Abstract
Inspired by the worry — emotionality distinction suggested by (1967), much research in test anxiety has emphasized the importance of self-related cognitions. In fact self-related cognitions seem to have been the focus of test anxiety research since the introduction of the worry construct in late 60’s and early 70’s. Sarason is one of those who have most thoroughly explicated this view. (1975b) stated that “Perhaps anxiety, while important, is not quite so pivotal. Perhaps the more basic process is not anxiety, but self-preoccupation or self-focusing.” (p. 35). The self-related cognitions concept has been incorporated later in the framework of trait-state anxiety theory (Spielberger, Anton, & Bedell, 1976; Spielberger, Gonzales, Taylor, Algaze, & Anton, 1978) in terms of the worry component of the trait test anxiety construct. The self-focusing aspect of worry has been considered to be a key construct in a cognitiveattentional approach to test anxiety (Sarason, 1972, 1975a, 1975b; Wine, 1971, 1980). (1987) are among those who have most strongly emphasized the notion of self-focus. (1992) stated that self-related thoughts are seen as a necessary ingredient of the anxiety experience (Schwarzer & Jerusalem, 1992). Recently self-related cognitions have entered an integrated theory of achievement anxiety from a self-worth perspective, which emphasizes the notion of anxiety as a failure-of-self (Covington, 1992). In spite of the emphasis that is put on the self-related cognitions, these cognitions are not fully understood with respect to their nature and measurement and how they may be related to academic performance. This implies that what types of self-related thoughts that are supposed to be measured by instruments of worry remained rather unelaborated. This state of affairs suggests that how individualand group differences in test anxiety mirror self-related cognitions still remains an open question. A reasonable point of departure to scrutinize this problem would be to examine measures of worry as well as emotionality with respect to the extent and type of selfrelated cognitions they may be measuring.
This study was supported by research grants provided by Faculty of Psychology, University of Bergen, Norway. The authors would like to acknowledge stud. psychol. Birthe K. Engelsen for her assistance in collecting data.
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Hagtvet, K.A., Sharma, S. (1995). The Distinction between Self- and Other-Related Failure Outcome Expectancies: An Internal Domain Study of Indian and Norwegian Students. In: Oosterwegel, A., Wicklund, R.A. (eds) The Self in European and North American Culture: Development and Processes. NATO ASI Series, vol 84. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-0331-2_18
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