Test Anxiety Disorders - Effect on College Students

Running head: TEST ANXIETY DISORDERS- EFFECT ON COLLEGE STUDENTS
Anxiety in College: The Experiences of College Students with Test Anxiety Disorders
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

TEST ANXIETY DISORDERS- EFFECT ON COLLEGE STUDENTS
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CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW
Overview
Literature review is a process of collecting secondary data about a particular topic in
order to develop the theoretical understanding as well as the decision making ability for
methodological selection. The purpose of this literature review is to collect and present
secondary data associated with anxiety disorders, test anxiety, potential interventions and
other associated factors. The sources of this literature review are books, previous research
papers, case studies and psychology journals. The presentation of this literature review is
based on thematic review where the themes of the literature review have been chosen based
on the research questions and fields of collecting secondary data. Some themes are also
chosen while reviewing the literatures based on the most frequently discussed topic within
the chosen literatures. The themes of this chosen literature review are Anxiety Disorder,
Types of Anxiety Disorder, Test Anxiety symptoms, causes and treatment, College
Accommodation, Effect of test anxiety on community college students and GPA,
Government financial assistant and Importance of GPAF. This literature review, an inclusion
criteria has been used that is all the chosen literatures have been published within the past
five years.
Theoretical Framework
Several theoretical perspectives and concepts are already present in this field of study
that can be used to develop the theoretical model or concepts about the cognitive
advancement, anxiety issues and measures. The major theories that effectively guide this
study are Eysenck and Calvo's Attention Control Theory, processing efficiency theory,
Yerkes-Dodson law, later by Interference and Learning-deficit Models, Cognitive
Obstruction/Inattention Subscale and Worry Dubscale. Attention Control Theory
conceptualise the pattern of cognition and its association with anxiety. This theory presents

TEST ANXIETY DISORDERS- EFFECT ON COLLEGE STUDENTS
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the association between student environment and the causes of anxiety disorders. However,
the theory is limited to brain functionality and its association with memory processing and
emotional impact. Working memory efficiency theory is highly associated with this theory
further enhanced the understanding connected with this cognition theory and the
psychological attributes of students. The examination and the physiological factors behind the
anxious state in this paper has been driven by the Yerkes-Dodson law and interference and
learning-deficit models. The theory conceptualised the duration of exam and the available
resources for preparedness. Furthermore, Cognitive Obstruction/Inattention subscale and the
along with Worry subscale measures the association of test anxiety with other environmental
factors while assessing the level of negative thoughts the anxiety within students.
Anxiety Disorder
Anxiety disorder is one of the most mental health related problems around the world.
It is reported that the occasional anxiety has become an expected part of the human life and it
is very common to face this during any period of life of an individual. Moreover, it is
reported that the individual may feel anxious when he or she face any type of difficulties in
their life and so it may quite obvious that such condition can hamper the decision making
process of the individual as well. It can be stated that, despite facing such issues during the
decision making process due to the anxiety issues, the individual may face more problems
apart from the issue of dilemma during taking any kind of decision (Stein & Sareen, 2015).
According to the study of Lissek et al. (2015), it is reported that issue of anxiety disorders
present among the individuals are very difficult to overcome and on the contrary, with time
this problem gets worse instead of improvement in the condition. While discussing about the
risk factors of the anxiety disorders, it can be mentioned that both the environmental and
genetic risk factors are highly correlated with the problems of the anxiety disorders among
the people (comprise et al., 2014). According to the study findings of Hofmann and Otto

TEST ANXIETY DISORDERS- EFFECT ON COLLEGE STUDENTS
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(2017), it can be stated that a history of anxiety disorders in the family of the individuals is a
serious risk factor for an individual belongs to that family. In this context it is very crucial to
mention the fact that not only the history of anxiety disorders in the family but the history of
any type of mental illness among the family members or among the biological relatives can
enhance risks of anxiety disorders among an individual. Furthermore, it can be mentioned
that if an individual is exposed to stressful life condition and negative life situation, then there
is a high chances of getting affected by the issue of anxiety disorders. Other crucial risk
factor of anxiety disorder is associated with the physical conditions of the individuals. In this
regard, it can be stated that physical condition such thyroid problems can cause the onset of
anxiety disorders among the patients or individuals (Nelson, Lindstrom & Fels, 2014). In
another study by Peterman, Carper and Kendall (2015), it is stated that the problem of cardiac
arrhythmia can also be a causative factor for the problem of anxiety disorders among the
patients. In this study, it was reported that among the participants who had the problem of
cardiac arrhythmia previously, were more affected by the problem of anxiety disorders.
Therefore, from this study it can be concluded that the cardiac arrhythmia is a major risk
factor for anxiety disorder.
Types of Anxiety Disorder
While discussing about different types of anxiety disorders it can be stated that main types of
anxiety disorders are mainly as follows-
Generalized anxiety disorders (GAD) is very common among the patients and as a part of this
GAD people generally face extreme anxiety or concern, for at least 6 months regarding
different types of things such as social interactions, work, personal health, and circumstances
in normal routine life . The anxiety and fear can cause major problems in different areas of
their life, such as school, social interactions, and work. In this type of anxiety disorder people
generally face various problems such as feeling restless, issue of fatigue, muscle tension,