Research topic: Students who experience test anxiety will have lower grades compared to students who don’t have test anxiety.
The research population for this study will be undergraduate students at a college or university in the United States. The sample size will be approximately 200 students. The students will be recruited through a combination of online and in-person methods. The primary methods of data collection will be the administration of self-report questionnaires, survey interviews, and focus group interviews.
This topic is important to study from a scientific perspective because it has a direct impact on student academic performance. Test anxiety can lead to a decrease in academic performance and achievement, which can have long-term implications for a student’s career and life trajectory. Furthermore, this topic has practical implications for educators and administrators, who could use the results of this research to better understand how to help students who experience test anxiety.
Research on this topic is also important because it can help us better understand the underlying causes of test anxiety and develop interventions that are tailored to the individual needs of students. By understanding the causes of test anxiety, we can develop targeted interventions that are tailored to the individual needs of each student. Furthermore, research on this topic can help to identify strategies that can be used to prevent and reduce test anxiety.
The proposed study will seek to answer the following research questions:1. What are the characteristics of students who experience test anxiety? 2. How does test anxiety affect student’s academic performance? 3. What interventions can be used to reduce test anxiety?
The proposed research will be a quantitative study using a correlational design. The study will include a sample of 200 undergraduate students recruited from colleges and universities in the United States. The primary methods of data collection will be the administration of self-report questionnaires, survey interviews, and focus group interviews. Data analysis will be conducted using descriptive statistics, correlation analysis, and regression analysis.
The results of this study will provide valuable insight into the effects of test anxiety on student academic performance. The results can be used to identify strategies for reducing test anxiety and improving student academic performance. This research will also provide valuable information for educators and administrators, who can use the results to better understand how to help students who experience test anxiety.
For this assignment, you will write your literature review. You will use the information you
provided in your Unit 4 – 5 Assignments (annotated bibliography) to develop your literature
review.
Your literature review, including the introduction, review of the literature, and summary,
should be 7 or more pages.
You will need to follow the steps outlined below to complete your assignment. Reviewing
the readings and tutorials will help to ensure you have the information you need to be
successful.
Be sure to include the following in your literature review:
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Title page
An opening paragraph and thesis statement
Introduction/background section
Summary of the characteristics of the studies you reviewed
Summary of the research reviewed, synthesizing past research findings
Evaluation of the research reviewed
A summary section for the literature review with the hypothesis
Reference list
Step-by-Step Instructions
1. Write the opening paragraph and thesis statement.
a. Write an opening paragraph for your paper.
b. Add your thesis statement to the end of your opening paragraph.
c. Note: revisit your opening paragraph and thesis statement after completing
the remainder of this assignment. Revise the paragraph and thesis statement
as needed to ensure it is consistent with the content and aims of your
literature review.
2. Write your introduction section.
a. Write your introduction section (1 page) for your literature review. Be sure to
address the following in your introduction:
i.
Discuss the main problem or issue you are studying. Explain why the
problem or issue is important. Be sure to provide supporting details
and evidence to support your main ideas.
ii.
Define your main variables, citing reputable, academic sources.
iii.
Describe your population of interest, including their demographic
characteristics, the number of people in the population, and any other
characteristics that would be important for your readers to know.
Describe how and in what ways the problem or issue affects your
population of interest.
iv.
Explain how conducting more research would help address the
problem or issue. Present your research question and explain how
your proposed study would contribute to the research topic.
3. Write your review of the literature sections.
a. Summarize the Characteristics of the Studies. Write one to two
paragraphs summarizing the characteristics of the studies you reviewed. Be
sure to address the following in this paragraph(s):
i.
State how many articles you included in your literature review.
ii.
Summarize the characteristics of the studies in your literature review.
1. What populations were involved in the studies?
2. Summarize the research methods and designs across the
studies (e.g., five studies involved survey research and five
were case studies).
3. What types of measures did the researchers use in the
studies?
4. What types of interventions did the researchers use in the
studies?
b. Review the Literature. Write the body of your literature review section.
i.
First, organize your review of past research into two or more sections,
using APA style section headings. There are multiple ways to
approach organizing your literature review, and it will depend on the
nature of your topic and the research findings. One example you read
about in the chapter is organizing the articles according to similarities
in the outcome variables (dependent variables) that the researchers
studied. For example, suppose you were studying the effects of
Omega-3s supplements on mood in adolescents. You might organize
your literature review into section headings, such as “Omega-3s and
Anxiety” and “Omega-3s and Pessimism,” etc. In this example,
“anxiety” and “pessimism” would represent outcome variables
common to the studies you would synthesize under the two-section
headings.
ii.
In each section, summarize the relevant research findings. Provide
further analysis in each section. For example, you could compare and
contrast the findings across the research studies you review in each
section.
c. Optional: consider adding an “Evidence Table” to your literature review. See
p.104 of the reading for an example.
4. Write your conclusions and hypothesis section.
This section provides a high-level summary of each journal article you reviewed in
the literature review section.
a. Provide a summary of the major research findings you presented in the
literature review, focusing on findings that support your hypothesis.
b. Provide an evaluation of the major strengths and limitations of the research
you reviewed as a whole.
c. Present one or more high-level conclusions about the research in your topic
area. Overall, what does the research literature tells us about your topic?
What questions still remain unanswered (i.e., your research question). These
high-level conclusions should directly relate to your research hypothesis and
lead naturally into your hypothesis statement.
d. State your hypothesis.
i.
Your hypothesis should flow naturally from the high-level conclusions
you have made about the research in this area.
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Annotated Bibliography
Rikkia Cross
Purdue University Global
PS598 Master’s Capstone in Psychology
Dr. Lisa Jackson
April 4, 2023
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Annotated Bibliography
Motevalli, S., Sulaiman, T., Hamzah, M. S. G., Abadi, F. H., Rahman, M. N. B. A., &
Mohamad, Z. binti S. (2022). The Effects of Cognitive Restructuring and Study
Skills Training on Test Anxiety and Academic Achievement among University
Students. Journal of Institutional Research South East Asia, 20(1), 104–130.
Retrieved from
http://www.seaairweb.info/journal/articles/JIRSEA_v20_n01/JIRSEA_v20_n01_All.
pdf#page=108
Motevalli et al. (2022) conducted a study to investigate the effects of study skills training
and cognitive restructuring on improving academic achievement and reducing anxiety among
university students. The researchers used a quasi-experiment design containing a post-test and
pre-test control group. 120 university students participated in the research, where they were
randomly chosen and assigned to one of the four main groups. The researchers found out that all
three intervention groups, study skills training (SST), cognitive restructuring training (CRT), and
a combination of SST and CRT, showed considerable reduction in their stress levels in their
anxiety and improvement in their academic achievement when compared to the control group.
Based on the study, it can be concluded that students can reduce anxiety and enhance their
academic achievement through study skills training and cognitive restructuring.
One of the strengths of the study is that it addresses a relevant and important topic that
positively impacts the academic success of students in universities. Secondly, the study has a
strong internal validity due to the use of a high number of participants and randomly choosing
them. Lastly, the study uses a standardized questionnaire, which is very reliable and valid to
measure academic achievement and test anxiety. The main weakness of the study is that it does
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not include a follow-up assessment to know whether the academic achievement and anxiety were
managed beyond the intervention period. The study is very useful to my study as it provided
insights into the effectiveness of study skills training and restructuring in improving academic
performance and reducing anxiety. The study’s findings support my hypotheses that students
who have panic disorder and test anxiety have poorer academic performance.
Parvin, S., Kheibar, N., Mihanpour, H., & Rafi, A. (2018). The impact of academic libraries
on students academic achievement: The relationship between learning styles and
information seeking anxiety. Retrieved from
http://journals.pu.edu.pk/journals/index.php/pjiml/article/view/1353/0
The article by Parvin et al. (2018) investigates the relationship between students learning styles,
academic libraries, academic achievement, and information-seeking anxiety. Four hundred
undergraduate students from two Iranian universities participated in the study. The study found
that there is a positive relationship between the use of academic libraries and academic
achievement and that this relationship is mediated by students’ information-seeking anxiety and
learning styles. The study found that students who regularly used academic libraries and
possessed an active style of learning exhibited a higher academic performance or achievement,
while those exhibiting higher information anxiety recorded a lower academic achievement.
The relevance of the topic, the large sample used, and the use of a standardized
questionnaire are some of the strengths of the article. Focusing on a specific geographic location
which is Iran, and using a cross-sectional design are some of the limits or weaknesses of the
study. The study is useful and relevant to my literature review as it will help add more insight
into the impact of academic libraries on the academic achievement level of the students. While
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the study’s findings do not directly support or add more evidence related to my hypothesis, the
study’s focus on information-seeking anxiety is relevant to my proposed study.
Shah, S. A., & Haynes, T. N. (2018). Test anxiety and academic performance: A systematic
review and meta-analysis. Educational Research Review, 22, 17-32. Retrieved from
https://www.sciencedirect.com/journal/journal-of-psychiatric-nursing/vol/11/issue/1
Shah and Hynes (2018) conducted a meta-analysis and a systematic review regarding the
relationship between academic performance and test anxiety. A total of 162 articles and 33
selected studies for analysis. The dependent variable for the study is academic performance,
while the independent variable is test anxiety. One of the findings of the study was that test
anxiety adversely or negatively impacts the students’ academic performance. This relationship
was higher or stronger for tests with higher stakes compared to tests with lower stakes.
Additionally, Shah and Hynes (2018) also found that cognitive interventions like cognitivebehavioral therapy can help reduce test anxiety and improve the academic performance of
university students. Some of the major strengths of the research are the use of a high number of
articles and studies relevant to the topic giving a detailed conclusion, and the use of metaanalysis methodology to enhance its credibility.
The article is highly relevant to my research proposal as it provides a comprehensive
review of the many pieces of literature on the relationship between academic performance and
test anxiety which are the main components of my research proposal. The findings and results of
the study by Shah and Hynes (2018) also support my hypothesis that test anxiety results in a
negative impact on students’ performance. Reducing test anxiety is one of the effective remedies
for enhancing the academic outcomes of students, and this is consistent with my hypothesis.
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Torenli, A. S., Yalçınkaya-Alkar, Ö., & Güzel Özdemir, P. (2020). The effects of cognitive
behavioral therapy on academic achievement and test anxiety in university students.
Journal of Psychiatric Nursing, 11(1), 1-9. Retrieved from
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1747938X17301784
Torenli et al. (2020) conducted the study with the aim of investigating the effects of CBT
on test anxiety and academic achievement of university students. The dependent variables of the
research were test anxiety and academic achievement, where the researchers used a quasiexperimental design to conduct the study with a post-test control group. A total of 60 university
students with high levels of poor academic performance and test anxiety were involved, and
CBT sessions were done for eight weeks for the experimental group, and the control group
received no treatment. The major finding of the study was that the experimental group recorded a
significant improvement in academic achievement and lower test anxiety compared to the control
group.
Based on the results of the study, Cognitive-behavior therapy (CBT) is one of the most
effective interventions in helping students improve their academic performance and reduce test
anxiety. The study is useful to my proposed research because it gives additional evidence of how
CBT can be used to help enhance or improve academic performance and reduce anxiety among
students with test anxiety or panic disorder. However, I would build on the information in the
article by considering using a larger sample size and assessing the long-term effects of CBT in
my research proposal.
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References
Motevalli, S., Sulaiman, T., Hamzah, M. S. G., Abadi, F. H., Rahman, M. N. B. A., & Mohamad,
Z. binti S. (2022). The Effects of Cognitive Restructuring and Study Skills Training on
Test Anxiety and Academic Achievement among University Students. Journal of
Institutional Research Southeast Asia, 20(1), 104–130.
Parvin, S., Kheibar, N., Mihanpour, H., & Rafi, A. (2018). The impact of academic libraries on
student’s academic achievement: The relationship between learning styles and
information seeking anxiety.
Shah, S. A., & Haynes, T. N. (2018). Test anxiety and academic performance: A systematic
review and meta-analysis. Educational Research Review, 22, 17-32.
Torenli, A. S., Yalçınkaya-Alkar, Ö., & Güzel Özdemir, P. (2020). The effects of cognitive
behavioral therapy on academic achievement and test anxiety in university students.
Journal of Psychiatric Nursing, 11(1), 1-9.
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