Impact of anxiety on the academic achievement of students having different mental abilities at

postgraduate level.

Authors:

Dr. SHRUTI GUPTA

Associate Professor, Army Institute of Management and Technology,

Greater Noida, India

Address for Correspondence:

Army Institute of Management & Technology

Plot No. M-1, Pocket P-5

Greater Noida- 201306

India

gupta_shruti1@rediffmail.com

# +91- 9818080363

BRIEF PROFESSIONAL BIOGRAPHY

Dr. Shruti Gupta, Associate Professor (Human Resources) in Army Institute of Management &

Technology, Greater Noida is PhD (Birla Institute of Technology, Mesra, Ranchi), UGC- NET

(Management), MBA (Rani Durgavati Vishwavidyalaya). A goal oriented academician with 12 years

of work experience, she has to her credit few articles published in the journals of National and

International repute. She is a Certified Psychometric Testing professional and has designed and

conducted FDP on Psychometric Testing & Counseling for HR Managers. She was awarded

certificate of Accredited Management Teacher (AMT) by AIMA in the field of Human Resources.

She has been a resource person in Management Development Program for Judicial Officers and Court

Managers of Uttar Pradesh.

IMPACT OF ANXIETY ON THE ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT OF STUDENTS HAVING DIFFERENT MENTAL ABILITIES AT POST GRADUATE LEVEL

ABSTRACT

Lower Academic Performance is associated with Anxiety. Many experts suggest that

academic performance of young people is reduced with increase in level of anxiety as it

impinges functioning of working memory. This research paper aims at exploring the significant

impact of anxiety on academic performance. Students with anxiety problems tend to show lower

levels of academic achievement, self-efficacy, and self-concept. The phenomenon of reducing

Anxiety involves participation of students, parents and Teachers. Mindfulness Meditation,

metacognition, coping, teacher involvement, and test question order are anxiety reduction

strategies explored. The aim of the present study is to investigate the effects of test anxiety on

academic achievement of postgraduate students.

Keywords:-academic performance, postgraduate students, anxiety, metacognition

INTRODUCTION

Today, anxiety is a common phenomenon of everyday’s life. Generally, anxiety is

classified as trait or state anxiety. Trait anxiety defines the most stable traits of an individual.

State anxiety is defined as one which surfaces due to some temporary conditions or changes in

the environment. Academic anxiety is associated with the state anxiety classification which

arises due to impending issues such as examination, difficult subjects or teachers. Anxiety is

your body’s way of telling you that there is something in the environment in need of your

attention. It is basically a series of biochemical changes in your brain and body, such as an

increase in adrenaline (causing your heart to beat faster) and a decrease in dopamine (a brain

chemical that helps to block pain) (Perveen, S. 2012). These changes result in a state of

heightened attention to the source of the anxiety. High levels of anxiety cause your body to

prepare to fight or run away from the perceived threat commonly called the “fight-or-flight

response”

Test anxiety is a multidimensional construct that has been defined as “the set of

phenomenological, physiological and behavioral responses that accompany concern about

possible negative consequences or failure on an exam (Zeidner, M., 1998). Performance anxiety

is the other name given to test anxiety since it’s basically a performance pressure induced

phenomenon where the performance is the out most valuable. Text anxiety can bring up

“butterflies” a stomach ache or a tension .Some people might feel shaky, sweaty or feel their

heart beating quickly as they wait for the test to be given out.

LITERATURE REVIEW

Anxiety is a subjective feeling of unease, discomfort, apprehension or fearful concern.

Anxiety has increased in the society resulting not only in the education but also in the student’s

personality which stays throughout the life. In behavioural terms, Sarason (1980) defined anxiety

as a conditioned response to a perceived threatening stimulus which could be learned or

inherited. In a similar way, May (1996) viewed anxiety as a maladjusted behaviour.

In our competitive society, tests and examinations at all stages of education, especially at

higher education level have been considered an important and powerful tool for decision making

with people of all ages being evaluated with respect to their achievement, skills and abilities.

(Zoller and Benchan 1990; Speilberger 1984; Hill &Wigfield, 1984) The study found that for the

students, examinations are consistently perceived as a source of increase in anxiety and a

situation surrounded with uncertainty/unfairness in letting them demonstrate their true

achievements. Such feelings among students’ limit their potential performance during the test

situation, resulting in higher text anxiety directly causing drop in the student achievement.

Benjamin (1987) noted that anxiety can interface with attention, learning and testing.

Participants with high levels of cognitive test anxiety were also expected to perform significantly

more poorly on all measures of performance than participants with low levels of cognitive test

anxiety. Anxiety can have a negative effect on the information processing system. People with

anxiety have difficulty storing and retrieving information (Nelson & Harwood, 2011).

Mokashi (2007) reported that anxious children display poorer recall than less anxious

children and it is believed that the anxiety creates distraction stimulation that deflects attention

from relevant incoming information and therefore impairs memory and intellectual abilities.

Under two conditions the degree of anxiety associated with intellectual mastery occurs. First one

occurs when expectancy of success or failure is moderate and second one occurs when

motivation is high but expectancy of success is low. In the first instance the child was maximally

uncertain about how he will perform on a test and this uncertainty generates anxiety. The child

would be much less anxious if he knew definitely he would pass or fail the child values

competence on a particular intellectual task but expects to fail, anxiety is likely to be generated.

Anxiety plays significant role in students’ learning and academic performance (Tobias,

1979) Changing schools, Parents divorcing or pressure of work, exams and test can all be

difficult events for students. Anxiety is strongly linked with emotional depression. Test anxiety

leads to reduced attention span, falling memory and concentration resulting in low academic

performance.

Eysenck (2001) found that test-anxiety creates irrelevant thoughts, preoccupation, and

decreased attention and concentration thus, leads to academic difficulties.

Anxiety has its very high impact on students' academic achievement of IQ (90-94). There

is negative relationship between anxiety and academic achievement, which means that if one

factor increases, the other will decrease. In other words, when anxiety increases, academic

achievement falls. Anxiety has been linked to poor academic performance. High levels of

academic anxiety can negatively affect working memory (Owens, Stevenson, Hadwin, &

Norgate, 2012). Anxiety is also associated with high levels of worry that can affect academic

performance.

In the study of Academic Anxiety, self-efficacy and self-concept are very important. Self-

concept is defined as an individual's belief and evaluation about himself or herself and self

efficacy is the belief that one is capable of organizing and executing certain behaviors or

reaching certain goals. There is an inverse relationship between self- efficacy and self- concept

and academic anxiety. Students with high levels of self-efficacy and self-concept tend to have

lower levels of academic anxiety. Students who are higher achievers tend to have higher levels of

self-efficacy and self-concept. When students do well academically, they tend to feel better about

themselves (Ahmed et al., 2012).

Significant relationship of test anxiety with gender has also been found out. Females have

repeatedly been found to report higher levels of overall test anxiety than males (Bandalos et al.,

1995; Hembree, 1988; Volkmer&Feather, 1991; Zeidner, 1990). One explanation for the gender

differences in test anxiety is that males and females experience similar levels of test worry, but

females have higher levels of the emotionality component, producing higher general test anxiety

scores (Deffenbacher, 1980; Mueller, 1980). This proposition received limited support from

research revealing that differences between males’ and females’ reported anxiety levels were

greatest in the emotionality component. However, females also consistently report higher levels

of cognitive test anxiety than males (Hembree, 1988; Zeidner; 1990).

Teaching self-regulation in early childhood is important to reduce the development of

school related anxiety at an early age (Zelazo& Lyons, 2012). According to the Attribution

theory, students need to feel in control over the outcome of an academic task. Students who feel

more in control over the outcome will have more motivation to successfully complete that task

(Lim, 2007). Teachers and parents can play a significant role in enabling students to cope up

with anxiety. Problem based learning, discussing test procedures with students, and test taking

skills are methods to help students feel more in control of the outcome of academic tasks.

Teachers and parents can teach students the skills they need to feel in control of learning. By

helping students understand the learning process and how they can control it, parents and

teachers will help students control their anxiety.

HYPOTHESIS

Hypothesis I

Null Hypothesis: There is no relationship between Anxiety and academic performance of

students.

Alternate Hypothesis: Anxiety affects adversely on academic performance of students.

Hypothesis II

Null Hypothesis: There is no relationship between gender and anxiety.

Alternate Hypothesis: Females have higher Anxiety levels compared to Males.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

Logic of Research

The research is individualistic in nature. This research is conducted in restricted region

and hence the results of the research cannot be applied worldwide. The research is validation in

nature. The research is not discovery because the phenomenon of test anxiety and academic

performance has been studied earlier by many researchers.

Research Design

Our research design is descriptive in nature. Descriptive research are those in which

research are already been conducted. Descriptive research or statistical research provides data

about the population or universe being studied. But it can only describe the "who, what, when,

where and how" of a situation, not what caused it. Therefore, descriptive research is used when

the objective is to provide a systematic description that is as factual and accurate as possible

Sample Description

The subjects involved in this study comprise of postgraduate students from various

colleges of Delhi and NCR region.

For this research the sample population consisted of 250 postgraduate students. 200

complete responses were received thereby yielding 80 percent response rate. To avoid sample

bias, a researcher is required to obtain at least 10 percent of response rate from the sample size

and that 30 percent of response rates are needed to make the findings eligible for generalization

Thus, the obtained response rate of 80 percent indicates non – sample bias .

Instrumentation

The mode of data collection was a self administered structured questionnaire. The

questionnaire comprises of three sections, students Gender, Academic Performance and their

anxiety level. In section A, the respondents were asked to furnish demographic information such

as their names and gender. The questions in Section B were intended to measure individual

anxiety level This 5-item scale, developed by Cohen et al. (1983), has been acknowledged as the

most widely used psychological instrument in measuring the Anxiety level. It is designed to

measure the degree of anxiety level (Cohen et al., 1983). It was designed to be used in

communities whose samples have at least post graduate degree which is equivalent to the MBA

in this case. The items can be easily understood and very general in nature that they are free of

content specific to any subpopulation groups. Therefore, it is easy to score and can be

administered within a short period of time. This study adopts the constructs of anxiety level

using a five-point Likert-type scale ranging from 1 (Not at all) to 5 (Very Much). The anxiety

scores were obtained totaling the scores of all responses. Individual scores on the anxiety level

can range from lowest being 45 and highest being 168. The data on the academic performance

of students (Section C), i.e. the CGPAs, were obtained by the students of their first and second

semester combined results. The CGPA is a common measure of academic performance adopted

by many colleges in Delhi (NCR) region. The reason of obtaining their CGPAs is to find out

whether the anxiety they experienced leaves an impact on their academic performance or not.

Procedure

The questionnaires were distributed among students. The main objective of this was to

answer the prime objective of research, which was to determine anxiety levels among students.

To reduce the occurrence of internal validity threat, the questionnaires were personally delivered

and collected .the necessary instructions were provided to the students. The time allotted for

completion of questionnaire was 15 minutes.

DATA ANALYSIS

Pearson's chi-squared test (χ2) is the tool used to analyze the data. This test is applied to

categorical data to determine differences between sets.

Hypothesis I states that anxiety affects adversely on academic performance of students.

This study showed no statistically significant relationship between academic performance and

anxiety. The trend observed was high academic performance displayed by lower anxiety.

Pearson chi-square 16.596, p=. 002 (See Table 1). The relationship between the actual

count and the expected count is tested by Pearson chi-square. The level of statistical significance

is p = .05.

A tendency is indicated when p = .05 < .01.Table 1 exhibits that 31(15.6%) attributed

towards low CGPA level, 43(21.6%) attributed towards medium CGPA level and 125(62.8%)

attributed towards highest CGPA level. A total of 10 respondents showed preference towards

high anxiety level. The expected count for those with a preference for highest CGPA level

respondents who have high preferences for anxiety level would be 6.28(62.8%*10). Similarly a

total of 91 respondents showed preference towards medium anxiety level and the expected count

for those with medium CGPA level respondents who have medium preference for anxiety level

would be19.56 (21.6%*91).A total of 98 respondents showed preference towards low anxiety

level and the expected count would be 15.28(15.6%*98).

This finding is statistically significant (p = .002), it indicates there is a tendency for

academic performance being affected by high anxiety levels to great extent. Hence we accept the

alternate Hypothesis I.

TABLE-1 CROSSTABULATION OF CGPA LEVELS WITH ANXIETY LEVELSANXIETYLEVEL

Total1 2 3CGPA 1 Count 14 11 6 31

% within CGPA 45.2% 35.5% 19.4% 100.0%% within ANXIETYLEVEL 14.3% 12.1% 60.0% 15.6%% of Total 7.0% 5.5% 3.0% 15.6%

2 Count 21 20 2 43% within CGPA 48.8% 46.5% 4.7% 100.0%% within ANXIETYLEVEL 21.4% 22.0% 20.0% 21.6%% of Total 10.6% 10.1% 1.0% 21.6%

3 Count 63 60 2 125% within CGPA 50.4% 48.0% 1.6% 100.0%% within ANXIETYLEVEL 64.3% 65.9% 20.0% 62.8%% of Total 31.7% 30.2% 1.0% 62.8%

Total Count 98 91 10 199% within CGPA 49.2% 45.7% 5.0% 100.0%% within ANXIETYLEVEL 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0%% of Total 49.2% 45.7% 5.0% 100.0%

TABLE-II Chi-Square Tests

Value df Asymp. Sig. (2-sided)

Pearson Chi-Square 16.596a 4 .002Likelihood Ratio 12.354 4 .015Linear-by-Linear Association 3.356 1 .067N of Valid Cases 199

a. 2 cells (22.2%) have expected count less than 5. The minimum expected count is 1.56.

Hypothesis II states that there is no relationship between gender and anxiety. This study

exhibits that anxiety does not have a significant impact on gender. Pearson chi-square 2.035, p=.

361 (See Table III).

Out of 120 female respondents indicated a preference for lowest anxiety level 60(50%)

while the expected response would be 59.12(120*49.26%).52(43.3%) of those female

respondents showed preference towards medium anxiety level, the expected response is 54.84

(120*45.7%).8(6.7%) of female respondents indicated preference towards high anxiety level, the

expected response is 6(120*5.0%).

Out of 79 male respondents indicated a preference for lowest anxiety level 38(48.1%)

while the expected response would be 38.91(79*49.26%).39(49.4%) of those male respondents

showed preference towards medium anxiety level, the expected response is

36.10(79*45.7%).2(2.5%) of male respondents indicated preference towards high anxiety level,

the expected response is 3.95(79*5.0%).

TABLE –III CROSSTABULATION OF GENDER * ANXIETYLEVEL

ANXIETYLEVEL

Total1 2 3

GENDER FEMALE Count 60 52 8 120

% within GENDER 50.0% 43.3% 6.7% 100.0%

% within ANXIETYLEVEL 61.2% 57.1% 80.0% 60.3%

% of Total 30.2% 26.1% 4.0% 60.3%

MALE Count 38 39 2 79

% within GENDER 48.1% 49.4% 2.5% 100.0%

% within ANXIETYLEVEL 38.8% 42.9% 20.0% 39.7%

% of Total 19.1% 19.6% 1.0% 39.7%

Total Count 98 91 10 199

% within GENDER 49.2% 45.7% 5.0% 100.0%

% within ANXIETYLEVEL 100.0%

100.0% 100.0% 100.0%

% of Total 49.2% 45.7% 5.0% 100.0%

TABLE –IV Chi-Square Tests

Value df Asymp. Sig. (2-sided)

Pearson Chi-Square 2.035a 2 .361Likelihood Ratio 2.191 2 .334Linear-by-Linear Association .068 1 .794N of Valid Cases 199

This study shows that there is no significant relationship between gender and anxiety

level. Hence we accept the null hypothesis.

CONCLUSION

Significance of Anxiety in Academic Performance

The results reflect that low academic performance is influenced by anxiety. There exists an

inversely proportionate relation between anxiety and academic performance. As a result, increase

in anxiety level leads to low academic performance. Hence student with high anxiety have low

CGPA.

The effect of anxiety on academic performance is balanced in case of students who exhibit

moderate anxiety during performance.

The high academic performance indicates low amount of anxiety evident in student. Thereby

result in good performance.

Anxiety and Gender

The study indicates that gender does not have a significant relationship with Anxiety.

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