ERIC Number: ED291039
Record Type: RIE
Publication Date: 1987-Apr-30
Pages: 16
Abstractor: N/A
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: N/A
EISSN: N/A
A Descriptive Study of Community College Students Coping with Examination Stress.
Grina, Michaele Erin
In previous research students' reactions to examinations from a cognitive-process perspective have been based on a singular study of university college students. The purpose of this study was to describe and predict students' reactions to a community college mid-term examination, based on a cognitively-oriented, process-centered theory of stress and coping. Students' reactions were expected to produce shifting patterns of their thinking, feeling, and coping through three stages of the examination: anticipation stage before the examination (Time I); the day of the examination (Time II); and the outcome stage when grades were announced (TIme III). Subjects consisted of freshman and sophomore community college student volunteers (N=117) enrolled in a mathematics course. Personality traits, emotions, and coping were assessed. Findings of the study in regard to stress and coping being defined as a process were inconclusive. In contrast to an earlier study, stress emotions were not shown to be a process. The results for considering coping as a process were also inconclusive, although significant changes in coping were observed. Individual differences in emotional reactions recorded at each stage of the examination were due in large part to cognitive appraisal and coping. (Implications of the research for counseling programs promoting academic achievement, study skills classes, and counseling test-anxious students are presented.) (ABL)
Publication Type: Reports - Research; Dissertations/Theses - Doctoral Dissertations
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A
Note: Excerpt from Ph.D. Dissertation, Oregon State University.