiety as apprehension about the unknown . According to Freud , moral anxiety is a battle between the ego and superego . Realistic anxiety is similar to fear . While these are three specific types of anxiety , they may be experienced on levels ranging from mild to debilitating , or may be felt in various combinations (Feist Feist 2002

A longitudinal study by Woodward and Fergusson (2000 ) attempts to tie adolescent anxiety to later mental health and adjustment problems . This study examined adolescents with an anxiety dis and looked at their later mental health , educational , and social role outcomes . Woodward and Fergusson (2000 ) measured the anxiety of 1 ,265 (635 males 630 females adolescents age 14 through 16 , by interviewing them using the Diagnostic Interview Schedule for Children (DISC ) and assessed their psychological state using the DSM-III-R . Later the same subjects were questioned when they reached age 18 through 21 about their mental health and substance use since the previous interview by means of the Composite International Diagnostic Interview (CIDI . Researchers found linear associations between the number of anxiety diss reported in adolescence (age 14 through16 ) and later risks of mainly anxiety dis and major depression , substance abuse , suicidal behaviour , educational underachievement , and early parenthood . Even after controlling for unstable family and individual factors , researchers found that the association between anxiety at a young age and the later continued to exist . Findings consist of results wherein young adolescents with anxiety problems early in life , have an enlarged risk to sustain these symptoms into later life (Woodward Fergusson , 2000

Before evaluative anxiety may be studied , it must be induced somehow some individuals must be made to believe that they are being evaluated and that the outcome of the evaluation will have very important consequences for them . One problem faced by researchers in this area is that of finding ethical ways to induce anxiety . It is rare that anxiety can be induced by placing the individual in an evaluative situation that he knows has no serious consequences for his future . Perhaps an anxiety-prone young child may experience a state of high anxiety when told that a psychologist from a nearby university wants to see how well the child can perform . But anxiety-prone high-school or college students , in all probability , will not muster much anxiety for such an...