Tense of Psychological Distancing Self Talk and Test Performance Among GT High School Students

Authors

  • Nikitha Kota Carnegie Vanguard High School
  • Amanda Venta

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.47611/jsrhs.v10i3.1605

Keywords:

Cognitive Emotion Regulation, Objective Psychological Distancing, GT Students, Test-anxiety, Linguistic Tense of Self-talk

Abstract

Test taking is ubiquitous in academic life. Often, a student’s desire to perform well in these evaluative situations leads them to experience test-anxiety. However, test-anxiety has been repeatedly correlated with reduced test performance. Research suggests that reappraisal interventions promote the reduction of test anxiety which may result in improved test performance. But can linguistic tense mediate the effect of these interventions? If so, are these interventions helpful for GT students for whom test anxiety is a significant concern? This intervention study tested whether reading a message containing a type of reappraisal technique, objective psychological distancing, in a certain linguistic tense could reduce test anxiety and improve test performance for high school GT algebra students. Two hours before taking an exam, students read one of three messages: a first-person distancing, a third-person distancing, or a control message. There existed a slight improvement in student test performance from the control condition to the distancing conditions, yet this trend was not statistically significant.  

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

References or Bibliography

Ahmed, S. P., Somerville, L. H., & Sebastian, C. L. (2017). Using temporal distancing to regulate emotion in adolescence: modulation by reactive aggression. Cognition and Emotion, 32(4), 812–826. https://doi.org/10.1080/02699931.2017.1358698

Bandalos, D. L., Yates, K., & Thorndike-Christ, T. (1995). Effects of math self-concept, perceived self-efficacy, and attributions for failure and success on test anxiety. Journal of Educational Psychology, 87(4), 611–623. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-0663.87.4.611

Beer, J. (1991). Depression, General Anxiety, Test Anxiety, and Rigidity of Gifted Junior High and High School Children. Psychological Reports, 69(3_suppl), 1128–1130. https://doi.org/10.2466/pr0.1991.69.3f.1128

Beilock, S. L., & Ramirez, G. (2011). On the Interplay of Emotion and Cognitive Control: Implications for Enhancing Academic Achievement. Psychology of Learning and Motivation, 137–169. https://doi.org/10.1016/b978-0-12-387691-1.00005-3

Bowling, A. (2005). Mode of questionnaire administration can have serious effects on data quality. Journal of Public Health, 27(3), 281–291. https://doi.org/10.1093/pubmed/fdi031

Brady, S. T., Hard, B. M., & Gross, J. J. (2018). Reappraising test anxiety increases academic performance of first-year college students. Journal of Educational Psychology, 110(3), 395–406. https://doi.org/10.1037/edu0000219

Brooks, A. W. (2014). Get excited: Reappraising pre-performance anxiety as excitement. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 143(3), 1144–1158. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0035325

Bruehlman-Senecal, E., & Ayduk, O. (2015). This too shall pass: Temporal distance and the regulation of emotional distress. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 108(2), 356–375. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0038324

Cassady, J. C., & Gridley, B. E. (2005). The effects of online formative and summative assessment on test anxiety and performance. Journal of Technology, Learning, and Assessment, 4(1). http://www.jtla.org

Cassady, J. C., & Johnson, R. E. (2002). Cognitive Test Anxiety and Academic Performance. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 27(2), 270–295. https://doi.org/10.1006/ceps.2001.1094

Cassady, J. C., Mohammed, A., & Mathieu, L. (2004). Cross-Cultural Differences in Test Perceptions. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 35(6), 713–718. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022022104270113

Council of the Great City Schools, Hart, R., Casserly, M., Uzzell, R., Palacios, M., Corcoran, A., & Spurgeon, L. (2015, October). Student Testing in America’s Great City Schools: An Inventory and Preliminary Analysis. https://www.cgcs.org/cms/lib/DC00001581/Centricity/Domain/87/Testing%20Report.pdf

Denny, B. T., & Ochsner, K. N. (2014). Behavioral effects of longitudinal training in cognitive reappraisal. Emotion, 14(2), 425–433. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0035276

Garnefski, N., Koopman, H., Kraaij, V., & ten Cate, R. (2009). Brief report: Cognitive emotion regulation strategies and psychological adjustment in adolescents with a chronic disease. Journal of Adolescence, 32(2), 449–454. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.adolescence.2008.01.003

Gross, J. J. (1998). Antecedent- and response-focused emotion regulation: Divergent consequences for experience, expression, and physiology. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 74(1), 224–237. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.74.1.224

Gross, J. J. (2002). Emotion regulation: Affective, cognitive, and social consequences. Psychophysiology, 39(3), 281–291. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0048577201393198

Gross, J. J., & John, O. P. (2003). Individual differences in two emotion regulation processes: Implications for affect, relationships, and well-being. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 85(2), 348–362. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.85.2.348

Gross, J. J., & Levenson, R. W. (1993). Emotional suppression: Physiology, self-report, and expressive behavior. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 64(6), 970–986. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.64.6.970

Jamieson, J. P., Mendes, W. B., Blackstock, E., & Schmader, T. (2010). Turning the knots in your stomach into bows: Reappraising arousal improves performance on the GRE. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 46(1), 208–212. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp.2009.08.015

Jamieson, J. P., Peters, B. J., Greenwood, E. J., & Altose, A. J. (2016). Reappraising Stress Arousal Improves Performance and Reduces Evaluation Anxiety in Classroom Exam Situations. Social Psychological and Personality Science, 7(6), 579–587. https://doi.org/10.1177/1948550616644656

Johns, M., Inzlicht, M., & Schmader, T. (2008). Stereotype threat and executive resource depletion: Examining the influence of emotion regulation. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 137(4), 691–705. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0013834

Kross, E., & Ayduk, O. (2017). Self-Distancing. Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, 81–136. https://doi.org/10.1016/bs.aesp.2016.10.002

Kross, E., Bruehlman-Senecal, E., Park, J., Burson, A., Dougherty, A., Shablack, H., Bremner, R., Moser, J., & Ayduk, O. (2014). Self-talk as a regulatory mechanism: How you do it matters. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 106(2), 304–324. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0035173

Leadbeater, B., Thompson, K., & Gruppuso, V. (2012). Co-occurring Trajectories of Symptoms of Anxiety, Depression, and Oppositional Defiance From Adolescence to Young Adulthood. Journal of Clinical Child & Adolescent Psychology, 41(6), 719–730. https://doi.org/10.1080/15374416.2012.694608

Martínez-Mesa, J., González-Chica, D. A., Bastos, J. L., Bonamigo, R. R., & Duquia, R. P. (2014). Sample size: how many participants do I need in my research? Anais Brasileiros de Dermatologia, 89(4), 609–615. https://doi.org/10.1590/abd1806-4841.20143705

Mertler, C. A. (2018). Introduction to Educational Research (2nd ed.). SAGE Publications, Inc.

Nook, E. C., Schleider, J. L., & Somerville, L. H. (2017). A linguistic signature of psychological distancing in emotion regulation. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 146(3), 337–346. https://doi.org/10.1037/xge0000263

Powers, J. P., & LaBar, K. S. (2019). Regulating emotion through distancing: A taxonomy, neurocognitive model, and supporting meta-analysis. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, 96, 155–173. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neubiorev.2018.04.023

Putwain, D., & Daly, A. L. (2014). Test anxiety prevalence and gender differences in a sample of English secondary school students. Educational Studies, 40(5), 554–570. https://doi.org/10.1080/03055698.2014.953914

Rayhan, R. U., Zheng, Y., Uddin, E., Timbol, C., Adewuyi, O., & Baraniuk, J. N. (2013). Administer and collect medical questionnaires with Google documents: a simple, safe, and free system. Appl Med Inform, 33(3), 12–21. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24415903/

Reteguiz, J. A. (2006). Relationship between anxiety and standardized patient test performance in the medicine clerkship. Journal of General Internal Medicine, 21(5), 415–418. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1525-1497.2006.00419.x

Richards, J. M., & Gross, J. J. (2000). Emotion regulation and memory: The cognitive costs of keeping one’s cool. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 79(3), 410–424. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.79.3.410

Rizwan, R., & Mahmood, N. (2010). The Relationship between Test Anxiety and Academic Achievement. Bulletin of Education and Research, 32(2), 63–74. https://ssrn.com/abstract=2362291

Salters-Pedneault, K. (2020, June 19). Can Psychological Self-Report Information Be Trusted? Verywell Mind. https://www.verywellmind.com/definition-of-self-report-425267

Smith, C., Edwards, P., & Free, C. (2018). Assessing the validity and reliability of self-report data on contraception use in the MObile Technology for Improved Family Planning (MOTIF) randomised controlled trial. Reproductive Health, 15(1), 50. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12978-018-0494-7

Spielberger, C. D., & Gonzalez, H. P. (1980). Preliminary professional manual for the test anxiety inventory. Palo Alto, CA : Consulting Psychologists Press.

Trope, Y., & Liberman, N. (2010). Construal-level theory of psychological distance. Psychological Review, 117(2), 440–463. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0018963

von der Embse, N., Jester, D., Roy, D., & Post, J. (2018). Test anxiety effects, predictors, and correlates: A 30-year meta-analytic review. Journal of Affective Disorders, 227, 483–493. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2017.11.048

Vygotsky, L. S., & Kozulin, A. (2012). Thought and Language, revised and expanded edition (The MIT Press) (revised and expanded edition). The MIT Press.

Webb, T. L., Miles, E., & Sheeran, P. (2012). Dealing with feeling: A meta-analysis of the effectiveness of strategies derived from the process model of emotion regulation. Psychological Bulletin, 138(4), 775–808. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0027600

White, R. E., Kuehn, M. M., Duckworth, A. L., Kross, E., & Ayduk, Z. (2019). Focusing on the future from afar: Self-distancing from future stressors facilitates adaptive coping. Emotion, 19(5), 903–916. https://doi.org/10.1037/emo0000491

Williams, J. E. (1991). Modeling test anxiety, self concept and high school students’ academic achievement. Journal of Research & Development in Education, 25(1), 51–57. https://psycnet.apa.org/record/1992-17816-001

Published

10-10-2021

How to Cite

Kota, N., & Venta, A. (2021). Tense of Psychological Distancing Self Talk and Test Performance Among GT High School Students. Journal of Student Research, 10(3). https://doi.org/10.47611/jsrhs.v10i3.1605

Issue

Section

HS Research Articles