Identifying Patterns of Appraising Tests in First-Year College Students: Implications for Anxiety and Emotion Regulation During Test Taking

The authors explored patterns of appraising tests in a large sample of 1st-year college students. Cluster analysis was used to identify homogeneous groups of 1st-year students who shared similar patterns of cognitive appraisals about testing. The authors internally validated findings with an indepen...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of educational psychology 2008-11, Vol.100 (4), p.942-960
Main Authors: Davis, Heather A, DiStefano, Christine, Schutz, Paul A
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Ability tests
Academic Achievement
Anxiety
Biological and medical sciences
Cluster analysis
Cluster Grouping
Cognitive Appraisal
College Freshmen
College students
Coping Behavior
Educational psychology
Emotional Regulation
Emotional Response
Emotions
Female
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Homogeneous Grouping
Human
Male
Multivariate Analysis
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychology. Psychophysiology
Pupil and student. Academic achievement and failure
Self Control
Student Attitudes
Test Anxiety
Test Taking
Test Wiseness
Undergraduate Students
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Summary:The authors explored patterns of appraising tests in a large sample of 1st-year college students. Cluster analysis was used to identify homogeneous groups of 1st-year students who shared similar patterns of cognitive appraisals about testing. The authors internally validated findings with an independent sample from the same population of students and examined the extent to which cluster membership differentiated undergraduates on the basis of external indicators (e.g., anxiety, emotion-regulation strategies, and achievement). The authors used 2 randomly drawn samples to conduct an initial cluster analysis ( n = 1,107) and to replicate the solution on a 2nd, independent cluster and cross-classification analysis ( n = 1,108). There may be 5 subtypes of test takers who differ in how they approach tests, their experience of anxiety, and how they manage problems that occur during test taking. Theoretical implications for emotion and emotion regulation, as well as practical implications for working with undergraduates who experience test anxiety, are discussed.
ISSN:0022-0663
1939-2176
DOI:10.1037/a0013096