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Test anxiety is a combination of physiological over-arousal, tension and somatic symptoms, along with worry, dread, fear of failure, and catastrophizing, that occur before or during test situations.〔Zeidner M. (1998). ''Test anxiety: The state of the art''. New York, NY: Plenum〕 It is a physiological condition in which people experience extreme stress, anxiety, and discomfort during and/or before taking a test. This anxiety creates significant barriers to learning and performance. Research suggests that high levels of emotional distress have a direct correlation to reduced academic performance and higher overall student drop-out rates.〔 Test anxiety can have broader consequences, negatively affecting a student's social, emotional and behavioural development, as well as their feelings about themselves and school. Highly test-anxious students score about 12 percentile points below their low anxiety peers 〔Cassidy, J & Johnson. R. (2001). Cognitive Test Anxiety and Academic Performance. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 27, 270-295〕 Test anxiety is prevalent amongst the student populations of the world. It has been studied formally since the early 1950s beginning with researchers George Mandler and Seymour Sarason.〔The original research and development of the TAQ (Test Anxiety Questionnaire) was conducted by: 〕 Sarason's brother, Irwin G. Sarason, then contributed to early investigation of test anxiety, clarifying the relationship between the focused effects of test anxiety, other focused forms of anxiety, and generalized anxiety. Test anxiety can also be labeled as anticipatory anxiety, situational anxiety or evaluation anxiety. Some anxiety is normal and often helpful to stay mentally and physically alert. When one experiences too much anxiety, however, it can result in emotional or physical distress, difficulty concentrating, and emotional worry. Inferior performance arises not because of intellectual problems or poor academic preparation, but because testing situations create a sense of threat for those experiencing test anxiety; anxiety resulting from the sense of threat then disrupts attention and memory function.〔Sarason, I.G. Sarason, B.G. Pierce, G.R. (1995). Cognitive interference: At the intelligence–personality crossroads. In D.H. Saklofske & M. Zeidner, (Eds.) ''International handbook of personality and intelligence'' (pp. 285-296). New York: Plenum Press.〕 Researchers suggest that between 25 to 40 percent of students experience test anxiety.〔, J.C. (2010). Test anxiety: Contemporary theories and implications for learning. In J.C. Cassady (Ed.), ''Anxiety in schools: The causes, consequences, and solutions for academic anxieties'' (pp. 7-26). New York, NY: Peter Lang,〕 Students with disabilities and students in gifted educations classes tend to experience high rates of test anxiety. Students who experience test anxiety tend to be easily distracted during a test, experience difficulty with comprehending relatively simple instructions, and have trouble organizing or recalling relevant information.〔 ==Signs and symptoms== Researchers believe that feelings of anxiety arise to prepare a person for threats.〔DePhil, M.B., Brilot, B., Nettle, D. (2011). Anxiety: An Evolutionary Approach. Canadian Journal of Psychiatry, 56(12):707-715〕 In humans, anxiety symptoms are distributed along a continuum and different symptom levels of anxiety predict outcomes. Responses consist of increased heart rate, stress hormone secretion, restlessness, vigilance, and fear of a potentially dangerous environment.〔 Anxiety prepares the body physically, cognitively, and behaviourally to detect and deal with threats to survival. As a result, a person’s body begins to hyperventilate to allow more oxygen to enter the bloodstream, divert blood to muscles, and sweat to cool the skin.〔 In individuals, the degree to which an anxiety response is developed is based on the probability of bad things happening in the environment and the individual’s ability to cope with them. In the case of test taking, this might be a failing exam grade that prevents the student from being accepted to a post-secondary institution. A person's beliefs about their own competencies are a form of self-knowledge, which plays an important role in analyzing situations that might be threatening. When a person has feelings of low competence about their abilities they are likely to anticipate negative outcomes such as failure, under uncertain conditions. Thus, evaluative situations including tests and exams, are perceived as more threatening by students who have low competencies.〔 There is a difference between generalized anxiety disorders (GAD) and test anxiety. GAD is characterized by "trait anxiety" which results in a person experiencing high levels of stress across a wide range of situations. In contrast, people with test anxiety have a "state anxiety" which results in high levels of nervousness specific to testing.〔sady, J.C. (2010). Test anxiety: Contemporary theories and implications for learning. In J.C. Cassady (Ed.), Anxiety in schools: The causes, consequences, and solutions for academic anxieties (pp. 7-26). New York, NY: Peter Lang〕 Symptoms of test anxiety can range from moderate to severe. "Students who exhibit moderate symptoms are still able to perform relatively well on exams. Other students with severe anxiety will often experience panic attacks." Common physical symptoms include: headache, upset stomach, feeling of fear, feeling of dread, shortness of breath, sweating, pacing or fidgeting, crying, racing thoughts and blanking out During states of excitement or stress, the body releases adrenaline. Adrenaline is known to cause physical symptoms that accompany test anxiety, such as increased heart rate, sweating, and rapid breathing. In many cases having adrenaline is a good thing. It is helpful when dealing with stressful situations, ensuring alertness and preparation.〔Cohen S., Kozlovsky N., Matar M.A., Kaplan Z., Zohar J. and Cohen H. (2012). Post-exposure sleep deprivation facilitates correctly-timed interactions between glucocorticoid and adrenergic systems which attenuate traumatic stress responses. ''Neuropsychopharmacology'' 37; 2388–2404〕 But for some people the symptoms are difficult or impossible to handle, making it impossible to focus on tests. Test Anxiety consists of: *Physiological Overarousal — often termed ''emotionality''. Somatic signs include headaches, stomach aches, nausea, diarrhea, excessive sweating, shortness of breath, light-headedness or fainting, rapid heartbeat and dry mouth. Test anxiety can also lead to panic attacks, in which the student may have a sudden intense fear, difficulty breathing, and extreme discomfort. *Worry & Dread — maladaptive cognitions. This includes catastrophic expectations of gloom and doom, fear of failure, random thoughts, feelings of inadequacy, self-condemnation, negative self-talk, frustration and comparing oneself unfavorably to others. *Cognitive/Behavioral — poor concentration, "going blank" or "freezing," confusion, and poor organization. The inability to concentrate leads to impaired performance on tests. Fidgeting during or outright avoidance of the test. Students often report "blanking out" even though they have studied sufficiently for the test. *Emotional — low self-esteem, depression, anger, and a feeling of hopelessness.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「test anxiety」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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