Reappraising Test & Performance Anxiety, a.k.a. It’s Time to Stop Getting Stressed about Stress
Most students report high levels of stress related to tests, mid-terms and finals. An overwhelming majority believe that stress and anxiety interfere with academic performance and that the best way to respond to physiological signs of anxiety is to try to calm down. Recent research shows that this approach is often ineffective, and suggests that it may be time to re-evaluate how we think about stress and anxiety. Several studies indicate that anxiety in and of itself is not harmful to performance and may even be beneficial, but negative meta-emotions, e.g. judgment and worry about being stressed do undermine performance. Attempting to suppress anxiety or calm down may draw attention away from engaging fully in the task at hand, while accepting nerves or reinterpreting them as excitement significantly improves performance. Two studies of potential benefit to our students are highlighted below.
1. Reading the following paragraph prior to taking the practice GRE resulted in significantly higher math scores compared to the control group. When participants took the actual GRE, those who had read this paragraph 1-3 months earlier maintained significantly higher math scores compared to the control group.
"People think that feeling anxious while taking a test will make them do poorly. However, recent research suggests that stress doesn't hurt performance. People who feel anxious during a test might actually do better. This means you shouldn't feel concerned if you do feel anxious while taking a test. If you find yourself feeling nervous, simply remind yourself that your stress could be helping you do well."
You can read the full study here: https://dash.harvard.edu/bitstream/handle/1/4214916/Mendes_ReappraisingArousal.pdf?sequence=2
2. Another series of studies show that reappraising performance anxiety as excitement, simply by stating “I’m excited,” significantly improved students’ performance on a math test, public speaking task, and karaoke singing. In each study participants were given instructions intended to induce anxiety, and were randomly assigned to one of 3 conditions: group 1 stated aloud, “I’m anxious,” group 2 stated aloud “I’m excited” and group 3 made no statement. In all 3 studies, the “excited” participants had significantly higher performance scores and were rated by independent judges as more confident than the other two conditions. You can read the full studies here https://www.apa.org/pubs/journals/releases/xge-a0035325.pdf
I regularly hear that students are under tremendous stress. Many are too anxious to speak up in class and some break down in tears at their first Amherst test. Is it possible to make a dent in the stress culture and help students engage more fully in the classroom by facilitating a simple shift in their attitude toward “nerves”? Here are a few ideas to experiment with this theory in the classroom:
- Include the paragraph above (under #1) as an introduction to quizzes, tests and exams.
- When students need to give presentations, acknowledge that people often feel anxious about public speaking, and that thinking of this anxiety as a source of energy and labeling it as excitement has been shown to significantly improve performance.
- Assign one of the above articles or the TED Talk “How to Make Stress Your Friend” as homework https://www.ted.com/talks/kelly_mcgonigal_how_to_make_stress_your_friend#t-386438
- Change your language about performance anxiety. Replace language such as “Don’t worry,” “Relax,” “Stay calm” with language such as, “If you’re nervous, don’t worry about it. Contrary to popular belief, nerves actually improve performance” or “Performance improves when you channel nervous energy toward the task at hand rather than trying to suppress it or calm down.”
If you have other ideas about how to apply this research, or if you do test it out in the classroom, I would be interested in hearing your thoughts.
Jessica Gifford, Mental Health Educator jgifford@amherst.edu