Influence of Gender and Mode of Study on Examination Anxiety Among Undergraduates
Chapter One
Preamble of the Study
The low performance of students in exams especially external exams is no longer news in Nigeria. Over the years, stakeholders in this field have been working tirelessly to remedy the ugly phenomena unfortunately, their effort has yet to yield any significant impact. A situation that is giving all the tiers of the Nigerian Government sleepless nights.
Various factors have been identified as a hindrance to promoting academic excellence in Nigeria, among which are, poor funding of education, lack of infrastructure in the school, lack of manpower, etc. On the part of the students, lack of interest, love for money, or what is known as get rich quick syndrome were identified. Unfortunately, none of them was able to see exam anxiety. At times, students will read very well yet he or she will perform poorly in exams simply because of tension. The exam itself causes anxiety to some students (Nelson, 2001). studies have shown that exam anxiety makes a student to forget all that he or she studied (Nelson 2002).
CHAPTER TWO
LITERATURE REVIEW
THEORETICAL REVIEW
Anxiety is a mood state characterized by marked negative affect, bodily tension, and apprehension about the future. (American Psychiatric Association, 1994). Anxiety is closely related to depression. Researchers have shown that the area of the brain most often associated with anxiety is the limbic system (Danis 1992; Gray and Mc Naughton 1996; Le Doux 2006), which acts as a mediator between the brain stem and the cortex. However, to view the causes of anxiety, the following causes will be reviewed.
PSYCHOLOGICAL VIEWS
According to the psychodynamic perspective, phobias symbolize conflicts originating in childhood.
The psychodynamic theory explains generalized anxiety as persistent difficulty in repressing primitive impulses. Obsessions are explained as leakage of unconscious impulses partly repressed. For example, fixation in the anal stage is theorized to be connected with the development of traits such as excessive neatness of the sort that could explain some cases of obsessive-compulsive disorder.
Some learning theorists particularly behaviorists considered phobias to be conditioned fears that we acquire in early childhood. Therefore, their origins are beyond memory. Avoidance of feared stimuli is reinforced by the reduction of anxiety.
BIOLOGICAL VIEWS
Biological factors play a role in anxiety disorders. Genetic factors are implicated in most psychological disorders, including anxiety disorders (Carey and Dilalla 1994). For one thing, anxiety disorders tend to run in families (Michel and Marzuk 1993b). Twins studies also find a higher rate of agreement for anxiety disorders among identical twins than among fraternal twins (Torgersen 1983). Studies of adoptees who are anxious, similarly show that the biological parents place the child at risk for anxiety and related traits (Pedersen 1988).
Mineka (1991) suggests that humans (and non-human: primates) are genetically predisposed to respond with fear to stimuli that may have once posed a threat to their ancestors.
CHAPTER THREE
METHODS
Participants
A total of 130 participants comprising 77 regular undergraduates (37males and 40 females),53 mature undergraduates (28 males and 24 females) were randomly selected for this study.
The mature undergraduates were within the age range of 35-54 years with a mean age of 47 years and standard deviation of 6 years while the regular students were within the age range of 19-26 years, with a mean Age of 22 years and a standard deviation of 4 years.
The participants were selected from the population of mature and regular students of Enugu State University of Science and Technology Enugu.
CHAPTER FOUR
RESULTS
Table 1
Summary table of mean on the influence of gender and mode of study on examination anxiety among undergraduates.
CHAPTER FIVE
DISCUSSION
Obviously, the two hypothesis tested in this study, yielded significant outcomes.
The first hypothesis which stated that gender will not significantly influence examination anxiety was rejected. This shows that gender as a factor influence examination anxiety with females showing higher level of examination anxiety than males. The outcome of this finding revealed that female undergraduates irrespective of mode of study, manifest a higher level of anxiety during examination than their male counterparts. This may be attributed to the fact that male undergraduates have less phobia with school activities including examination because most of them are social.
In addition, some of the lecturers tend to put excessive fear on the students which affects the female students more. However, the outcome of this finding is in consonance with the findings of earlier researcher.
Jame and O’ Neil (2001) showed that there is a statistically significant difference between the attitude boys and girls towards anxiety inhibition. Boys according to them tend to be anxious towards vocabulary examination, while girls show high anxiety in mathematics examination.
Also schab, (2004) concluded that females become more nervous than males n academic task performance. In a later study, O’Neil and Harrison (2006) observed no significant sex difference in anxiety among students.
However, the second hypothesis tested which stated that mode of study will not significantly influence examination anxiety was also rejected. This means that mode of study significantly influence examination anxiety among undergraduates, with regular students manifesting higher level of examination anxiety than mature students. This may be attributed to age factor. It is observed that mature students are made up of middle aged and old students, unlike regular students who were between 19 – 26 years. Various studies have shown that age is a factor in examination anxiety. Wind (2000) postulated that older students do not worry a great deal before examination and consequently they perform better. In line with this findings, Doll (2002) opined that the reason behind high anxiety during examination among young ones could be attributed to young mind. On the other hand, Nelson (2002) observed no age difference rather it depends on the test involved.
Finally, one could say that mature undergraduates manifest less examination anxiety because, they tend to have a better relationship with their lectures than the regular students.
IMPLICATIONS OF THE FINDINGS
The outcome of this study has obvious implications. First and foremost, the findings will serve as an empirical study for future researchers. Above all, it has exposed gender differences in examination anxiety as well as mode of study.
In addition, this revealed that examination anxiety which is always thought to be a secondary school affair also exist in tertiary institution. With the findings of this study, stake holders in education will extend their counseling mission on examination to tertiary institutions.
In as much as studies reviewed indicated examination anxiety in academic poor performance among secondary school students, the outcome of this study also revealed it is also applicable at tertiary institution since they experience examination anxiety as well.
LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY
There were obvious limitations in this study First and foremost, only 130 participants were used out of myriads of students in Enugu State University of Science and Technology . In addition, lack of finance hindered the expansion of this work to other schools. Also the attitude of some students towards the completion of the questionnaire at the initial stage was discouraging.
SUGGESTION FOR FURTHER STUDIES
Based on the finding of this study, it is pertinent for future researchers to look at the influence of other variables such as family, Socio-Economic and Educational background on examination. This is because it may be a confounding variable to the present study.
In addition, future researcher should as well check the role of personality factors such as Assertiveness, Introvert, Extrovert as well as self-efficacy in determining examination anxiety.
RECOMMENDATIONS
Based on the findings of this study, the following recommendations are hereby made.
Similar study should be carried out in other to cross-validate the outcome of this study.
In addition, the role of counselors and group counseling on common student problem like poor study habit and hatred tendency exhibited in school courses should be emphasized.
More often than not, examination anxiety arises as a result of lack of adequate preparation for examination and fear of falling short of expected standard set by parents. It could be minimized by preparing very well before examination. In addition to that, parents should desist from setting unnecessary high standards for their children or expecting too much from them especially at a level where their cognitive development can only cope with a certain level of knowledge.
Furthermore, lecturers should not only be teaching the students the subject matter. They should also make the students understand that whoever reads well will pass therefore they should not panic.
SUMMARY / CONCLUSION
Based on the findings of this study, one may conclude that examination anxiety is common in our schools today.
However, it is also a canker worm that has been eating deep into the fabric students’ academic performance. Hence with reference to the findings, the researcher summarizes that a significant gender difference was found to exist on examination anxiety among undergraduates with females manifesting higher examination anxiety than males.
Mode of study also influence examination anxiety, with regular students manifesting higher examination anxiety than mature students.
Finally a significant interaction influence of Gender and mode of study were found on examination anxiety among undergraduates.
REFERENCES
- American Psychiatry Association (1994) Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (4th ed). Washington Dc: American Psychiatry Association. American Psychology Association (1994) Publication Manual of the
- American Psychology Association (4th ed). Washington D.c: American Psychology Association.
- Carey, G, & Dilalla, D.L. (1994) Personality and Psychopathology: Genetic Perspectives. Journal of Abnormal Psychology 102, 32-43.
- Chirrocks, B.K. (2006). The Development of Anxiety: The role of control in the early Environment. Psychology Bulletin, 124, 3 – 21.
- Danis, D.B. (1992). The role of Amygdala in fear and anxiety. Annual Review of Neuro Science 15, 353 – 375.
- Dave, B.C (1999). Anxiety and it’s disorders: nature and treatment of anxiety and other panic. New-GuillFord Press.
- David, K. (2002). Mastery of your anxiety and panic. Albany NY: Gray Wind Publications.
- Davidson, K. (1990). One flew out of the Cyekoo’s nest. In K. Pettzer and P.O. Ebigbo (Eds) Clinical Psychology in Africa Enugu: Chuka Press.
