EXAMINATION ANXIETY, SELF-CONFIDENCE AND PSYCHOLOGICAL

WELLBEING AMONG HIGHER SECONDARY STUDENTS IN NEW DELHI

Submitted to the IGNOU for the award of

Master of Arts Degree in PSYCHOLOGY (MPCE-16)

By
ANKIT DIXIT
Enrolment No: 176549393

Under the Supervision of

DR. SUDARSAN BEHERA
Academic Counsellor,
Regional Study Centre (Code-38039)
Indira Gandhi National Open University
Dwarka, Delhi-110077

SCHOOL OF SOCIAL SCIENCES

INDIRA GANDHI NATIONAL OPEN UNIVERSITY
MAIDAN GARHI, NEW DELHI – 110068

1
 CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION

1.1 Overview
This chapter presents among other items, the background of the study, definition of the
study variables, connection among the study variables, operationalization of the
variables, statement of the problem, objectives and the hypothesis of this study. Lastly,
chapter summary of the study variables will be highlighted.
1.2 Background of the study
Examination anxiety among school students has been a topic of interest for many years.
School students experience high anxiety due to various reasons such as lack of
preparation, style of their study and lack of needed information. When anxiety is
perceived or becomes excessive, it leads to lower self-confidence of students before and
during examinations and ultimately affects their academic achievement. The present
study was conducted to know the examinations anxiety felt by school students under
different subjects and streams of higher secondary education. Further comparison was
done to find out the level of anxiety felt by school students enrolled for higher
secondary schools. The sample consisted of 75 school students drawn using stratified
random sampling method from various higher secondary schools in New Delhi. A
questionnaire was developed by the researcher to access examination anxiety, self-
confidence and psychological wellbeing among higher secondary school. The result
shows correlation between examination anxiety, self-confidence and psychological
wellbeing of school students. On comparing the anxiety, self-confidence and
psychological wellbeing among students of different subjects and streams, the students
of Higher Secondary School in New Delhi was found some students having highest
anxiety but some has not anxiety during examination time because in this research, we
will find data from private and government school students. So students from
government schools suffer anxiety due to unaware of children from facilities and school
information. So lower self-confidence of the children for exam preparation and effect of
psychological wellbeing on the children health. Also students from private school
2
having low anxiety and their high attitude of self-confidence and also no effect on
psychological wellbeing of the school children. There was significant difference found
in the anxiety, self-confidence and psychological wellbeing level of higher secondary
students. Examination anxiety is the experience of feeling an intense moment of fear or
panic before and/or during an exam or assessment.
There are two types of anxiety:
Low anxiety: students who experience low anxiety may feel a little nervous about an
upcoming exam but are still able to focus their attention on their studies or the questions
asked during the assessment. Usually low anxiety students are not struck with intrusive
thoughts or feel debilitated by the exam.
High anxiety: students who experience high anxiety show an immediate anxiety
reaction when exposed to the feared test situation. They attempt to avoid the situation by
not showing up to the exam, or may endure it but with extreme fear. High anxiety can
tip some into a sense of panic: “I just really can’t do this!”
Students with either high or low anxiety can respond to tests in different ways. But
research shows that managing anxiety effectively can actually help with exam
performance.
The challenge is to recognize when your anxiety has increased past an optimal level so
that it starts to impact your ability to complete the exam - this is a high level of anxiety.
Some physical responses of high anxiety include a speeding heart, damp hands,
shortness or rapid breath, and feeling queasy.
The physical response is usually experienced in high levels of anxiety when the “fight or
flight” response is triggered. This is how our bodies respond to a perceived threat – and
while uncomfortable, it is not harmful.
Symptoms of Examination Anxiety
The symptoms of test anxiety can vary considerably and range from mild to severe.
Some students experience only mild symptoms of test anxiety and are still able to do
fairly well on exams. Other students are nearly incapacitated by their anxiety,
performing dismally on tests or experiencing panic attacks before or during exams.
According to the Anxiety and Depression Association of America, symptoms of test
anxiety can be physical, behavioral, cognitive, and emotional. Common physical

3
symptoms include things such as headaches, diarrhea, rapid breathing, and light-
headedness.
Others might experience a racing heartbeat and a sense of shakiness. In the most severe
cases, people can feel nauseous and short of breath or might even experience a full-
blown panic attack.
Test anxiety can also result in behavioral and cognitive symptoms such as negative
thinking and difficulty concentrating. People experiencing test anxiety might compare
themselves to other students and mistakenly believe that they are the only person
suffering from such terrible anxiety. Other symptoms of test anxiety can involve
emotions such as a sense of helplessness, fear, anger, and disappointment.
Physical symptoms of test anxiety include sweating, shaking, rapid heartbeat, dry
mouth, fainting, and nausea. Milder cases of test anxiety can cause a sense of
"butterflies" in the stomach, while more severe cases can actually cause students to
become physically ill.
Cognitive and behavioral symptoms can include fidgeting or outright avoidance of
testing situations. In some cases, test anxiety can become so severe that students will
drop out of school in order to avoid the source of their fear. Substance abuse can also
occur since many students attempt to self-treat their anxiety by taking downers such as
prescription medications and alcohol. Many people with test anxiety report blanking out
on answers to the test, even though they thoroughly studied the information and were
sure that they knew the answers to the questions. Negative self-talk, trouble
concentrating on the test and racing thoughts are also common cognitive symptoms of
test anxiety.
Emotional symptoms of test anxiety can include depression, low self-esteem, anger, and
a feeling of hopelessness. Students often feel helpless to change their situation or belittle
and berate themselves for their symptoms and poor test performance.
Fortunately, there are steps that students can take to alleviate these unpleasant and
oftentimes harmful symptoms. By learning more about the possible causes of their test
anxiety, students can begin to look for helpful solutions.
Causes of Examination Anxiety
While test anxiety can be very stressful for students who suffer from it, many people do
not realize that is actually quite common. Nervousness and anxiety are perfectly normal

4
reactions to stress. For some people, however, this fear can become so intense that it
actually interferes with their ability to perform well.
A few potential causes of test anxiety include:
A history of poor testing outcomes if you have done poorly on tests before, either
because you didn't study well enough or because you were so anxious, you couldn't
remember the answers, this can cause even more anxiety and a negative attitude every
time you have to take another test.
Being unprepared if you didn't study or didn't study well enough, this can add to your
feeling of anxiety.
Being afraid of failure if you connect your sense of self-worth to your test scores, the
pressure you put on yourself can cause severe test anxiety.
Mental Causes of Examination Anxiety
In addition to the underlying biological causes of anxiety, there are many mental factors
that can play a role in this condition. Student expectations are one major mental factor.
For example, if a student believes that she will perform poorly on an exam, she is far
more likely to become anxious before and during a test.
When anxiety is (and isn’t) useful
Anxiety can be useful in certain situations - for example, if you are in danger (jumping
out of the way of a car). It can also help to increase our attention to the threatening event
and improve our response.
But it is not so helpful when the threat we are faced with is cognitive, like an exam.
The thoughts involved in exam anxiety usually include negative thinking about
performance (also known as worry) and/or the physical reaction to thinking about the
upcoming exam: “I’m going to fail”, “I quit”, “My heart is leaping out of my chest and I
can’t focus.”
Impact of high anxiety on performance
Research has shown that people who experience high levels of anxiety in exams can
also see their performance decline in evaluation situations.
These people tend to perceive exams as threatening and respond with intense emotional
responses, making it difficult to focus on the task at hand.
Assessment situations also evoke worry responses that interfere with effective
performance on cognitive and intellectual tasks. This then impacts on the person’s
chance of performing their best on the exam.
5
Exam anxiety may also interfere with your ability to show your academic and cognitive
capabilities.
Relaxation training
Psychologists and well-being teams at school have a range of techniques to help manage
test anxiety – and can also recommend ways to improve your study skills.
The goals of the techniques are to help students understand the nature of their anxiety so
that they can cope more effectively with upcoming evaluations.
This may include behavioural intervention that aims to teach relaxation training like
mindfulness.
Mindfulness is where a student tries to focus on the present moment, while calmly
acknowledging and accepting their anxious feelings, thoughts, and physical reactions.
Relaxation training can be used alongside a process of systematic desensitization – this
is where a person visualizes a scene while completely relaxed, and the mental image
evokes some of the feelings of the real scene.
The idea is that if you learn to relax while visualizing yourself taking the exam, you can
also learn to be relaxed while actually taking the exam.
Support through special consideration
Some students who experience high levels of anxiety (intense panic or fear about an
exam that results in them being unable to do the test) can access additional support
through special consideration at their school.
This varies based on the individual needs of the student. But some students may need
access to a separate room to complete exams, regular breaks during the exam or more
time.
To access this type of consideration, get in touch with your school’s wellbeing team or a
psychologist (see resources below) to help develop an individualized plan for you
during the exam season.
Learning to work through your exam anxiety can have a number of positive effects
including:
Improved academic performance
Reduction in stress and distress
Increased sense of control and confidence
Decreased frustration

6
Tips for coping with exam anxiety
When getting ready for exams try to:
Prepare ahead of time by working on sections of the content each day
Use practice exam papers as an opportunity to manage anxiety
Identify your anxiety early by noticing your physical responses
Try replacing unhelpful thoughts with more encouraging self-talk by challenging your
worried and negative thoughts
Practice focusing your attention on the task at hand (mindfulness), rather than getting
tangled in your anxiety and thinking of the “what if?”
Learn a few skills for reducing your physical reactions of anxiety
Remember good self-care: pay attention to your sleep, nutrition, exercise, relaxation
routines, and reach out for social support.
Therapy and Medications Can Also Help
If you need extra support, make an appointment with your school counselor or primary
care physician.
Depending on the severity of your symptoms, your physician may also
recommend cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT), anti-anxiety medications, or a
combination of both. CBT focuses on helping people change both the behaviors and
underlying thoughts that contribute to unwanted behaviors or feelings.

Self confidence
Confidence level in students is an important factor in educational success. As more
students are facing bullying and harassment, confidence in students can suffer and when
this occurs, grades often suffer. Building confidence in students is one of the most
important step parents can take to ensure an atmosphere of learning. If a child is
suffering from bullying, immediate steps must be taken to correct the situation and
rebuild the level of confidence in these students. When a child loses self-esteem, they
may lose motivation in learning. By building confidence in students, parents can
safeguard the most important ingredient to success that is motivation.
Confidence in students is vital for his or her success. The amount of self-confidence a
child possesses will affect his or her educational goals. If a child loses confidence in
school, his or her grades will ultimately be affected. When a student’s self-confidence
suffers, a child may give up on his or her hopes, dreams and plans. They may feel that
7
they are unworthy of obtaining their goals or it is impossible to achieve them. Building
confidence in students can help prevent student dropout rates, ensure that kids maintain
their love for learning and help them achieve their dreams and goals. There is no
denying to the fact that the relationship between a student’s confidence and educational
success is intertwined. Self-confidence is one’s ability to judge his own social and
personal standing with respect to his environment. Self-confidence is something that is
influenced by factors like upbringing, work environment and the level of dedication.
High self-confidence is an important factor in improving business ties and balancing
personal life.
Confidence is an important factor in defining the life of any individual. Be it school or
college students or a working professional, level of confidence effects results. Exam
season has kicked off and it is bound to happen that a student does not perform well in
the exam because he/she lost confidence somewhere down the line. There might be
several reasons resulting to loss of confidence and it is the duty of a parent to read the
signs of this low confidence in their kid and try to fix it up quickly else it might prove to
be very harmful to the kids while growing up.
Factors That Might Cause Loss of Confidence
Students in the modern schools face issues such as bullying. Fellow mates in the
school/college find something different and make it a thing to bully. They get into
groups and together they tease. The kid being bullied is left alone and is laughed at.
Another reason for lower confidence is scoring low in the class tests or exams. Low
scores also affect kids. They might not even know where they are going wrong. To add
to that, the constant fear of, “How will parents react? They would become angry and
might even beat and punish” eats on their confidence.
What can help you be confident?
Talk
Talk to your parents, friends or teachers and seek help. Do not keep disturbing things to
you. If you fearlessly talk what you feel and makes feel low, your elders can sure help
you find a way out with the experiences that they have.
Practice Acceptance
Try giving yourself a chance to improve. You can always give yourself a chance to be
better by accepting what you are, what are you best at and what troubles you. Try to
overcome your troubles and work towards being good at what you like.
8
Achievements
Focus on what you have achieved rather than thinking about what you are not good at.
What you have accomplished is what you do the best. Try making it better. That will
make you happy and confident which, in turn, will help you cope with other things that
challenge you.
Never ever care about what people will think of you. Do not base your life and what you
do on the basis of what others will think of it. As long as you are not doing harm to
society, you are good to follow what you like.
Low confidence will only contribute to making life miserable for you. And that isn’t
good at all when you are preparing or writing exams. Confidently prepare without any
pressure. Do not be nervous during the exam. Avoid thinking negative, just work hard,
practice more and think positive, do not strain yourself, you will do good in exams and
anything that you do, if you are CONFIDENT you will never fail and be successful.
Psychological wellbeing
Mind, body and soul need infinite peace, joy and happiness. The one point agenda
people need to follow is that one’s wellbeing and happiness should not depend on others
or on materialistic gains, fame etc. Psychological imbalance occurs if one’s happiness is
conditional. Happiness is internal. If the mind is happy the body is stress free and the
same is generated in one’s life, home and work place. Hence psychological well-Being
accelerates an all-round source of pious, peaceful inter relation with each other. Healthy
body and healthy mind generates the same positive vibes all around and once these
skills are mastered and imbibed they benefit everyone. Its important for teachers to be
happy, peaceful and possess a body that is stress free. Therefore a teacher’s
psychological well-being will lead to effective performance which in turn will benefit
the students.
Concept of Psychological Well-being
Carol Ryff’s Model of Psychological Well-Being provides a powerful framework
through which one can analyze and organize one’s life, and can generate ideas about
how to live better. The sense of happiness or contentment with life is the result of
psychological wellbeing. It also means active engagement with life activities and others.
Psychological well-being is compromised when negative emotions interfere with a
person’s ability to function effectively in their daily life. Psychological well-being can

9
be related with the effective functioning of an individual and development of one’s
potential and control of one’s life with a purpose.
Carol Ryff’s study centered on psychological well-being of people. She developed an
integral theoretical framework of well-being on the basis of an extensive literature
review. The most important perspectives were: Life span theories (e.g. Erikson 1959),
Clinical theories on personal growth (e.g. Maslow 1968; Rogers 1961; Allport 1961)
and the criteria of positive mental health formulated by Jahoda (1958). In addition she
incorporated insights from her own research and development. Carol Ryff’s designed
six theoretically motivated constructs of psychological well-being, which are:
Autonomy - independence and self-determination; Environmental mastery - the ability
to manage one’s life; Personal growth - being open to new experiences; Positive
relations with others - having satisfying, high quality relationships; Purpose in life -
believing that one’s life is meaningful; Selfacceptance - a positive attitude towards
oneself and one’s past life.
This idea of reading only to secure good marks has made the whole system mechanical.
People are more serious about getting higher percentages. Higher secondary
examination is the most crucial examination a sit decides the future job opportunities.
Its excessive pressure creates stress and strain and brings anxiety, nervousness, tension
etc. among students. Examination anxiety is a major area of concern among students as
it brings different negative outcomes like depression, suicide, cheating, using unfair
means in examination etc.
This study is based on the Examination anxiety, self-confidence and psychological well-
being on students in relation to some selected variables – gender, locality and
management of the schools. So this study is very important role for higher secondary
students. Help of this study which is based on research to control examination anxiety
and increase self-confidence. By this research, students for higher secondary level to be
more delight, eminence role in education system. And psychological well-being role is
important so that this study develop the student’s physical, mental, emotional, and social
health factor which is strongly linked to happiness and life satisfaction among the higher
secondary students in academic level.
1.3 Definition of study variables
Examination Anxiety

10
Exam anxiety is defined as behavioral changes associated with the feeling of being
examined e.g. at written tests related to courses of study. Is the uneasiness,
apprehension, or nervousness felt by students who had a fear of failing an exam
According to Klein & Pine, (2001), Anxiety may become symptomatic at any age when
it prevents or limits developmentally appropriate adaptive behavior.
Anxiety is one of the most common psychological disorders in school-aged children and
adolescents world-wide (Costello, Mustillo, Erkanli, Keeler & Angold, (2003).
According to Campbell, (2004), Anxiety is a response to threat.
According to Rao, (2014), Anxiety is a complex and multidimensional phenomenon.
According to MacIntyre and Gardner, (1991), Anxiety can be defined as a Subjective
feeling of tension, apprehension, nervousness and worry associated with an arousal of
the automatic nervous system.
Anxiety is a phenomenon that people frequently encounter in their daily life. Anxiety
can be described as the tense, unsettling anticipation of a threatening but vague event; a
feeling of uneasy suspense [1]. As a result of the nature of anxiety, researchers have
provided a classification of this phenomenon into different sub-categories (e.g. language
anxiety, speech anxiety, social anxiety,) we will concentrate on one of these categories,
namely, test anxiety. Test anxiety is a combination of physiological over-arousal,
tension and somatic symptoms, along with worry, dread, fear of failure, and
catastrophizing, that occur before or during test situations [2]. It is a physiological
condition in which people experience extreme stress, anxiety, and discomfort during
and/or before taking a test. Researchers suggest that between 25 and 40 percent of
students experience test anxiety. Test anxiety may occurs as a result of a bad
individual’s self-concept of academic ability when the students believed they will fail or
perform poorly in the examination” Also, infrequent test preparation, high-stake
examinations and discomfort with testing situation will lead to test anxiety. Test anxiety
is one of the most devastating factors in educational institutes and other sittings where
examining is being conducted.
Negative consequences of Exam Anxiety: This anxiety creates significant barriers to
learning and performance. High test anxiety has been discovered to be associated with
low self-esteem, inadequate studying and accomplishment, failing grades, troublesome
classroom actions and adverse behavior toward school as a result of an intense fear of

11
failure. Although everybody feels occasional stress when evaluated, test anxiety
represents a constant personality predisposition in evaluative situations. Research
suggests that high levels of emotional distress have a direct correlation to reduced
academic performance and higher overall student drop-out rates. Test anxiety can have
broader consequences, negatively affecting a student’s social, emotional and behavioral
development, as well as their feelings about themselves and school [4]. It is known to
develop into a vicious cycle. After experiencing test anxiety on one test, the student may
become so fearful of it happening again they become more anxious and upset than they
would normally, or even than they experienced on the previous test. If the cycle
continues without acknowledgement, or the student seeking help, the student may begin
to feel helpless in the situation.
The results of researches about test anxiety revealed that consists of multiple affective,
intellectual, physical, and behavioral components; can adversely affect achievement of
difficult tasks; and adversely related to students’ academic performance [5]. Twenty
percent of test anxious students quit school before graduating because of repeated
failure. Test anxiety is associated with fear of negative assessment, inadequate study
skills, inadequate test achievement and perfectionism. Certain studies carried reports
that some students even consider suicide due to being preoccupied with the test.
Self-Confidence
Self-confidence integrates the powers of mind and body and focuses them towards the
goal. Only such a concentrated energy can reach the goal. So Self-confidence is the first
step to progress, development, achievement and success. (Ziegler, 2000).
Self-confidence refers to it as simply believing in oneself (Bénabou & Tirole, 2002).
Self-confidence is the ability to take appropriate and effective action in any situation,
however challenging it appears to you or others (Burton and Platts, 2006).
According to Lenney, (1977), He defines self-confidence as an individual’s expectations
of performance and self-evaluations of abilities and prior performance.
Self-confidence has become a part and parcel of our life. Every individual has his own
capacities, abilities and interests. Sometimes an individual is capable of doing
something but due to lack of confidence he may not be able to achieve his goal.
Basavanna (1975) [4] explained self-confidence, “as an individual’s perceived ability to
act effectively in a situation to overcome obstacles and to get things all right”. Agnihotri

12
(1987) [1] defined self-confidence as “a positive attitude of oneself towards one’s self-
concept. It is an attribute to tackle situations successfully without depending on others
and to have a positive self-evaluation.” Self-Confidence is considered “as one of the
most influential motivators and regulators of behavior in people’s everyday lives”
(Bandura, 1986) [3]. Thus, from above discussion, it can be inferred that self-confidence
is an attitude which allows the individuals to have positive yet realistic views of
themselves and their situations. Self-confident people trust their own abilities, have a
general sense of control in their lives, perceive themselves to be socially competent,
emotionally mature, intellectually adequate, decisive, self-reliant and independent. Self-
confidence is related with success. A confident attitude, a belief and a faith in oneself
and one’s ideas are essential in getting ahead but it should also be remembered that self-
confidence grows with success that means it is desirable to develop those qualities
within oneself that makes for success. Vyas and Gunthey (2017) [42] noticed that male
and female students have no significant difference on self-confidence. Malhotra &
Malhotra (2016) [23] examined the main and interaction effect of students and showed
that main effect of gender, locality and type of school was found to be associated with
self-confidence. Saini (2016) [34] explored the self-confidence and academic
achievement of students and found no significant interactional effect with respect to
gender and type of family. Srimadevi and Saraladevi (2016) [40] identified that decision
making and self-confidence has an impact on problem solving ability among
mathematics achievers. Saxena and Singhvi (2015) [35] analyzed the relationship
between emotional intelligence and self-confidence of 100 secondary school students.
Lal (2014) [21] presented a significant difference between male and female secondary
school students. Prerana Huli and Aminbhavi (2014) [32] probed the impact of need for
cognition on self-esteem. Malik and Yougesh (2014) [24] explored the effect of self-
confidence on academic achievement of 200 students. Kumar and Kohli (2012) [18]
examined the relationship between home environment and self-confidence among 200
students of Higher secondary school students and no significant relationship was found
between protectiveness, punishment, conformity, reward, deprivation of privileges and
permissiveness and self-confidence among adolescents. Dhall and Thukral (2009) [9]
revealed that a significant and positive relationship was found between self-confidence
and intelligence. Ziegler et al. (2000) [43] reported that girls expressed significantly
lower levels of self-confidence than boys.
13
Psychological well-being
According to Carol Ryff (1989), Psychological well-being consists of positive
relationships with others, personal mastery, autonomy, a feeling of purpose
and meaning in life, and personal growth and development. Psychological well-being is
attained by achieving a state of balance affected by both challenging and rewarding life
events.
According to heyes, shmotkin, Psychological well-being has been conceptualized as a
positive psychological dimension that integrate cognitive and affective aspect.
According to Diener, (2000), Psychological well-being refers to the extent to which
people experience positive emotions and feelings of happiness. Sometimes this aspect of
psychological wellbeing is referred to as subjective wellbeing
Physical and Emotional symptoms occur by the examination anxiety and psychological
well-being in which level of secondary students faces various problems regard the
exam.
Physical symptoms: Headache, Nausea, Excessive sweating, Shortness of breath, Rapid
heartbeat, somatization, compulsion etc.
Emotional symptoms: Feeling of anger, fear helplessness and disappointment, Shyness
and timidity are common emotional responses to test anxiety and psychological well-
being.
Since the beginning, human beings have always questioned the things that make them
happy, and on what basically happiness of people depends. The concept of happiness
has always been the focus of interest of human beings; they have searched for the source
of happiness since the day they existed. For this reason, the concept of happiness took
place in different definitions.
For Socrates, being virtuous is happiness. Happiness is the realization of one’s own
nature, own potential; and, all men desire to be happy by their nature. Happiness is the
absolute goal of all humane desires and passions; it is the highest target of human
existence (Yıldız, 2002). According to Epicurus, ethic teaches the essence of happiness
and the ways to reach happiness. For him, the sole good, the absolute value is pleasure.
Pleasure should be the goal of all actions.
For Plato, the highest good is “happiness”. The only way to possess happiness is virtue.
According to Aristotle, happiness is the highest goal of all our actions and efforts

14
(Özgen, 1997). In this sense, the term happiness shows that the goal and value of life are
in human soul (Türer, 1992). Along with all these definitions, the science of psychology
focused on individual’s happiness and the concept of well-being.
According to psychological well-being theory, individual’s psychological health
depends on his positive functioning in certain aspects of his life. Individual should have
in positive relationship with others; should be dominant over the environment; should
accept himself and his past; should has a goal and meaning in his life; should have
personal development and the ability to make his own decisions (Özen, 2005). For this
reason, there is a potential tension between psychological well-being, happiness, and
development (Ryff and Singer, 1998).
Psychological well-being takes an important part in personality and development
theories both theoretically and practically. Psychological well-being, which guides
clinical studies that will help advisors to make their advisees reach their goals, informs
about the goals and purposes regarding psychology consulting (Christopher, 1999).
Pubescent boys often tend to have a good body image, are more confident, secure, and
more independent. Late maturing boys can be less confident because of poor body
image when comparing themselves to already developed friends and peers. However,
early puberty is not always positive for boys; early sexual maturation in boys can be
accompanied by increased aggressiveness due to the surge of hormones that affect them.
Because they appear older than their peers, pubescent boys may face increased Social
pressure to conform to adult norms; society may view them as more emotionally
advanced, despite the fact that their cognitive and social development may lag behind
their appearance. [34] Studies have shown that early maturing boys are more likely to be
sexually active and are more likely to participate in risky behaviors.
For girls, early maturation can sometimes lead to increased self-consciousness, though a
typical aspect in maturing females. Because of their bodies' developing in advance,
pubescent girls can become more insecure and dependent. Consequently, girls that reach
sexual maturation early are more likely than their peers to develop eating disorders
(such as anorexia nervosa). Nearly half of all American high school girls' diets are to
lose weight. In addition, girls may have to deal with sexual advances from older boys
before they are emotionally and mentally mature. In addition to having earlier sexual
experiences and more unwanted pregnancies than late maturing girls, early maturing

15
girls are more exposed to alcohol and drug abuse. Those who have had such experiences
tend to perform not as well in school as their "inexperienced" peers.
1.4 Connection among the study variables
This study sought to explore the relationship between positive psychological student
strengths, such as examination anxiety, self-confidence and psychological well-being in
secondary students.
There are several studies examining the association between examination anxiety, self-
confidence and psychological wellbeing. Most cross sectional studies demonstrated
negative and positive correlation between exam anxiety and self-confidence. Example
such as in meta-analysis conducted by schwarzer(1990) and seipp (1991), a negative
correlation of r = -0.21 was found between anxiety and self-confidence. Students with
high level of worry are expected to show weak/low self-confidence level and also to see
the various psychological issues related fitness and health problems like mental health,
lack of nutritions, substance abuse, obesity etc.
Examination anxiety is a more specific phenomenon in which a graded test is the source
of fear (oladipo & ogungbamila). Examination is a type of performance anxiety. In such
situations, sometimes students feel pressurized to perform excellent and becomes so
worried whether he will be able to perform or not. Exam anxiety can also be labeled as
anticipatory anxiety, situational anxiety or evaluation anxiety.
Students who experience test anxiety tend to be easily distracted during a test,
experience difficulty with comprehending relatively simple instructions and have
trouble organizing or recalling relevant information. Excessive anxiety can block
thoughts, create a negative frame of mind and lead to panic and potentially poor exam
performance. Many students experience some level of stress can enhance student’s
memory, attention, motivation and can lead to improved test performance (salend,
2011).
Examination anxiety is the type of anxiety which refer to the problems of children in the
exam level like stress, depression, health issues etc. so this terms which connect the
higher secondary students to the self-confidence and psychological wellbeing.
The level of self-confidence for the school students may be high or low which is based
on the student’s performance in the exam. If the students is well good prepared for the
exam without any difficulty his/her confidence increases according to the research

16
studies and no psychological health issues find in the students. But mostly students get
to difficulty related the exam preparation because not well prepare, take stress &
tension, nausea, headache, nervousness etc. so in this regard students of higher
secondary level face lots of problems with the high excessive anxiety is to visible and
also to find and observe the low self-confidence in the students. Hence, based on the
low level of self-confidence of the school students to see the various psychological
health issues like stress and health in the higher secondary students.
Stress and Health
You must have often observed that many of your friends (may be including yourself as
well!) fall sick during the examination time. They suffer from stomach upsets, body
aches, nausea, diarrhoea and fever etc. You must have also noticed that people who are
unhappy in their personal lives fall sick more often than those who are happy and enjoy
life. Chronic daily stress can divert an individual’s attention from caring for herself or
himself. When stress is prolonged, it affects physical health and impairs psychological
functioning. People experience exhaustion and attitudinal problems when the stress due
to demands from the environment and constraints are too high and little support is
available from family and friends. The physical exhaustion is seen in the signs of
chronic fatigue, weakness and low energy. The mental exhaustion appears in the form of
irritability, anxiety, feelings of helplessness and hopelessness. This state of physical,
emotional and psychological exhaustion is known as burnout. There is also convincing
evidence to show that stress can produce changes in the immune system and increase the
chances of someone becoming ill. Stress has been implicated in the development of
cardiovascular disorders, high blood pressure, as well as psychosomatic disorders
including ulcers, asthma, allergies and headaches. Researchers estimate that stress plays
an important role in fifty to seventy per cent of all physical illnesses. Studies also reveal
that sixty per cent of medical visits are primarily for stress-related symptoms.
The higher secondary level is a landmark in the school life of any student during this
period, students become adolescent and face many changes physically as well as
mentally and also take crucial decisions of future career selection. Parents also
pressurize to attain high scores so that they may get admission in prestigious and
reputed institutes.
Even apparently well-adjusted students have feeling of insecurity for their future due to
anxiety, low self-confidence and also effect of his/her psychological wellbeing.
17
Research has revealed that various factors to use for this such as family socio economics
status (Akinleke,2012), school factors (Marks, millan & Hillman, 2001), social support
(Conner-smith, 2006) influence academic performance.
1.5 Operationalization of variables
For the purpose of this study the following terms were defined as follows:
i). Examination anxiety – refers to states of worry and apprehension that occurs in
students in the face of examinations or test conditions. The terms test/exam anxiety and
cognitive test anxiety were used interchangeably in this study.
ii). Self-confidence – refers to the first step to progress, development, achievement
and success.
iii). Psychological wellbeing - refers to the simple notion of a person's welfare,
happiness, advantages, interests, utility, and quality of life.
iv). Correlation – refers to factors or things that have a mutual relationship or
connection, in which one thing affects or depends on another. In this study, exam
anxiety, self-confidence and psychological wellbeing were considered as correlates of
higher secondary schools, gender differences and academic performance.
v). Academic performance – refers to the points or grades scored by the students
in the CBSE exam. Other terms used interchangeably with academic performance were
academic outcomes, learning outcomes, school achievement and academic achievement.
vi). Higher secondary school – In New Delhi, it refers to the second level of the
formal education process that one joins after successfully completing the basic or
primary school education level. It begins from form one to form two, to form three and
finally to form four.
vii). Sex differences – refers to anatomical differences between males and females
in terms of masculine and feminine, in the higher secondary schools respectively.
The purpose of this study was to find out variables differences and the relationship in
the selected correlates of examination anxiety, self-confidence, and psychological
wellbeing on academic level of students in higher secondary schools students. In
addition, the study attempted to identify the low and higher anxiety, level of self-
confidence and their affect of psychological wellbeing levels on students during the
exam time.

18
In the foregoing discussion, empirical evidence has given mixed findings on the
relationship between exam anxiety and academic performance in students. Nevertheless,
high expectations set by both parents and teachers over improvements in the mean
scores in national examinations (Choti, 2009), contributes to increasing pressure, hence
anxiety in students. Such anxiety episodes in students are normally high prior to taking
major examinations and even afterwards as they anticipate for exam results to be
announced.
The performance of students from government schools in examinations has been
comparatively low in relation to other private school.
Examination Anxiety is a situational. It appears when the examination comes and
automatically disappears when the examination is over. It is a state in which a student
fails to concentrate on a test and experiences excessive tension and nervousness. They
may also fail to recall the things which they had studied or prepared for the examination.
It is an unpleasant state of inner turmoil and often accompnie by fear, worry, fatigue,
sweating, faster heart beats, restlessness, nervousness etc.
CHUKWU ( 2014 ) conducted a survey on Test Anxiety among secondary school
students and found that and male students have high test anxiety in comparison to the
girls. Again, Soundararajan ( 2013 ) in his study found no difference in the levels of test
anxiety between male and female students of both private & government schools at
higher secondary stage. The studies reveals that the status of examination anxiety is
changing time to time and place to place. Thus, there is no doubt that studying the
examination anxiety levels of Secondary students is a very important and interesting
topic in research.
There are many factors which affect self-confidence viz. intelligence, personality,
motivation, school environment, heredity, home environment, learning, experiences at
school, interests, aptitudes, family background, socio economic status of the parents and
many more other factors influenced the self-confidence. However, the success,
efficiency and happiness in life largely depend upon their cognitive abilities like
problem solving ability, logical thinking etc. Among these, problem-solving ability
plays an important role in developing self-confidence of school students. Enhancing
students’ problem solving capacity is one of the greatest educational challenges and is a
major demand placed on any educational institution. Problem solving involves

19
application of thinking and reasoning to various kinds of problems encountered in life.
Problem solving is an integral part of developmental activities and provides
opportunities for children to practice by applying their learning in different situations
that they have learned in classroom.
Problem solving is a process of overcoming difficulties that appear to infer with the
attainment of a goal. In spite of inference, it is also a procedure of making adjustment.
Thus, problem solving is cognitive processing directed at transforming a problem from
the given state to the goal state when the problem solver is not immediately aware of a
solution method. Problem solving is also related to other terms such as thinking,
reasoning, decision making, critical thinking, and creative thinking.
Skinner (1984) [13] defined, “problem-solving as the framework or pattern within
which creative thinking and learning takes place”. Various studies have been conducted
on problem solving ability with different variables. Bilimleri (2008) [4] found that
problem solving ability and self-confidence have negative relationship. Kumar and
Singh (2013) [9] and Srimadevi and Saraladevi (2016) [14] reported that problem
solving ability has a significant effect on self-confidence. Singh & Kaur (2008) [12]
observed that gender has a significant effect on selfconfidence. Senthamarai,
Sivapragasam and Senthilkumar (2016) [11] showed that level of problem solving
ability in mathematics of secondary school students is average.
Gupta, Kavita & Pasrija (2016) [8] examined the significant interaction effect of locality
and problem solving ability on the academic achievement of the students. Bala and
Shaafiu (2016) [2] revealed a positive correlation between academic achievement and
problem solving ability. Bhat (2014) [3] explored that 79% variance contributed by the
predicting variable (problem solving ability) to the criterion variable (achievement in
mathematics). Therefore, it was identified that various studies were conducted on
problem solving ability including students, teachers and prospective teachers with
respect to a number of variables. But the fact is that most of the studies were conducted
in abroad rather than Indian setting. A very few studies were conducted on self-
confidence among school students in relation to their problem solving ability. Thus, the
lack of researches in the present area provoked the researcher to take up the present
topic and to study the effect of problem solving ability and gender on self-confidence of
school students. For the present study, the variable, self-confidence has been treated as

20
dependent variable whereas problem solving ability (High, Average & Low) and gender
(Male & Female) were treated as independent variables.
Psychological well-being is usually conceptualised as some combination of encouraging
affective states such as contentment and performance with optimal effectiveness in
individual and social life (Deci & Ryan). As summarised by Huppert (2009):
“Psychological well-being is about lives going well. It is the combination of feeling
good and functioning effectively.” By definition therefore, people with high
Psychological wellbeing report feeling happy, capable, well-supported, satisfied with
life, and so on review also claims the consequences of Psychological Wellbeing to
include superior physical health, mediated possibly by brain activation patterns,
neurochemical effects and genetic factors.
Further, people invariably experience moods and emotions, which have a positive effect
or a negative effect. Thus, people have a level of subjective well-being even if they do
not often deliberately think about it, and the psychological system offers virtually a
stable evaluation of what is happening to the person.
Thus, it was important to investigate the relationship between exam anxiety, self-
confidence and psychological wellbeing based on academic performance of students in
schools level by also considering the relationship between exam anxiety, self-
confidence and psychological wellbeing, and the above correlates (that is, academic
procrastination, Locus of control and academic resilience). In addition, due to scarcity
of research literature on these variables locally, it was important to investigate the
relationship between these variables to add more research literature on the hypothesis
relating to the widely publicized influence of exam anxiety on academic performance of
students.
1.6 Chapter Summary
The summary of this chapter explain that the some technical terms which is correlate the
study variables like Examination anxiety, Self-confidence and Psychological wellbeing
among the higher secondary students in New Delhi. We discussed the differences and
relationship between types of school and gender in reference of the study variables. And
also we understood from the chapter how problems and difficulties occurs in
government and private school students. During the exam time, found the level of
Examination anxiety, Self-confidence and Psychological wellbeing of higher secondary
students based on comparatively study variables.
21
 CHAPTER 2

REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

2.1 OVERVIEW
This chapter focuses on relevant research related to the variables under the study. As the
Dependent Variable (DV) in the study is Examination anxiety, Self-confidence and
Psychological Wellbeing of secondary school students, literature related to world and
Indian scenario of adolescent stress, depression, nausea due to anxiety problems, low
and high confidence and also mental health is focused. Research reviews of variables
correlated with this DV that are to be controlled in the study are discussed. They include
gender, socio-demographic variables, stressful life events, and academic achievement.
Then extensive review of positive psychology intervention programs used abroad and in
Indian context is noted to highlight relevance of intervention in the present study.
2.2 STUDIES AMONG VARIABLES
The review of related studies helps in developing insight, which leads to
improvement in research designing. It also reveals the different strategies adopted by
various investigators in dealing with the research problems pertaining to the subject
22
matter of the present study on test anxiety, temperament, adjustment, and academic
achievement. The following is a review of some studies on anxiety and certain
related factors.
Vazalwar and Yadav (2005) conducted a study on Tracing out the Relationship of
Reading Comprehension in English with Respect to Anxiety, Socio-Economic Status
and School Environment. The study found that (i) there was a significant joint effect
of anxiety and SES on reading comprehension in English. (ii) there was significant
joint effect of SES and School environment on reading comprehension in English.
(iii) there was significant joint effect of school environment and anxiety on reading
comprehension in English. (iv) there was significant joint effect of anxiety, SES and
school environment on reading comprehension in English.
Naomi (2008) conducted a study on Anxiety affects school achievement, yet it is
rarely targeted for intervention in students with Emotional or Behavioral Disorders
(EBD). The study found that (i) the prevalence of anxiety disorders in students with
EBD, (ii) the academic effects of anxiety disorders, and (iii) the school interventions
designed to ameliorate them. Conclusions regarding the state of educational
intervention for these students. Highlights on measuring psychosocial symptoms,
rather than on academic achievement.
Russell and Shaw (2009) conducted a study on potential impact on students
studying in higher education. Results showed that approximately 10% of students
reported marked to severe social anxiety, a figure that is broadly in line with
evidence from recent community epidemiological surveys of adults and young
people. The study suggested that social anxiety is present in a relatively small, but
significant proportion of students studying in higher education.
Deb, Chatterjee and Walsh (2010) conducted a study on anxiety among high
school students in India: comparisons across gender, school type, social strata and
perceptions of quality time with parents. Results showed that anxiety was found with
the sample with 20.1% of boys and 17.9% of girls found to be suffering from high
anxiety. Results also showed that a substantial proportion of the adolescents
perceived they did not receive quality time from fathers (32.1%) and mothers
(21.3%). A large number of them also did not feel comfortable to share their
personal issues with their parents (60.0% for fathers and 40.0% form others).

23
Mehotra (2003) conducted a study on relationship between intelligence, socio-
economic status, anxiety, personality adjustment and academic achievement of high
school students. The study found both boys and girls there was inverse relationship
between level of anxiety and academic achievement. There was a positive
relationship between intelligence and academic achievement and girls had a
comparatively higher level of anxiety than boys.
Modi (2005) conducted a study of Academic Achievement, Academic Anxiety and
General Anxiety in Schedule Caste and General Caste Students. The research found
that (i) the general caste and schedule caste students had average level general
anxiety and very low academic anxiety. (ii) The general caste and schedule caste
students had high academic anxiety than general anxiety. (iii) Academic achievement
of general and schedule caste students increased when they had general anxiety and
academic anxiety. (iv) General anxiety and academic anxiety of schedule caste
students were lower than general students. (v) There was no specific difference
between academic achievement of general and schedule caste students.
Research on test anxiety has a long and fruitful history. First studies relating to test
anxiety were conducted as early as 1914 (Folin, Demis & Smillie, 1914). Thereafter,
exam anxiety received a considerable attention in the 1930s (for example; Brown,
1938a, 1938b; Neumann, 1933; Luria, 1932). Eventually, the concept began to be
investigated under its own name in 1952, when Mandler and Sarason published a series
of studies on test anxiety and how it relates to performance, as well as developed an
instrument to assess individual differences in test anxiety in adults, the Test Anxiety
Questionnaire (Sarason & Mandler, 1952). All through the early decades to 1990s,
empirical studies on the relationship between exam anxiety and exam performance
found a negative relationship; that is, higher test anxiety positively correlated to lower
exam performance (for example, Sarason, 1958a, 1965; Speilberger, 1966; Sarason,
1975; Humbree, 1988; Kurosawa & Harackiewicz, 1995; Zohar, 1998).
Later studies also support this contention. In one such study by Rana and Mahmood
(2010) on the relationship between test anxiety and academic achievement of students at
the post graduate level, a sample of 414 students was randomly selected from seven
different science departments in a public sector University in Lahore, Pakistan, was
used. Data was collected using the Test Anxiety Inventory (TAI). Pearson correlation,

24
multivariate statistics and regression analyses were run for data analysis. It was found
that a significant negative relationship existed between test anxiety scores and students’
achievement scores. The results further showed that a cognitive factor (worry)
contributed more in test anxiety than affective factors (emotional).
In another study by Yousefi, Talib, Mansor, Juhari and Redzuan (2010) the purpose was
to determine the relationship between test-anxiety and academic achievement among
15-19 years old high school adolescents in Sanandaj, Iran. The respondents comprised
of 400 students (200 boys and 200 girls). A self administered questionnaire was used for
data collection which included a Test-Anxiety Inventory (TAI), Grade Point Average
(GPA) score and personal information. The result showed a significant negative
correlation (r = -0.23, p=.000) between test anxiety and academic achievement among
adolescents.
In Onyeizugbo (2010) study he examined self-efficacy and test anxiety as correlates of
academic performance among 249 undergraduate students of a university in Eastern
Nigeria. General Self-efficacy Scale and Westside Test Anxiety Scale were used to
assess self-efficacy and test anxiety, respectively. Average scores of students in two
psychology degree courses were used to assess their academic performance. The results
on test anxiety showed a significant negative correlation between test anxiety and
academic performance (r = -0.43, p< .001). In addition, regression analysis showed a
significant model emerged, whereby test anxiety proved to be a significant predictor of
the variability in academic performance, ß = -.390, p < .001.
Still in Nigeria, Faleye (2010) conducted a study to investigate cognitive test anxiety
and learning outcomes of 113 undergraduate education students in Obafeni Awolowo
University. The sample consisted of 77 males and 36 females with an average of 24.07
years. They responded to 27 items on the Cognitive Test Anxiety Scale (CTAS)
developed by Cassady and Johnson (2002). The findings showed that there was a
negative relationship between cognitive test anxiety and students’ academic
performance.
Hancock (2001) investigated the effects of students’ test anxiety and teacher’s
evaluation practices on students’ achievement and motivation at post the secondary
level. He found statistically significant results which revealed that all students,
especially students with high anxiety level, performed poorly and were less motivated to

25
learn. Thus he concluded that that when students who are particularly test-anxious are
exposed to a highly evaluative assessment environment in their educational institution,
they perform poorly and are less motivated to perform (Hancock, 2001). A research
study conducted by Cassady and Johnson (2002) to investigate the effect of cognitive
test anxiety on students’ academic performance and found that cognitive test anxiety
exerts a significant stable and negative impact on academic performance measures.
Albero, Brown, Eliason and Wind (1997), on the basis of their research study,
concluded that students having high test anxiety had significantly lower scores. Oludipe
(2009) conducted a study to explore how test anxiety affects students’ performance
levels in the sciences, especially in Physics, and concluded that low test-anxious
students performed better than high test-anxious students on both numerical and non-
numerical tasks in Physics. Other studies showing negative relationship between test
anxiety and academic performance include Cassady (2004) and Stober (2004).
However, other studies have shown lack of relationship between test anxiety and
academic performance. In Vogel and Collins (2008) study, one group of students was
given pop quizzes and another one planned quizzes. The results showed no difference in
anxiety and quiz grades between the two groups. Therefore, academic performance was
not found to be related to test anxiety. Furthermore, in a local study by Ndirangu, et al
(2009), the results showed no significant relationship between test anxiety and academic
performance (r = 0.06). However, there was a statistically significant difference (P <
0.01, t = -3.736) between test anxiety levels before and after examinations.
Procrastination has increasingly become a topic of interest across multiple fields,
including education, where it is referred to as academic procrastination (Hess, Sherman
& Goodman, 2000). Procrastination behavior in general is described as the difficulties
that an individual has in performing daily tasks due to incapability to organize time
management effectively (Ferrari, Johnson & McCown, 1995). In academic sense, it may
involve doing homework, preparing for exam or doing the term papers assigned at the
end of the term at the last minute.
Studies have shown that the habits of studying lessons in the late hours and at the last
minute are related to procrastination behavior (Hess, Sherman & Goodman, 2000;
Ferrari, Harriott, Evans, Lecik-Michna, & Wenger, 1997). Reasons for procrastination
behaviors are detailed in the research literature, and they include individual’s

26
inefficiency in time management, difficulty of concentration or the feeling of weak
responsibility, anxiety and fear of being unsuccessful in one’s actions owing to negative
perceptions, setting unrealistic expectations for academic performance, improper
cognitive ascription and the tendency to become faultless (Ferrari, 1992; McCown,
Petzel & Rupert, 1987).
Within the context of Conservation of Resources Theory (Hobfoll, 1998), most students
who experience test anxiety also have a problem with procrastination. This pattern of
avoidance leads to a loss cycle: procrastination leads to last minute cramming, which
leads to self-doubts, then excessive anxiety during testing situations and eventually poor
academic performance. Hence, according to the COR Theory, it could be hypothesized
that test anxiety results from avoidance and procrastination behaviors, that exists in an
environment where there is limited renewal of resources (Buchwald & Hobfoll, 2004),
that is, less time for exam preparation.
In addition, vast research evidence shows that procrastination is also associated with
such variables as poor academic performance (Balkıs & Duru, 2009; Cassady, 2004;
Çakıcı, 2003; Fritzsche, Young, and Hickson, 2003; Tuckman, 2002; Beck, Koons, and
Milgram, 2000), low effort for success (Saddler & Buley, 1999), inadequate motivation
(Sene´cal, Koestner & Vallerand, 1995) and neuroticism (Lee, Kelly & Edwards, 2006).
In considering these studies, it can be concluded that procrastination behaviors are a
common problem especially among school students and an influential factor on their
personalities, psychological wellbeing and academic achievement.
Resilience was originally conceptualized in psychiatry and clinical psychology, where
the term was adopted to account for positive adaptation in high risk populations
(Garmezy, 1985). Nevertheless, resilience is simply defined as a measure of stress
coping ability (Connor & Davidson, 2003; Masten, 2001), which encompasses personal
competence, trust in one’s instincts, positive acceptance of change, control and spiritual
influences (Connor & Davidson, 2003). In this case, resilience is a dynamic process
whereby individuals exhibit positive behavioral adaptation when they encounter
significant adversity, trauma, tragedy, threats, or even significant sources of stress
(Masten, 2001).
This coping may result in the individual “bouncing back” to a previous state of normal
functioning, or using the experience of exposure to adversity to function better than

27
expected (Goldstein, 2005) – much like an inoculation gives one the capacity to cope
well with future exposure to disease. Other commonly used terms for resilience include
psychological resilience, emotional resilience, hardiness, resourcefulness and mental
toughness. This study focused on resilience in the academic spheres, hence, referred
herein as academic resilience.
Research literature depicts important developments concerning the construct of
resilience. This has seen a shift in the application of resilience from its original focus on
the role it long played as a means of overcoming severe adversity in abnormal
situations, to its promotion as an immensely valuable personal resource enabling
positive adaptation to more normative and everyday life challenges and stresses (Sun &
Stewart, 2007; Newman & Blackburn, 2002). Thus, this has led to the adoption of the
concept in many other disciplines, including education, where school programs have
been introduced with an aim of fostering resilience in the lives of learners (Newman &
Blackburn, 2002), as part of healthy schools initiatives. Indeed there are many
challenging situations that children face in schools such as class transitions, exam
anxiety, poverty and abuse. But with such resilience components as confidence, a sense
of well-being, motivation, ability to set goals and stress management (Connor &
Davidson, 2003), children are able to succeed in school.
Literature is full of studies which report gender differences in anxiety, girls being more
anxious than boys. For example, Palermo (1959) [13], Durrett (1965) [7], Pringle and
Cox (1963) [14], Castendaa and others (1956) [4] and Sarason et al. (1960) [15] has all
reported similar trends in their researches. Gender as a demographic factor has been
implicated as having significant influence on students’ test anxiety level. e.g. Sharma
and Sud (1990) [18], drawing samples from four Asian cultures found that female
students experience higher levels of test anxiety than do males irrespective of cultural
background. Female students experience higher levels of test anxiety than do males
irrespective of cultural background. Studies have consistently found that female students
have significantly higher test anxiety than male students (Ferrando Varea & Lorenzo,
1999; Hembree, 1988; Sharma & Gandhi, 1971; Abu-Rabia, 2004; Chapell et al. 2005;
Guida & Ludlow 1989; Locker & Cropley, 2004; Sena et.al.2007; Costello et al. 2003;
Bandalos et al.1995; Volkme & Feather, 1991; Zeidner, 1990) [8, 10, 1, 5, 9, 11, 16, 6,
2, 22, 23, 17]. Research has consistently found gender difference in test anxiety

28
(Chapell et al., 2005 & Sharma & Gandhi, 1971) [5, 17] with female participants
scoring higher than male participants on self-report measures of test anxiety (Sena et al.
2007; Costello et.al, 2003 & Soffer, 2008) [16, 6, 19] . Cassady and Johnson (2002) [3]
found that females were more prone to experience high level of test anxiety than their
male counterparts and are more likely learn to surrender passively to test anxiety than
the males. Very few studies were conducted on socio-economic status causing anxiety
in individuals. Putwain (2007) reported that age, gender, ethnic, and socio -economic
background was significant predictors of test anxiety scores. Sharma (1971) [17] ,
Srivastava and Sinha (1974), Singh and Kaur (1976) observed lower class adults to have
higher levels of anxiety.
S.J. Salend says “Test anxiety is a physiological condition in which people experience
extreme stress, anxiety, and discomfort during or before taking a test. These responses
can drastically hinder an individual’s ability to perform well and negatively affects their
social, emotional and behavioral development and feelings about themselves and
school.”2 Test anxiety is one of the most important aspects of negative motivation and
has direct debilitating effects on school performance. Dusek defines test anxiety as "an
unpleasant feeling or emotional state that has physiological and behavioral
concomitants, and that is experienced in formal testing or other evaluative situations.”3
Sansgiry and Sail (2006) defined test anxiety as the “reaction to stimuli that are
associated with an individual’s experience of testing or evaluative situations”4 Kirkland
and Hollandsworth (1980) define test anxiety as “a constellation of behaviors that have
a debilitating effect on academic performance”5 Thus, test anxiety may be defined as
the nonproductive overt and covert behaviors that accompany test taking and test
preparation. Different theorists believe that such test anxiety emerges for some children
during the preschool or elementary school years, when parents begin to make unrealistic
demands or hold overly high expectations for their children's performance. The parents
then react negatively to their children's failure to meet their expectations, and the
children in turn become fearful of evaluation in achievement situations and overly
concerned about adult reaction to their academic successes and failures.
According to theorists as children progress through the elementary school years, other
factors create or enhance evaluation anxiety. In school, children experience increasingly
formal, complex, and frequent evaluation, which they often cannot cope with

29
effectively. At about the second grade, children begin to compare their performance
with other children, which can lead to competition and pressure to do better than most
others. Obviously, only a few children can excel when such comparative standards are
used to judge classroom performance.
During the middle and later elementary school years, students receive more feedback
about and become better able to judge their ability, both absolutely and compared with
others. These factors increase the anxiety of many children, especially those not doing
well or as well as they would like. Most students in many schools may wish to rank in
the top part of their class because of parental, peer, or self-induced aspirations and
expectations. This will place many students under strong pressure to achieve at a higher
level than they can, resulting in strong anxiety dynamic. In our highly competitive
educational system and society, this pressure increases with age, which may account in
good part for the increasingly strong debilitating effects of evaluation anxiety across the
elementary and secondary school years. Building on the theoretical work of Atkinson
(1964), Atkinson & Feather (1966), and S. Sarason et al. (1960), he argues that anxious
children are more sensitive to failure and react more to evaluation from adults than low-
anxious children. More specifically, high-anxious children have strong motives to avoid
criticism and failure because they fear negative evaluation.
Test anxiety was first discussed in depth by Luria in 1932. The relationship between
examination anxiety and examination performance was first investigated by Sarason
who found a negative relationship higher test anxiety was observed to be positively
correlated to lower exam performance. Early research results indicated a negative
relationship between examination anxiety and examination performance. Researches on
examination anxiety started with George Mandler and Seymour Sarason. Sarason’s
brother, Irwin G. Sarason, then contributed to early investigation of test anxiety,
clarifying the focused effects of test anxiety, other focused forms of anxiety and
generalized anxiety. More recent research appears to support this contention. Smith and
Smith (2002) and meta- analysis of research by Hambree (1988) and Seipp (1991) come
to the same conclusion. Test –anxiety has been shown to have a consistently negative
relationship with test performance and test anxious students are found to perform about
12 percent below their non-anxious peers. Early and recent researches suggest that
between 25 to 40 percent of students experience test anxiety.

30
Achieving one’s educational and professional goals generally depends on academic
performance. Therefore, it is not surprising that most of the students experience anxiety
both before and during examinations. As a consequence of their emotional reactions
during tests, the level of achievement of many students is found substantially lower than
would be expected on the basis of their intellectual aptitude in the early and recent
researches.
Early and recent researches indicate that there is a positive relationship between
examination anxiety and examination performance. Examination anxiety is a feeling of
worry and tension, negative thoughts and it occurs before or during exam. When one
experiences too much anxiety it can result in emotional or physical distress, difficulty in
concentrating and emotional worry. It can result in poor examination performance.
Thus, inferior performance in examination arises not only because of intellectual
problems or poor academic preparation but also examination anxiety. Testing situations
create a sense of threat for those students who experiencing test-anxiety and anxiety
resulting from the sense of threat that disrupts attention and memory function.
According to Walter R. Borg (1983) “The literature in any field forms the foundation
upon which all future work will be built.”6 The reading and review of literature related
with research study is an important step for the problem under study. All the relevant
published and unpublished materials must be collected and carefully read for making a
review. The review of research literature refers to determining the limitation and scope
of research and it therefore enables the researcher to develop the background and
understanding of the research to be pursued by him or her on the problem under study.
The review of earlier research gets him or she acquainted with the critical understanding
and examining the desirability of his or her research work or study.
Edington (1970) in a review of literature on disadvantaged rural youth states that the
type of residence i.e. urban or rural is strongly related to educational status of the
adolescents which further affects their self-esteem. Urban residents are almost always
better educated than rural residents, regardless of gender, age, maturity, race, or
parentage.
Rattanakoses et al., (2009) examined the relationship between imagery and confidence
in athletes. The samples consisted of athletes who were from the Khon Kaen Sport
School in Thailand and who regularly participate in sports training (5 days a week).

31
They considered two parameters, imagery and self-confidence, which were evaluated
with regards to the physical fitness level and experience of the athletes. The data was
analyzed using a t-test to determine the difference of the means between imagery and
self-confidence measures in males and females. Analysis of variance (Anova) (P<0.05)
was used to evaluate differences across the groups, and linear regression and correlation
analyses (r =0.71) were used to compare between genders, physical fitness, and
experience levels. Their results showed that there were significant correlations between
males and females in terms of imagery and self-confidence. Their result suggested that
imagery and self-confidence in male and female athletes were associated with high
levels of physical fitness and more experience in sports situations.
Lazar Stankov and John D. Crawford (1997) investigated individual differences in
confidence judgments made by subjects on the accuracy of their answers to
psychological test items. A measure of reasoning ability (the Raven's Progressive
Matrices, RPM), a vocabulary test, and a perceptual visual discrimination test, were
administered to 271 subjects. For half of the subjects, feedback on the correctness of
response was given after each item, while for the other half, no such information was
provided. In addition, measures of English and Mathematics self-concept were obtained.
Confidence ratings from the Vocabulary test showed overconfidence, while those from
the perceptual task showed under confidence. Confidence ratings from the perceptual
task revealed poorer discrimination between correct and incorrect items than did those
from the other tasks. While feedback produced better discrimination, and slower
responding for the RPM test, higher confidence rating and bias scores were obtained for
the Vocabulary test. Correlations between the confidence judgment scores indicate that
there is a separate self-confidence trait that is different from ability factors reflecting the
speed and accuracy of performance on cognitive test items. English self-concept was
found to share low correlation with Vocabulary accuracy and confidence rating
measures, a result that was analogous to that obtained for Mathematics self-concept and
RPM test score. The results of this and earlier studies are discussed in terms of the
construct of self-confidence and in relationship to theories of intelligence and
personality.
Theron, Nel and Lubbe (1991) assessed the relationship between body image and self-
consciousness together with the sex difference on measures of these two concepts. 56

32
male and 211 female undergraduate Africans were administered a self-concept and self-
consciousness scale. The results showed a negative correlation between body image and
self-concept and public and private self- consciousness correlated positively with each
other. The extents of negative and positive correlations have not been mentioned.
Davis (1992) investigated the role of body image and personality factors among high
performance athletes. The findings indicated that a measure of subjective body size was
strongly related to weight and dietary concern whereas emotional reactivity was found
to be an independent and significant predictor of performance.
Hutchinson (1977) using Martinek- Zaichkowsky self-concept scale reported that no
significant relationship was observed between self-concept and body-estimation. On the
other hand, Riley (1983) found a significant positive relationship between self-concept
and physical estimation. The researcher suggested that academic achievement, extra-
curricular activities, teacher’s interest and physical health influenced as intervening
variables in the relationship between self-esteem and sports participation.
Fisher (1965) compared sex differences in body perception and concluded that a
woman aware of her body was one, who expresses herself with a clear sense of self
activity. It may be argued that their awareness about body maybe related to many
aspects of behaviour in general and athletic performance in particular.
Ergene (2011) studied the relationships among study habits, test anxiety, achievement
motivation, and academic success in a Turkish tenth grade high school, sample
consisting of 510 participants, 267 (52.4%) of whom were females and 243 (47.6%)
were males. A positive relationship between study habits scores and achievement
motivation level was found. No correlation was observed between achievement
motivation and academic success. Test anxiety and study habits were associated
positively with academic success and there was no association with achievement
motivation.
Isodiya & Purashwani (2011) studied the relationship between achievement
motivation and anxiety of inter-university level male and female shuttlers i.e. badminton
players. For this purpose, 30 (15 males and 15 female) shuttlers were randomly selected
as subjects, who participated in west zone inter-university badminton tournament.
Findings showed no significant relationship between achievement motivation and
anxiety of male and female badminton players of inter-university level.

33
Khan, Haider, Ahmed & Khan (2011) explored the relationship of sports achievement
motivation and sports competition anxiety among intervarsity badminton players. The
total sample consisted of twenty players age ranged from 17 to 25 years for the study.
They found that there was a negative relationship between achievement motivation and
sports competition anxiety among badminton players.
Ahmadi, Namazizadeh, Abdoli, & Seyed (2009) studied achievement motivation and
its subscales (competitiveness, win orientation and goal orientation) between soccer
players of high and low ranking teams in super league of Iran. Participants were 115
players that divided in two groups; 57 players from first to third final ranking as high
teams and 58 players from last three ranking position as low teams. The results revealed
that there were no significant differences between soccer players of high and low
ranking teams on achievement motivation, competitiveness, and goal orientation, but
there was significant difference between players of high and low ranking teams on win
orientation.
Duda & Nicholls (1992) examined achievement motivation characteristics across
schoolwork and sport. They found that in both domains ego-involved goals were related
to the belief that success requires high ability, while task orientations were related to
beliefs about the importance of interest, effort, and peer collaboration for success.
Differences occurred in relationships involving satisfaction and boredom. In the
classroom, satisfaction and boredom were related to personal goal orientations, while in
sport they were related to perceptions of ability.
The review of related studies helps in developing insight, which leads to improvement
in research designing. It also reveals the different strategies adopted by various
investigators in dealing with the research problems pertaining to the subject matter of
the present study on test anxiety, temperament, adjustment, and academic achievement.
The following is a review of some studies on anxiety and certain related factors.
2.3 INDIAN STUDIES

Goswami (2000) conducted a study on Achievement Motivation and Anxiety

among the Children of Working and Non-working Mothers Studying in
Secondary Schools of Shillong. The findings were: (i) It was found that children of
working mothers were more achievement oriented than the children of non-working
mothers. (ii) Comparison of boys and girls of both working mothers showed that
34
boys of working mothers and non- working mothers showed that boys of working
mothers were most achievement oriented than all other groups. (iii) There was no
significant difference in anxiety among the groups but the girls of the working
mothers found to be more anxious than the rest of the groups.
Alam (2001) conducted a study on Academic Achievement in Relation to Socio-
economic Status, Anxiety Level and Achievement Motivation: A Comparative
Study of Muslim and non-Muslim School Children of Uttar Pradesh. The major
findings were: (i) Significant positive relationship had been witnessed between
socio-economic status and academic achievement, negative relationship existed
between anxiety and academic achievement, positive relationship found between
achievement motivation and academic achievement of Muslim and non-Muslim
children. (ii) Both Muslim and non-Muslim children had significant inverse
relationship between socio-economic status and anxiety. Socio-economic status
went along with higher achievement motivation. (iii) The academic achievement of
non-Muslim children had been found superior in comparison to their Muslim
counterparts. The non-Muslim children had less anxiety in comparison to Muslim
children. On the measure of achievement motivation, non-Muslim children were
found to be superior to Muslim children.
Agrawal (2006) conducted a study on Does Emotional Intelligence Affect
Relationship between Deprivation and Academic Anxiety? The findings were: (i)
The deprivation and academic anxiety were positively correlated in case of more
emotionally intelligent girls compared to low emotionally intelligent girls. (ii) The
social deprivation and academic anxiety were positively correlated in case of
emotionally intelligent girls due to their greater understanding of emotional
behavior of their own and others. The parental deprivation and academic anxiety for
more emotionally intelligent girls was positively correlated which could be due to
the lack of support from parents in academics which leads to greater academic
anxiety among them.
Sinha (2009) conducted a study Lowering Our Prestige: American Cinema, Mass
Consumerism, and Racial Anxiety in Colonial India. This article studied the
impact of the American cinema on British India in the early twentieth century.
Cinema is a valuable lens with which to study the triangular relationship between

35
the United States, Britain, and South Asia because American films were popular
and controversial across national and social divisions and dominated over 90
percent of the film industry in colonial India in the 1920s. The discourse around the
film industry constituted a locus in which stereotypes about identity and attitudes
toward empire and toward the United States were debated if not resolved. The
article argued that American films of the 1920s posited an alternative notion of
whiteness and the West that stood for democracy and social mobility, clashed with
the traditionalism and hierarchy of empire, and undermined the notion of an Indian
identity at odds with foreign technologies and entertainment.
Hemamalini (2010) conducted a study on English Language Anxiety in relation
to English Achievement among the High School Students.
The major finding of this study was that there was significant relationship between
anxiety and English achievement among the high school students of Ramanagaram
city.
Khatoon and Mahmood (2010) conducted a study on Mathematics Anxiety
among Secondary school students in India and its relationship to Achievement in
Mathematics.
According to the results of the analysis, nearly half of the secondary school students
have moderate level of anxiety and females display more anxiety toward math than
the male. High level of math anxiety was observed in students of Government and
Government aided schools and low level of math anxiety was observed in students
of AMU and Missionary schools. Findings also revealed a significant negative
correlation (-0.48) between math anxiety and math achievement.
B). Studies related to Academic Achievement
Singit (2003) conducted a study on achievement motivation and parental back-
ground as the determinants of student’s academic achievement. The major
findings of the study were: (i) the academic achievement and achievement
motivation were positively correlated. (ii) children of both patents working group
had better academic achievement. (iii) there was no difference in the achievement
motivation of children due to patents working. (iv) the academic achievement of
students was not affected by parent education and (v) parents education did not
affect achievement motivation of students.

36
Saini (2005) conducted a study on family environment and academic achievement
of adolescent children of working and non-working mothers. The major finding of
the study were: (i) that the family environments of adolescent children of working
and non-working mothers were significantly different. In respect of academic
achievement also children of working mothers were much better than the adolescent
children for non-working mothers.
Vamadevappa (2005) conducted a study on impact of parental involvement on
academic achievement. The major findings of the study were: (i) there was negative
and positive and significant relationship between parental involvement and
academic achievement, (ii) there is a significant difference in the achievement
scores of boys and girls of high parental in development group (iii) there was no
significant difference in the academic achievement scores of boys and girls of low
parental involvement group (iv) there was significant difference between high
achievers and low achievers with respect to parental involvement and (v) there was
a significant difference between boys and girls in their academic achievements.
c). Study related to Temperament
Krishnakumar, Sumesh and Mathews (2006) conducted a study on
Temperament Traits Associated with Conversion Disorder. Children with
conversion disorder experienced significantly more stressful life events compared to
the children in the control group. The stress factors included scholastic difficulties,
examination failures, punishment by teacher, conflict with peers, parental
disharmony and family problems and sibling rivalry. The characteristic
temperamental traits associated with conversion disorder where there is low
emotionality and low threshold of responsiveness.
d). Studies related to Adjustment
Rani (2001) conducted a study on the comparative study of Achievement of Male
and Female Scheduled Caste Students in relation to their Locus of Control,
Adjustment and Values. The findings of the study were: (i) the academic
achievement of male scheduled caste students was affected by their adjustment. (ii)
the academic achievement of male scheduled caste students were affected by their
poor Adjustment. (iii) the academic achievement of male scheduled caste students
were affected by their better emotional adjustment. (iv) the academic achievement

37
of male and female scheduled caste students were not affected by their poor
emotional adjustment. (v) the academic achievement of male scheduled caste
students were affected by their better social adjustment. (vi) the academic
achievement of male scheduled caste students were affected by their poor social
adjustment. (vii) the academic achievement of male scheduled caste students were
affected by their better educational adjustment. (viii) the academic achievement of
male scheduled caste students were affected by their poor educational adjustment.
Devi (2003) conducted a study on Adjustment of Students in relation to
Personality and Achievement Motivation. The findings of the study were: (i)
achievement motivations had no effect on the adjustment. (ii) extraversion had
positive effect on social, educational and general adjustment. (iii) neuroticism had
negative effect on the emotional, social, educational, and general aspects of
adjustment. This implies that emotional stability had positive effect on all these
aspects of adjustment.
Naastepad (2003) conducted a study on Restoring Macroeconomic Stability
through Fiscal Adjustment: a Real-Financial CGE Analysis for India. This paper
examined why this might be so in the light of India’s experience with stabilization
in response to the BoP crisis in 1991. It does so using a novel real-financial
computable general-equilibrium model. Focusing on credit rather than money, the
model went beyond earlier modeling approaches by (i) incorporating credit
rationing, (ii) recognizing the dual role of credit for working capital and investment,
and (iii) allowing for switches between credit-constrained, capacity-constrained,
and demand-constrained, regimes. The simulations indicated that the
macroeconomic effects of monetized deficit reduction differed widely depending on
the mode of financing and on initial conditions in real and financial markets.
Whenever fiscal reform leads to a squeeze on available working capital credit,
deficit reduction will lead to only a limited inflation decline and a modest BoP
improvement.
Thakkar (2003) conducted a study on Academic Achievement, Adjustment and
Study Habits of Rural and Urban Students. The findings of study were: (i) there
was no significant relationship in academic achievement and study habits for rural
and urban students. (ii) with regard to adjustment, in the areas of home and family,

38
personal and emotional and total adjustment, there was positive significant
difference between rural and urban students. However, in the areas of social and
educational adjustment this difference was not significant. (iii) there was no
significant correlation between academic achievement and study habit among rural
and urban locality. (iv) there was no significant correlation between academic
achievement and adjustment habit among rural and urban locality. (v) there is no
significant correlation between study habits and adjustment among rural and urban
locality. (vi) positive significant difference between the study habits of low and high
achieving students among the rural students. (vii) on the urban side this difference
between study habits of low and high achieving students was not significant differ.
(viii) with regard to adjustment among low and high achieving students on the rural
section revealed a positive significant difference between low and high achieving
students in the areas of home and family, personal and emotional, education, health
and total adjustment. In social adjustment there was no significant difference
observed between both low and high achieving groups. (ix) on the urban locality,
there was no significant difference between low achieving and high achieving
students in all the five dimensions of adjustment. On the whole, it was studied that
the adjustment of high achievers was better as compared to low achieving students.
(x) there was no significant difference in the study habits and academic
achievement among rural and urban girls with regard to adjustment where there was
significant difference in the areas of home and family, personal and educational
adjustment. On the other hand in the area of social and health adjustment, there was
no significant difference observed between rural and urban girls. (xi) there was no
significant difference observed between rural and urban boys with regards to
academic achievement and study habits. (xii) the adjustment pattern showed that
urban boys were slightly better adjusted than their rural counter parts in the areas of
home and family, personal and emotional, health adjustment. In the area of social
adjustment, the rural boys were slightly better adjusted in comparison to the urban
students. In the areas of home and family, personal and emotional and health
adjustment significant difference was observed between rural boys and urban boys.
(xiii) there was a very significant difference in the academic achievement scores
and study habits of some students before and after the therapeutic training was
imparted.
39
Jha and Tulsayan (2005) conducted a study on machine tool absorption and
capital formation in India: dynamics of the equilibrium adjustment process. Has
the relationship between gross fixed capital formation and machine tool supply
remained the same pre- and post-1991? A look at short-run deviations of machine
tool supply from the demand warranted by GFCF and also an attempt to test and
quantify an error correction model between machine tool supply and GFCF.
Rao and Chakraborty (2006) conducted a study on multilateral adjustment
lending to states in India: hastening fiscal correction or softening the budget
constraint? The widening fiscal deficit of sub-national governments had made the
task of macroeconomic stabilisation much more difficult and complex. In many
countries, including India, multilateral lending institutions provide assistance for
sub-national fiscal reforms through structural adjustment loans (henceforth SAL)
with conditionalities heavily loaded with fiscal correction measures. This paper
examined the fiscal impact of SAL in Indian states by analyzing the quantitative
and qualitative aspects of SAL- induced fiscal reforms. Econometric investigation
of fiscal impact revealed that state specific effect of SAL in terms of fiscal
consolidation had been mixed. There was evidence of softening of the budget
constraints in some states, but there was also evidence of greater reduction in fiscal
imbalances of SAL states than non-SAL states. It was also seen that much of the
fiscal gains had occurred through improved revenue productivity of the tax system
and not through expenditure restructuring. It was also seen that the poorer states had
preferred to reduce their developmental expenditures to deal with fiscal stress and to
comply with fiscal correction targets. This, in turn, has had adverse growth
implications. The paper concluded that the benefits and the acceptability of SAL at
the sub-national level in India would critically depend on factors such as the
qualitative change in government expenditure in meeting deficient delivery of
public services at state level, and the removal of state level social and infrastructural
bottlenecks for promotion of growth by releasing government resources through
expenditure restructuring and reform.
Parveen (2006) conducted a study on teaching aptitude in relation to general
teaching competency, professional teaching and academic achievements for B.Ed
pupil teachers. On the basis of the result of the study, the following conclusions

40
were drawn: it was observed that female arts pupil teachers secured significantly
higher mean scores than their counterpart male arts pupil teacher. It was found that
teaching aptitude of the pupil teacher was significantly correlated with their general
teaching competence, professional interest and academic achievements. General
teaching competence and professional interest of the pupil teachers significantly
affected their teaching aptitude. In addition to this, effect of academic achievement
on teaching aptitude of the pupil teachers was positive but not significant at
acceptable level of confidence.
Dutt and Samanta (2007) conducted a study on 'like the drifting grains of sand':
vulnerability, security and adjustment by communities in the charlands of the
damodar river, India. Charlands are islands formed in major river systems
particularly in the flat deltaic plains such as those in the Bengal delta in eastern
India and Bangladesh. The charlands in the lower reaches of the Damodar River in
India are prone to frequent floods, shifting river channels and consequent riverbank
erosion. In spite of these risks posed by the environment, migrant communities from
Bihar and Bangladesh settle in the charlands because the soils were fertile, and
because being untitled, they were relatively cheaper than legal lands. This paper
explored the mental maps or perceptions that the chouras – the charland inhabitants
– have of their places of living. We ask How do the chouras see their fragile
environment? Our findings were as follows: first of all, we agreed that the
perceptions of vulnerability and insecurity are subjective, and may differed widely
between different communities or groups living in the charlands. Secondly, we
noted that 'adaptation' might be too broad a term; the specific process was more
contingent than a long-term adaptation and best described as 'adjustment'. Finally,
we noted that in light of our study into the livelihoods that people keep pursuing in
marginal environments such as that of chars, a felt need had arisen to redefine
categories such as 'resilience', 'vulnerability' or 'security'.
Francies (2007) conducted a study on emotional intelligence and academic
achievement of the students of model residential schools. The major findings of
the study were: (i) there was no significant difference between IX and X standard
students of model residential schools in their emotional intelligence. (ii) there was
no significant difference between the male and female students of model residential

41
school with regard to academic achievement. (iii) there was no significant
relationship between emotional intelligence and academic achievement of model
residential school students.
Parmar and Rohner (2008) conducted a study on relations among spouse
acceptance, remembered parental acceptance in childhood and psychological
adjustment among married adults in India. This study explored the way in which
remembered childhood experiences of maternal and paternal acceptance mediated
or influenced in other ways the relation between perceived intimate-partner
acceptance and the psychological adjustment of married adults in India. Results of
simple correlations based on data from four self-report questionnaires showed that
the more accepting both men and women saw their spouses to be, the better was
their psychological adjustment; similarly, the more accepting men and women
remembered both their mothers and fathers to have been when the respondents were
children, the better was their psychological adjustment. However, results of multiple
regression analyses showed that remembered maternal acceptance no longer made a
significant contribution to the psychological adjustment of either men or women
when the influence of paternal and partner acceptance was partial out. Remembered
paternal acceptance was the best single predictor of psychological adjustment for
both men and women, although perceived partner acceptance also made a robust
contribution.
Shanthi (2008) conducted a study on influence of school environment of
academic achievement of IX standard students. The findings of the study were: (i)
there was no significant difference between male and female IX standard students in
academic achievement. (ii) there was no significant difference between rural and
urban IX standard students in academic achievement. (iii) there was no significant
difference between government, aided and self-financed IX standard students in
academic achievement.(iv) there was no significant relationship between school
environment, school management, physical facility, teacher role, peer group
relationship teaching techniques, and academic achievement of IX standard
students.
Sharma (2010) conducted a study on Relationship of Creativity with Academic
Achievement, Achievement Motivation, Self-Concept and Levels of Adjustment

42
among Adolescents. The different levels of all independent variables were found
and by taking three variables at a time, it was found that (i) there was no significant
interaction effect of creativity, achievement motivation, self- concept, index of
brightness and adjustment on mean performance of academic achievement of
adolescents. (ii) there was significant contribution of creativity, achievement
motivation and index of brightness in predicting academic achievement of
adolescents, whereas self-concept and adjustment did not contribute in predicting
academic achievement of adolescents. (iii) index of brightness and adjustment were
negatively correlated to creativity, achievement motivation, self-concept and
academic achievement among adolescents. However, both these variables were
positively correlated to each other.
Parmar (2010) conducted a study on perceived teacher and parental acceptance
and behavioral control, school conduct and psychological adjustment among
school-going adolescents in India. This study explored the relationship between
Indian adolescents’ perceptions of their teachers’ and parents’ (mothers’ and
fathers’) acceptance and behavioral control, students’ conduct in school, and
students’ psychological adjustment. Results showed that the students perceived their
teachers, mothers, and fathers to be warm and accepting, but boys experienced more
teacher acceptance than girls. Boys also experienced more maternal acceptance than
girls. Both boys and girls perceived teachers as well as parents to be firm in
behavioral control. Teachers reported both genders to be well behaved, though girls
tended to be somewhat better behaved than boys. Both boys and girls self- reported
minor psychological adjustment problems, though the more caring students
perceived their teachers and parents to be, the better were their psychological
adjustment. In addition, the less controlling girls (but not boys) perceived their
teachers and parents to be, the better was their psychological adjustment. Regarding
school conduct, only perceived paternal and maternal – but not teacher – acceptance
were associated with boys’ behavior in school. For girls, however, both teachers’
and parents’ acceptance and behavioral control were significantly correlated with
school conduct, though only perceived teacher acceptance made a unique
contribution to their school behavior.

43
Acharya (2010) conducted a study on security speed of Adjustment and Market
Quality, A Case of National Stock Exchange of India. This paper examined the
impact of changes in market structure on market quality through security speed of
adjustment coefficients, by employing ARMA model. The average result of cross-
section of companies did not show any systematic pattern in terms of persistent
under reaction or overreaction. The study did not find significant difference in the
speed of adjustment of small and large capitalization stocks.
Kapçi (2004) conducted a study on bullying type and severity among elementary
school students and its relationship with depression, anxiety and self-esteem. The
results demonstrated that 40% of children had been exposed to physical, verbal,
emotional and sexual bullying. Bullying was also found to be more related to
psychological variables, rather than demographic ones.
Eremsoy (2005) conducted a study on the students under academic stress in a
Turkish University: variables associated with symptoms of depression and
anxiety. Two regression analysis were conducted to see different variables
associated with depression and anxiety symptoms separately. Consistent with the
expectations, depression and anxiety had overlapping predictors, such as negative
automatic thoughts and hopelessness. However, adequacy of problem-solving
abilities seemed to be associated with anxiety symptoms.
Yan (2006) conducted a study on factors affecting the state anxiety level of higher
education students in Macau the impact of trait anxiety and self-esteem. The aim
of this study was to find out the levels of anxiety of night-class students in higher
education in Macau two weeks before the final examination. The Chinese version of
Rosenberg’s self-esteem scale (Rosenberg, 1965) was applied to found out the
relationship between students’ self-esteem and their trait and state anxieties.
Generally speaking, night-class students, who had full-time jobs during the day, had
significantly higher levels of anxiety than day class students, who were either
unemployed or engaged in part-time employment.
Putwain (2007) conducted a study on Researching academic stress and anxiety in
students: some methodological considerations. The study investigated the issue of
academic stress in school children and how it may affect emotional well-being,
health and performance on school assessments. The terms ‘stress’, ‘anxiety’ and

44
‘worry’ were used interchangeably in the literature as if they referred to the same
phenomenon, and the domains of ‘examination stress’ and ‘academic stress’. There
was an overwhelming bias in the research towards quantification and ways of
‘measuring’ stress and anxiety in students. The usefulness of this approach was
considered along with the potential advantages of alternative approaches.
Xie, Leong and Feng (2008) conducted a study on the culture-specific personality
correlates of anxiety among Chinese and Caucasian college students. The results
indicated that socially prescribed perfectionism was a better predictor of social
anxiety for the Chinese participants, but of trait anxiety for the Caucasian
participants. Independent self-construal predicted social anxiety better for the
Caucasians than for the Chinese.
Kaur (2009) conducted a study on relationship of hope and anxiety in graduate-
level students. The findings from the study demonstrated that students exhibit high
level of hope and anxiety. The results also showed that good teaching, exposure to
material beforehand, studying and reassurance are helpful strategies to reduce
students’ anxiety.
Bekdemir (2010) conducted a study on Pre-service Teachers' Mathematics
Anxiety Related to Depth of Negative Experiences in Mathematics Classroom
while they were Students. The findings showed that many pre-service teachers had
mathematics anxiety and that the worst experience and the most troublesome
mathematics classroom experience had a direct influence on mathematics anxiety in
pre-service teachers.
Smith (2011) conducted a study on Anxiety, Knowledge and Help: A Model for
how, Black and White College Students Search for on-line health Information on
the Internet. The study using the ‘think aloud’ protocol, allows for the collection of
data in real time. Eighty percent of students regardless of race did not know how to
properly search for online health information. The researcher discusses the need for
online health information literacy training, the theories that might explain why
black students searched the way that they did, and the challenges to providing
culturally-sensitive online health information literacy training for African-
Americans who had been historically suspicious of the United State's health care
system.

45
Klein (2004) conducted a study on gender related achievement differences the
teacher gender of the students. Stated that the gender related achievement
differences could be due to teacher gender rather than the gender of the students.
The gender of teachers contributed significantly to variance in assigned grades,
whereas the students’ gender only influenced achievement when the teacher was
male.
Lupart, Cannon and Telfer (2004) conducted a study on boys and girls have a
positive attitude toward education. Found that the Research had shown that both
boys and girls can had a positive attitude toward education, but the girls’ positive
attitude is more related to their love of learning, as compared to boys, whose
attitude toward school had more to do with the socialization aspect.
Bhanot and Jovanovic (2005) conducted a study on achievement differences
between the boys and girls. This reported that boys were recipients of more parental
intrusive support with homework; despite this fact, girls were more sensitive to the
little help they did get, especially when the assistance wa in math. These behaviors
further strengthen the girls’ beliefs that they were not strong in math and that it was
a “male” subject. Parents’ perceptions were consistent with the actual achievement
differences between the boys and girls.
Herbert and Stipek (2005) conducted a study on actual mathematical
achievement of the students. Reported that the emergence of gender differences
begins as early as third grade. Third grade girls rated their math competencies lower
than the boys even though there are no gender differences in the actual
mathematical achievement or teachers’ ratings of these students’ math abilities.
Malik and Balda (2006) conducted a study on anxiety and relationship exists
between psychological stress and academic achievement of high IQ adolescents.
The study aimed at finding psychological stress and academic achievement of high
IQ adolescents. Bisht Battery of Stress Scales was used to assess the amount of
stress on these adolescents. Academic achievement was assessed on the basis of
average of marks obtained in last three examinations. Correlation coefficients
between stress scores and academic scores were computed. Academic achievement
was found to be negatively and significantly correlated with all types of stress
except existential stress.

46
Ademokoya and Shittu (2008) conducted a study on establishing relationship
between some intrinsic factors in these students and their academic achievements
becomes very imperative. Since every class of students with hearing disability is
always a heterogeneous one, the need for establishing relationship between some
intrinsic factors in these students and their academic achievements becomes very
imperative. Findings showed that postlingually hearing disabled students were
superior to their prelingually hearing- disabled colleagues, male students did better
than female students and student with high self-concept outclassed those with low
self-concept. It was therefore recommended that teachers and curriculum developers
should adequately consider these findings in teaching and curriculum development
activities.
Kathy and Lynda (2008) conducted a study on anxiety and critical thinking
relationships academic achievement. The purpose of this study addressed that there
was a specific relationships between parenting styles and six priority adolescent risk
behaviors. Adolescents raised in authoritative households consistently demonstrate
higher protective and fewer risk behaviors than adolescents from non-authoritative
families. There was also considerable evidence to show that parenting styles and
behaviors related to warmth, communication and disciplinary practices predict
important mediators, including academic achievement and psychosocial adjustment.
Careful examination of parenting style patterns in diverse populations, particularly
with respect to physical activity and unintentional injury, would be a critical step in
the development of efficacious, culturally tailored adolescent health promotion
interventions.
Yara and Olatunde (2009) conducted a study on relationship among teachers’
attitude and students’ academic achievement in secondary school students. The
study found out the relationship among teachers’ attitude and students’ academic
achievement in secondary school mathematics. The findings revealed that there was
good and positive attitude of teachers towards the teaching of mathematics in
secondary schools in spite of the shortcomings that has bedeviled the teaching
profession and particularly in the teaching of mathematics. It is very important that
teachers of mathematics should be adequately remunerated and well equipped and
be psychologically prepared to teach the subject in the secondary schools.

47
Khan (2010) conducted a study on perceived teacher acceptance, parental
acceptance, academic achievement, and school conduct of middle school students
in the Mississippi delta region of the United States. This study investigated the
effects of perceived teacher acceptance as well as perceived maternal and paternal
acceptance on the academic achievement. Results showed that perceived teacher
acceptance contributed significantly and independently to variations in both school
conduct and GPA among boys, but not girls.
Mok and Kennedy (2011) conducted a study on academic attribution of
secondary students: gender, year level and achievement level.
This study is concerned with the attribution of secondary students. Causal
interpretations for academic success and failure were analyzed to investigate the
effect of gender, year level and achievement level on students’ academic
attributions in Hong Kong, a Confucian Heritage Culture. The study found
secondary students of both genders and across all achievement and year levels,
consistently ascribed to effort as the most important reason for academic outcomes.
Secondary students were significantly more inclined than students of lower levels to
attribute their academic outcomes to effort and strategy use.
e). Studies related to Temperament
McKnight and Huebner (2002) conducted a study on relationships among
stressful life events, temperament, problem behavior, and global life satisfaction
in adolescents. The relationships among stressful life events (SLEs), temperament,
externalizing and internalizing behaviors, and global life satisfaction were
investigated. The Students’ Life Satisfaction Scale, the Youth Self Report (YSR)
form of the Child Behavior Checklist, a portion of the Life Events Checklist, and
the Abbreviated Junior Eysenck Personality. A modest correlation was found
between life satisfaction and extraversion, whereas moderate correlations were
found between life satisfaction and Neuroticism and life satisfaction and SLEs.
Based upon hierarchical regression analyses, temperament variables accounted for
approximately 16% of the variance in predictions of life satisfaction ratings. When
SLEs were added, an additional 3% of the variance in life satisfaction ratings was
subsequently explained. Life satisfaction did not operate as a moderator between
SLEs and problem behavior. However, when global life satisfaction was added as a

48
mediator variable, results indicated a partial mediational effect, particularly on
internalizing behavior.
Kranenburg (2002) conducted a study on development of empathy in girls during
the second year of life: associations with parenting, attachment, and
temperament. The development, antecedents, and concomitants of empathic
concern in the second year of life were examined. Associations with parental
sensitivity, children’s fearfulness and attachment security were investigated.
Empathic concern was assessed from the girls’ responses to simulated distress in
their mothers and in an unfamiliar person. Temperamental fearfulness was observed
when they were confronted with potentially scary items. Attachment security was
assessed with the Strange Situation procedure, and parental sensitivity was
measured in problem-solving situations both at home and in the lab. Empathic
concern for the mother’s distress increased, whereas empathy for the stranger
decreased. A more fearful temperament and less attachment security predicted less
empathic concern for the stranger’s distress. Antecedent and concurrent measures of
parenting showed disappointingly weak associations with empathic concern.
Empathy for strangers in distress requires the regulation of negative emotions for
which fearful and insecurely attached girls seem to be less well equipped.
Pedlow, Sanson and Wales (2004) conducted a study on children’s production
and comprehension of politeness in requests: relationships to behavioural
adjustment, temperament and empathy. This study investigated the relationships of
children’s behavioural adjustment, temperamental approach tendencies and
empathy to their ability to produce and comprehend one aspect of politeness
(namely level of directness) in requests. The study showed that high levels of
anxious fearful behaviour problems increased the likelihood of producing less direct
requests to more powerful others while high levels of approaching temperament
increased the likelihood of producing less direct requests to more distant others.
High levels of hostile aggressive behaviour problems increased the likelihood of
producing direct requests to more distant others. By comparison high levels of
approaching temperament, empathy and social anxiety increased the likelihood of
children judging more direct requests to more powerful others to be effective. The

49
findings supported the view that individual differences are related to children’s use
of directness in response to variation in the social context of request situations.
Martini, Root and Jenkins (2004) conducted a study on low and middle income
mothers’ regulation of negative emotion: effects of children's temperament and
situational emotional responses. This study investigated the effects of situational
(child situational emotions) and dispositional (child temperament) child variables on
mothers’ regulation of their own hostile (anger) and no hostile (sadness and anxiety)
emotions. Children’s situational emotions (anger, sadness, or fear) and parent
emotion type (hostile or no hostile) were important predictors of mothers’
regulation, but their effects were influenced by SES: Middle income mothers were
more likely to control hostile than no hostile emotions in response to child anger
and sadness, and more likely than low income mothers to control hostile emotions
in response to child sadness and fear. Low income mothers were more likely than
middle income mothers to control no hostile emotions in response to child anger.
However, results also suggested that differences in emotion regulation between low
and middle income mothers might stem from the link between SES and
authoritarian parenting beliefs. Maternal regulation of negative emotion was not
predicted by child temperament. and psychological or behavioral adjustment were
often unidirectional rather than bi- directional, underscoring the role of perceived
school climate in the psychological and behavioral health of early adolescents.
Laible, Eye and Carlo (2008) conducted a study on dimensions of conscience in
mid- adolescence: links with social behavior, parenting, and temperament. The
purpose of this study was to determine whether aspects of conscience cohere into
broader dimensions and to examine how these broader dimensions of conscience
relate to parenting, temperament, and social behavior. High levels of parental
inductive discipline and low levels of parental power assertion were associated with
high levels of moral affect, whereas high levels of persistent discipline were
associated with increased moral cognition. High negative reactivity, however, was
only associated with high levels of moral affect. In general, higher levels of moral
affect were associated with pro-social behavior and moral conduct during bullying.
Higher levels of moral cognition were associated with less participation in bullying,
more altruistic behavior, and more frequent helping of the victims of bullying.

50
Verstraeten and Vasey (2009) conducted a study on temperament and risk for
depressive symptoms in adolescence: mediation by rumination and moderation by
effortful control. The study examined the relations between temperament,
ruminative response style and depressive symptoms both cross-section ally and
prospectively (1 year follow- up) in a community sample of 304 seventh- through
tenth-graders. First, higher levels of negative affectivity (NA), lower levels of
positive affectivity (PA) and lower levels of effortful control (EC) were found to be
associated with higher levels of depressive symptoms. Second, the association
between NA and PA on the one hand and depressive symptoms on the other was
significantly moderated by level of EC (low PA and high NA are associated with
depressive symptoms only if EC is low) and these relations were moderated by sex
in the cross-sectional data. In the prospective data, T1 depressive symptoms and PA
predicted T2 depressive symptoms; with EC approaching significance. Third,
rumination also predicted T1 as well as T2 depressive symptoms. Finally, support
was found for a model of moderated mediation: higher levels of NA were associated
with higher levels of ruminative response style, which was in turn related to more
depressive symptoms but only in individuals with low EC and this was true for the
cross-sectional as well as the prospective data albeit with noteworthy differences in
pattern.
These findings confirmed and extended previous findings on the associations
between temperament, response styles and depression in adolescence and, as such,
add to the growing body of research providing support for the applicability of
cognitive vulnerability theories to depression in younger populations.
Nichiporuk (2010) conducted a study on analysis of the interdependence of
temperament, neuroendocrine control, and psycho physiological state during dry
immersion. The interdependence of temperament and the hormonal and psycho
physiological states was investigated in eight young volunteers during seven-day
dry immersion (DI). The levels of insulin and sex, steroid, and thyroid hormones in
the blood and the psychomotor parameters were determined on days 3 and 7 of DI
and on day 7 of recovery. Before DI, the volunteers filled in Cattell’s personality
questionnaire. During DI, anxious subjects spent less time to compare visual
patterns, demonstrating a stably high speed of reactions with a slight quality loss.

51
Extraverts showed a high speed of reactions and stability of psychomotor
parameters without an increase in the number of errors. Easy-tempered and introvert
subjects retained inherently high insulin concentrations in DI. Support deprivation
was accompanied by the drop of the triiodothyronine and cortisol levels and an
increase in prolactin and thyroxin. The results of multiple correlation analysis led to
the conclusion that DI emphasizes the role of original extra-introversion and
dampers the original anxiety. Success could be attained by adequate alteration of the
levels of steroid and thyroid hormones with effectively balanced vagoinsulin-
sympathoadrenal neuroendocrine control and monoaminergic CNS activity.
Tumanova and Kayikci (2011) conducted a study to examine the relationship
between articulation rate, frequency and duration of influences of different types,
and temperament in preschool children who stutter (CWS). Findings indicate that
for some CWS, relatively longer sound prolongations co- occur with relatively
slower speech rate, which suggested that sound prolongations, across a range of
durations, may represent a distinct type of SLD, not just in their obvious perceptual
characteristics, but in their potential influence on overall speech production at
multiple levels learning outcomes.
Li and Gasser (2005) conducted a study on predicting Asian international
students’ sociocultural adjustment: a test of two mediation models. Integrating a
number of theoretical perspectives, this study examined predictors of Asian
international students’ socio-cultural adjustment. A total of 117 students (aged 18–
46 years) from 17 Asian countries and regions completed questionnaires about their
socio-cultural adjustment, contact with the hosts, ethnic identity, and cross-cultural
self- efficacy. As hypothesized, contact with the hosts partially mediated the effect
of cross-cultural self-efficacy on socio-cultural adjustment. The hypothesis that
contact with the hosts would mediate the effect of ethnic identity on socio-cultural
adjustment was not supported.
Galloway and Jenkins (2005) conducted a study on adjustment problems faced by
International students in the United States: a comparison of international
students and administrative perceptions at two private, religiously affiliated
Universities. International students and the faculty and administrators charged with
their oversight were surveyed at two religiously affiliated, private universities to

52
determine the extent of their adjustment problems in the United States. Although
the international students were found to have only minor adjustment problems in the
twelve areas covered by the Michigan International Student Problem Inventory,
university administrators and faculty consistently overestimated the extent of these
problems and misunderstood the relative importance of the various problem areas.
Results revealed that problems with the English language were the largest single
determinant of international student problems, followed in effect size by marital
status and country of origin.
Michael and Snyder (2005) conducted a study on getting unstuck: the roles of
hope, finding meaning, and rumination in the adjustment to bereavement among
college students. The relationships between hope, bereavement-related rumination,
and finding meaning (making sense and benefit finding) were examined. Finding
benefits in bereavement was associated with positive adjustment for those who
recently experienced the death of a loved one, whereas it was related to negative
adjustment for those who experienced the death longer ago. Higher hope predicted
greater well-being, but it was not related to rumination or finding meaning.
Omoteso (2006) conducted a study on influence of selected socio-demographic
variables on academic adjustment of University students in southwestern Nigeria.
This study examined the nature of the university undergraduate students’ academic
adjustment problems and the influence of selected socio-demographic variables of
peer status, gender, age and family background on the students’ academic
adjustment. Three purposively selected universities in Southwestern Nigeria.
Academic Adjustment Inventory was used to gather information from the subjects.
The data were analyzed using simple percentages and analysis of variance
(ANOVA). The results of the data analysis revealed the nature of the academic
adjustment problems of the students. Their problems included inability to get
suitable place to study (85%); difficulty in understanding the recommended
textbooks (82%); enormity of the work given (e.g. assignments, homework and
write-up) (85%) having to move from one lecture room to another (87%) and the
strictness of the university (87%). Peer status while in secondary school had
significant influence on the students’ academic adjustment but age and family

53
background did not have significant influence on the students’ academic
adjustment.
Andrade (2006) conducted a study on International Students in English-speaking
Universities: Adjustment Factors. International students in institutions of higher
education in English-speaking countries make valuable educational and economic
contributions. For these benefits to continue, universities must become more
knowledgeable about the adjustment issues these students face and implement
appropriate support services. This review identified factors that influenced the
adjustment and academic achievement of international students. Adjustment
challenges were primarily attributable to English language proficiency and culture.
Achievement was affected by English proficiency, academic skills and educational
background. Understanding international student adjustment issues had global
implications for intercultural education.
Reynolds and Constantine (2007) conducted a study on cultural adjustment
difficulties and career development of International college students. This study
examined the extent to which two dimensions of cultural adjustment difficulties
(i.e., acculturative distress and intercultural competence concerns) predicted two
specific career development outcomes (i.e., career aspirations and career outcome
expectations) in a sample of international college students from Africa, Asia, and
Latin America. Although no significant differences among the participants were
found by region of origin and gender, multivariate multiple regression analyses
indicated that higher levels of acculturative distress were predictive of lower levels
of career outcome expectations among these international students. Furthermore,
findings revealed that greater intercultural competence concerns were predictive of
lower career aspirations and lower career outcome expectations.
Agliata and Renk (2008) conducted a study on college students' adjustment: the
role of parent-college student expectation discrepancies and communication
reciprocity. Parents’ influence on college students’ adjustment is underestimated
frequently. As college students often set goals based on their perceptions of their
parents’ expectations, discrepancies between college students’ and their parents’
expectations may be related to their adjustment. The purpose of this study was to
examine parent- college student expectation discrepancies and communication

54
reciprocity as predictors of college students' adjustment. A sub sample of their
mothers and fathers also participated in this study. Co relational results revealed
that college students report experiencing lower levels of self-worth and adjustment
when higher expectation discrepancies are present between themselves and their
parents. Regression results also indicated that expectation discrepancies and college
students' perceptions of communication reciprocity are important predictors of
college students' self-worth and adjustment. Teaching assertive communication
skills to college students and their parents may serve as a means of promoting
positive outcomes for college students.
GonzAlez and Ting (2008) conducted a study on the adjustment of undergraduate
latino students at a southeastern university: cultural components of academic
and social integration. College campuses in the southeast United States are striving
to understand and serve their newly arriving Latino students to promote adjustment
and academic success. The purpose of this study was to outline the cultural
components of academic and social integration of Latino college students at one
southeastern campus, based on descriptive survey results. Participant responses
reflected relatively smooth academic integration but some complications in the
social/cultural areas.
Ingunn and Edvin (2009) conducted a study on role of perceived parental
socialization practices in school adjustment among Norwegian upper secondary
school students. Lack of adjustment or school failure is a concern to educators,
educational and school psychologists as well as parents, but few studies had focused
on school adjustment during late adolescence. The results showed that perceived
parental practices accounted for moderate, but statistically significant amounts of
variance in different aspects of school adjustment. The findings indicated that
perceived parental socialization practices were only moderately associated with
school adjustment among upper secondary school students.
This probably reflects the fact that the influence of specific parenting practices
declines as children and young adolescents mature into late adolescent students.
Kfaween (2010) conducted a study on adjustment student college on the faculty of
educational sciences in tafila technical university. This study aimed to identify the
adjustment level for students in a sample from faculty of education. a random

55
sample of study has been selected use the measure of adjustment to college where
the results there indicate that students have a medium level of adjustment to college.
And the superiority male and first year students from the village was highest than
first year students from city.
f). Studies Related to Self-confidence
Leadership and Self-confidence
Self-confidence is the fundamental basis from which leadership grows. Trying to teach
leadership without first building confidence is like building a house on a foundation of
sand. It may have a nice coat of paint, but it is ultimately shaky at best. While the
leadership community has focused on passion, communication, and empowerment,
they've ignored this most basic element and in the process they have planted these other
components of leadership in a bed of quicksand. Self-confidence indicates whether you
are self-assured in your judgments, decisions, ideas, and capabilities. Self-confidence
influences individual goals, efforts, and frustration tolerance. Without strong self-
confidence, leaders are less likely to influence followers or take on difficult tasks.
Before most people can exert leadership, they need to develop an appropriate amount of
self-confidence. Self-confidence is necessary for leadership because it helps assure
group members that things are under control. A leader who is too self-confident,
however, may not admit to errors, listen to criticism, or ask for advice. Also, you may
appear insecure if you are too self-confident. Self-confidence is also important because
it contributes to self-efficacy. Some of the studies on leadership and self-confidence are
reviewed and to indicate the dearth of information about impact of emotional maturity
on particularly stress and self confidence among adolescents as follows:
Chemers et al. (2000), in their study titled “Dispositional Affect and Leadership
Effectiveness: A Comparison of Self-esteem, Optimism and Efficacy” examined the
effects of leadership efficacy and optimism on the evaluation and performance of
military cadet leaders. Cadets at several universities responded to measures of
leadership confidence and optimism. In Part 1, the cadets (n = 96) were rated for
leadership potential by their military science professors. Both leadership efficacy and
optimism were associated with rated leadership potential. Part 2 followed most of the
same cadets (n = 64) to U.S. Army summer leadership training. Leadership efficacy, but
not optimism, was strongly related to performance evaluations by objective observers in

56
a leadership simulation and to leadership ratings by peers and superiors. A measure of
general selfesteem was not an independent predictor of leadership performance ratings,
and neither leadership efficacy nor optimism predicted non-leadership performance
measures. The findings observed that self-rated leadership efficacy has concurrent,
predictive, and discriminant validity as a contributor to leadership evaluations.
Hart et al. (2003) studied leadership skills among school athletes, and found that
change in self-esteem is most likely to occur during times of transition, such as
changing schools. Changes in one's environment are usually the catalyst for changes in
one's self-assessment, resulting in an increase or a decrease in self-esteem. The re-
evaluation occurs due to changes in self-perceptions of competence or incompetence
based upon the degree of mastery of new developmental tasks, a comparison of oneself
to a different group of students, and/or the creation of new social networks. This study
concludes that for the school athletes; self-esteem, empowerment, and self-confidence
are often bolstered through participation in interscholastic competitive sports. These
traits are also traits of leadership. Many contributing factors and people mould the
student athlete into a leader but the process must be intentional and must start in school
to support athletes in achieving their full leadership potential. Thus, school personnel
are advised to maintain athletic programmes for athletes; and coaches are advised to
instil intentional leadership skills in athletes. Threats of budget cuts that would endanger
interscholastic athletics must be re-examined. The reduction or elimination of athletic
programmes may stifle athletic ability and leadership development for today and
tomorrow.
Kolb (2006) studied the effect of gender role, attitude toward leadership, and self
confidence on leader emergence to know its implications for leadership development.
The research has shown no substantial differences between the behaviours of male and
female leaders, differences exist in perceptions of these behaviours. Leadership
continues to be described in stereotypically masculine terms, although some evidence
exists that an androgynous leadership style also may be related to perceptions of
leadership. This study examined whether self-perceptions of masculine gender role
characteristics would predict individuals who were perceived by others as leaders on a
team project and if other self report measures might be used instead to predict

57
leadership. The study indicated that both attitude toward leadership and leadership
experience were stronger predictors of leader emergence than masculine gender role.
Pastey and Aminbhavi (2006) analysed the impact of emotional maturity on stress and
self-confidence of adolescents. As emotions do play a central role in the life of an
individual, one is expected to have higher emotional maturity in order to lead an
effective life. It is also true that our behaviour is constantly influenced by the emotional
maturity level that we possess. Especially, the adolescents who are observed to be
highly emotional in their dealings need to be studied. In view of this, an attempt was
made to find out the impact of emotional maturity of adolescents on their stress and self-
confidence. Sample of the study consisted of 105 adolescents studying in XI and XII
class at Dharwad city, Karnataka state, India. The scales such as emotional maturity
(Singh and Bhargava, 1990), Self- confidence Inventory (Agnihotri, 1987) and
Students’ Stress Scale (Deo, 1997) were administered on the selected sample. Along
with responses to the above scales, some personal data information was also collected
from the sample. The obtained responses were scored and converted to standard (T)
scores, further subjected to‘t’ and ‘F’ tests. The findings revealed that the adolescents
with high emotional maturity have significantly high stress (t=10.44; p< 0.001) and self-
confidence (t=2.92; p< 0.01) when compared to those with low emotional maturity.
Adolescents with more number of siblings have shown significantly higher level of self-
confidence (t = 2.96; p< 0.01) than their counterparts. It is also found that educational
level of a father has significantly influenced stress of his adolescent children (F= 5.303;
p< 0.01). Adolescent boys tend to have significantly higher stress than girls (t=1.72),
and girls tend to have significantly high self-confidence (t=1.83).

Self-confidence and Performance

Self-confidence is considered one of the most influential motivators and regulators of
behaviour in people's everyday lives (Bandura, 1986). A growing body of evidence
suggests that one's perception of ability or self-confidence is the central mediating
construct of achievement strivings (Bandura, 1977; Ericsson et al., 1993; Harter, 1978;
Kuhl, 1992; Nicholls, 1984). Ericsson and his colleagues have taken the position that
the major influence in the acquisition of expert performance is the confidence and

58
motivation to persist in deliberate practice for a minimum of 10 years. Some studies
have been reviewed of self-confidence in relation to performance which are as follows:
Hansford and Hattie (1982) studied the relationship between self and
achievement/performance measures. This meta-analysis had examined the relationship
between the various self-measures and measures, of performance and achievement. The
statistical results of 128 studies were transformed to a common measure, namely,
correlation coefficients. These studies represent a total sample of 202,823 persons and
produce a database of 1,136 correlations between self-ratings and performance
measures. A range in the relationship of -0.77 to 0.96 was reported with an “average”
correlation of 0.21. It was found that this average relationship was modified by a
number of variables. The more significant modifiers of the average relationship were the
grade-level of subjects, socio-economic status, ethnicity, ability of subjects, self-term
used in the study, name of self-test used, type and name of performance/achievement
measures, and the reliability of both the self-ratings and performance/achievement
measures.
Prussia et al. (1998), examined the effects of self-leadership skills and self-efficacy
perceptions on performance. Structural equations modelling determined whether the
influence of self-leadership on performance is mediated by self-efficacy perceptions.
Results for the sample of 151 respondents indicated self-leadership strategies had a
significant effect on self-efficacy evaluations, and self-efficacy emerged as a mediating
factor directly affecting performance. Further, self-efficacy perceptions were found to
fully mediate the self-leadership/performance relationship.
Mammasis and Doganis (2004) carried out their research study titled, “The Effects of a
Mental Training Program on Juniors Pre-Competitive Anxiety, Self-Confidence, and
Tennis Performance” to find the impact of a season-long Mental Training Program
(MTP) on two elite junior tennis players. The two reported cases were part of a study in
which MTP players (n = 5) in addition to their tennis practice were exposed to 5
different psychological skills: goal setting, positive thinking and self-talk, concentration
and routines, arousal regulation techniques, and imagery. Another group of elite junior
tennis players (n = 4) followed the same amount and quality of tennis practice but
received no mental training practice. Program effectiveness was evaluated through (a)
the Competitive State Anxiety Inventory-2, (b) the athletes' appraisal on 8 aspects of

59
tennis performance, and (c) tennis-specific statistical data of two selected cases. The
results indicated an increase in the direction dimension of the somatic anxiety, cognitive
anxiety and self-confidence for the intervention group at the post-test. Moreover, the
intensity of self-confidence, as well as the overall tennis performance, were greater for
all the participants of the intervention group after the MTP. Results on two selected
cases are reported which clearly demonstrate the effectiveness of the MTP in
eliminating specific performance problems.

g). Studies Related to Psychological wellbeing

According to Diener (1999), Subjective well-being is composed of life satisfaction, the
presence of positive affect, and the absence of negative affect. Thus, a person is
described as enjoying a high level of SWB if he/she is satisfied with life, frequently
experiences positive emotions and seldom feels negative emotions. It is an important
aspect of one‘s psychological disposition and a mental state that helps a person to
maintain equilibrium, anchored in hope and optimism, even during the adversities of
life.
A study by Khan (2012) found that Gender, socio-economic status, marital status and
religious beliefs of the students were significantly influencing the outcome variables.
Significant positive relationship was found between positive psychological strengths
and subjective well-being, mentoring from teachers and educational encouragement
from parents, siblings and friends. Regression analysis revealed that mentoring on the
part of the teachers significantly predicted positive psychological strengths and
subjective well-being. Educational encouragement from the parents, siblings and
friends, significantly predicted the positive psychological strengths and subjective well-
being. Role of mentoring and educational encouragement from parents, siblings and
teachers was found to be imperative in developing positive psychological strengths and
subjective well-being in contemporary adolescents, as well as preparing skills to face
challenges of life in a complex world.

Subjective Well-Being and Gender

60
In Western societies, studies conducted on subjective well-being show that the impact of
gender on subjective well-being was found to be not significant. According to Fujita
(1991) we need more valid information about effect of gender on subjective well-being.
There is no gender difference on adolescents‘ subjective well-being. (Ali Eryilmaz,
2010). Contrary to these findings a study by Hasida Ben-Zur, (2003) revealed that
gender was a contributing to SWB.
Pareek and Madhu (2012) found that relationship between altruism and subjective
well-being is remarkable which is noteworthy in females as compared to males.
Bhupinder and Rakhi Udainiya (2009) found that gender had no significant effect on the
measure of well-being.
A study by Sood and Gupta (2012) showed that gender has no influence on subject
well-being. But the study has revealed age effects on well-being. Katja et al (2009)
indicated that school satisfaction, body satisfaction, and self-rated good health explained
50% of the variance in global satisfaction among female respondents. For males, most
significant predictors for global satisfaction included, in addition to those observed
among girls, low-intensity drinking which explained 31% of the variance. The most
significant associations for global ill-being for females were school dissatisfaction,
high-intensity drinking, and self-rated moderate health, explaining 34% of the variance.
In global ill-being, the variables of body dissatisfaction and regular drinking explained
only 14% of the variance for boys. The results support the need to enhance adolescent
positive attitudes toward life and school, self-perception, and adolescent coping with
negative emotions.

Subjective well-being and Age

Adolescents whose ages are 15 were found to have higher subjective well-being than
adolescents whose were of 17, and this difference is statistically significant (Ali
Eryilmaz, 2010). In their study, 12-15 year olds scored higher on subject well-being
than age 16-19 year olds.

Subjective well-being and Education

The studies which investigate the relationship between subjective well-being and
education demonstrate that the impact of education on subjective well-being is weak.
61
The effect of education can be meaningful when we compare poor countries with
comparatively rich countries. Because of the fact that education supplies people extra
leisure activities, and also social statues, people who live in a rich country are much
happier than people who live in poor countries Veenhoven (1994) Which in Turkey, it
seems that there are hardly any studies which investigate adolescents‘ subjective well-
being (Koker, 1991; Nalbant, 1993). Subjective well-being supplies for adolescents
with greater adaptation to life. In another words, it prevents from psychopathology in
adults and adolescents. Therefore, it is important to find what factors are related with
adolescents‘subjective well-being.

Subjective Well-Being and Health

Diener & Chan (2010) Reviews seven types of data that suggest that high SWB
contributes to health and longevity. From longitudinal prospective studies to
experimental mood inductions where physiological outcomes are assessed, the data are
clear and convincing that types of SWB such as high positive affect and low negative
affect are beneficial to health and longevity. Studies on animals and intervention studies
confirm the conclusion that SWB can causally influence health and longevity. The data
are compelling, but not ―beyond a reasonable doubt. A positive relationship was
expected due to both a shared environment and the possibility of the genetic
transmission of subjective well-being ‗set-points‘. In a study by Cummins (2008), a
positive significant relationship was found for the summated scale of satisfaction
domains forming the Personal Well-being Index and for the specific domains of health
and security for the future. However, no relationship was found for the other five
domains that make up this index or satisfaction with life as a whole. These results have
provided some evidence for the expected influence of a shared environment; but have
failed to provide evidence for high heritability of set-points for subjective well-being.
Diener (1984) and Lyubomirsky et al (2005) concluded that individuals having a
higher subjective well-being are more social and creative, have a better immune system,
live longer, earn more money, are better citizens, are more productive in business life,
have a higher marriage satisfaction and cope with stress better. According to studies
done in mental health field, 450 million people worldwide have a mental or behavioral
disorders. Besides these, one out of every four people experiences a mental or

62
behavioral problem at least once in a lifetime (WHO, 2001). Mental disorders both
bring psychological, social and economic burden to society and also increase risk of
physical diseases. People‘s adaptation to life impairs consequently (Gultekin et al.,
2010). Thus, people continue their lives unhappily. At this point, it is important to find
one‘s inner and outer sources, which lead mental health of adolescents to positive side.

Subjective Well-Being and Social Relationships

Diener & Tay (2010) found that societies that are strong in social relationships have
higher SWB. The effects were not just due to the fact that more individuals in such
nations have strong relationships and therefore higher SWB. In addition to this,
people with strong relationships were even happier in nations where such
relationships are prevalent, and people with weak social support were better off
in societies with strong social support compared to their counterparts in nations
with weak social support. Furthermore, helping others was about as important as
receiving social support, and society-wide helping was beneficial to the
subjective well-being even of non-helpers.

Subjective wellbeing and psychosocial factors

In investigations of well-being, social support, and self-esteem in adolescents, it has
been recommended that a broad range of contextual influences be taken into account
(Baumeister, Campbell, Krueger, & Vohs, 2003; Garfenski, 2000; Garfenski &
Diekstra,1996; Hare, 1979). Specifically with regard to adolescents, peer, family, and
school, contexts have been found to have differential relationships with adolescents‘
view of the self and perceptions of support (Caldwell, Silverman, Lefforge, & Silver,
2004). For example, feeling good about oneself in the context of school (i.e., school
self-esteem) has been found to be related to overall self-esteem, but this relationship is
moderated by race; while feeling good about oneself in one‘s family (i.e., family self-
esteem) has been found to be more predictive of general self-esteem than school self-
esteem regardless of race (Hare, 1979). Thus, in investigating ethnically and racially
diverse groups of adolescents, it may be beneficial to consider feelings of self-esteem in
area-specific contexts.

63
Hasida Ben-Zur, (2003) found perceived mastery and dispositional optimism are
related to the happiness and well-being of adolescents. María Teresa Muñoz Sastre and
Gaëlle Ferrière (2000) uncovered an important relationship between ―placement in a
children‘s home, a feeling of personal growth, and life satisfaction. This relationship
seemed to be independent from the relationship that links placement in a children‘s
home, satisfaction with family life, and life satisfaction. Although it may be difficult to
repair family life, there is a possibility to work to improve the subjective well-being of
adolescents placed in children‘s homes. To the extent that these adolescents could
develop a greater feeling of personal growth, their subjective well-being could also be
increased. The relationship between adolescents‘ subjective well-being and their
parents‘ socioeconomic status are low and positive. (Ali Eryilmaz, 2010). Hasida Ben-
Zur, (2003) stated that adolescents reporting warm relationships and open
communication with their parents show higher levels of both internal resources and
well-being. Parental and family influences on adolescents‘ characteristics can be genetic
or environmental in origin, and both were found to contribute to stability and change in
the developmental patterns of adolescent adjustment (Neiderhiser et al., 1996).

CRITICAL REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

The investigator has reviewed a total number of seventy-three studies both Indian
and Foreign studies. There are forty-two foreign and thirty-one Indian studies.
Among them, twenty studies are on anxiety, twelve on temperament, twenty-two on
adjustment and nineteen on academic achievement. The fact is that anxiety,
temperament, adjustment and academic achievement are interlinked to a great
extent. Anxiety being a negative factor affects the academic achievement of a
student. In such a situation, temperament and adjustment act as motivating factors
to contribute to the success of students’ performance. Hence, the investigator is able
to find out the number of related literature on temperament, adjustment and
academic achievement. The investigator would like to add the following critical
comments starting with the variable anxiety. After the critical evaluation of the
studies related to anxiety, the investigator has made the following conclusions.
Goswami, Minakshi (2000) found that the children of working mothers were more
achievement oriented than the children of non-working mothers. Alam (2001)
identified that the academic achievement of non-Muslim children has been found
64
superior in comparison to their Muslim counterparts. Vazalwar and Yadav (2005)
observed that there was significant joint effect of school environment and anxiety
on reading comprehension in English.
Mehotra (2003) reported that there was positive relationship between intelligence
and academic achievement. Venita Singit (2003) observed that the academic
achievement of students was not affected by parents education and parents
education did not affect achievement motivation of students. Modi (2005) observed
that the general caste and schedule caste students had average level general anxiety
and very low academic anxiety. Vamadevappa (2005) found that there was a
positive and significant relationship between parental involvement and academic
achievement. Krishna kumar, Sumesh and Lulu Mathews (2006) found out the
characteristic temperamental traits associated with conversion disorder were of low
emotionality and low threshold of responsiveness.
Parveen (2006) found that the teaching aptitude of the pupil teacher was
significantly correlated with their general teaching competence, professional interest
and academic achievements. Shaiju Francis (2007) concluded that there was
significant relationship between emotional intelligence and academic achievement
of the model residential school students. Shanthi (2008) reported that there was
significant relationship between school environment, school management, physical
facility, teacher’s role, peer group relationship teaching techniques and academic
achievement of X standard students.
Ekta Sharma (2010) showed that there was no significant interaction effect of
creativity, achievement motivation, self-concept, index of brightness and adjustment
on mean performance of academic achievement of adolescents. However, both
these variables were positively correlated to each other.
Parminder Parmar (2010) observed that both the teachers’ and parents’
acceptance and behavioral control were significantly correlated with school
conduct, though only perceived teacher acceptance made a unique contribution to
their school behavior. Xin Ma (2003) showed that accelerated regular students
increased their anxiety significantly faster than no accelerated regular students.
Emine Gül Kapçi (2004) observed that bullying is found to be more related to
psychological variables, rather than demographic ones. Ekin Eremsoy (2005)

65
revealed that adequacy of problem- solving abilities seemed to be associated with
anxiety symptoms. Cheung Hoi Yan (2006) found that night-class students, who
had full-time jobs during the day, had significantly higher levels of anxiety than day
class students, who were either unemployed or engaged in part-time employment.
David Putwain (2007) revealed that there was an overwhelming bias in the
research towards quantification and ways of 'measuring' stress and anxiety in
students. Dong Xie, Frederick T.L. Leong and Shoudong Feng (2008) indicated that
socially prescribed perfectionism was a better predictor of social anxiety for the
Chinese participants, but of trait anxiety for the Caucasian participants. Sandeep
Kaur (2009) showed that good teaching, exposure to material beforehand, studying
and reassurance were helpful strategies to reduce students’ anxiety. Mehmet
Bekdemir (2010) observed that pre-service teachers had over mathematics anxiety
and that the worst experience and the most troublesome mathematics classroom
experiences had a direct influence on mathematics anxiety in pre-service teachers.
Poonam Malik and Shanti Balda (2006) found that academic achievement was
found to be negatively and significantly correlated with all types of stress except
existential stress. Lengua, Liliana (2006) suggested that temperament and parenting
predict changes in each other and predict adjustment during the transition to
adolescence. Studsrød, Ingunn; Bru, Edvin (2009) showed that perceived parental
socialization practices are only moderately associated with school adjustment
among upper secondary school students. The present study is unique for several
reasons. It is understood that no study has been undertaken so for that had anxiety,
temperament and adjustment. Hence it is understood that the present study is the
first in its kind in this aspect. Several studies have been conducted on different
groups having anxiety as its focus. But it is understood that no study has so far been
conducted on higher secondary students, therefore the study stands unique. As
regards temperament, several studies have been conducted on teachers, student
teachers and adolescents in relation to leadership, self-esteem, and academic
achievement risk taking attitude, mathematics proficiency, critical temperament,
web page design and social competency. But this study is based on temperament is
combined with variables namely anxiety, temperament, adjustment and academic
achievement, and it is on this ground that it stands different from the rest of the

66
studies conducted earlier. It is to be noted that the study made on the variable
temperaments in India numbers to just one. Therefore, it can be detained that this
study is new and different. No Indian investigators have focused exclusively on the
temperament in relation to higher secondary students. A few studies pertaining to
the academic achievements of the students, but none has linked academic
achievement with adjustment. Therefore, the studies remain unique.
The present study beyond any doubt differs from the above studies in many ways.
No study has been found to combine the four variables of anxiety, temperament,
adjustment and academic achievement. This is different from other in terms of
population and sample. Therefore, it is only relevant for the investigator to carry out
to study the influence of anxiety, temperament and adjustment on academic
achievement of higher secondary students.
STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
The present study intends to examination anxiety, self-confidence and psychological
wellbeing among higher secondary school. Most of students are suffering from anxiety
at some level during an examination. However, when anxiety affects examination
performance it has become a problem. Examination anxiety is actually a type of
performance anxiety-a feeling someone might have in a situation where performance
really count or when pressure’s on to do well. Examination anxiety can bring a
stomachache or headache. Some people might feel shaky, sweaty; feel their heart
beating quickly as they wait for the test to be given out. A student with really strong test
anxiety may even feel like he or she might pass out or throw up. Almost everyone feels
nervous before an examination. Butterflies in stomach and worrying thoughts - “Will I
be able to answer the questions?” “Have I done enough revisions?” – are indications of
examination nerve. A certain amount of nervous tension probably helps one to perform
to the best of his or her ability, helps to feel alert and focused but too much anxiety can
BLOCK thoughts, create a negative frame of mind, lead to panic and potentially poor
exam performance. How can one define examination anxiety? Examination anxiety is an
excessive worry about upcoming exams and a fear of being evaluated. It is experienced
by many normal students. It is not mysterious or difficult to understand. It is
manageable by following a plan of helpful suggestions. It is also different from typical
nervousness, because it is more intense, more disruptive, more disturbing. It is more
potentially overwhelming. It is not helpful or motivating. Anxiety is present in
67
everyone, yet few will openly admit to its presence. It is one of the most distressing
built on enigmas of man. It is presumed to be a sign of weakness, so all deny its
existence and attempt to avoid it. It encompasses tension, nervousness, fear and worry.
In this age of competition the Secondary School Students feel fear, tension, nervousness
and stress. The examination anxiety is a very serious problem as many cases of suicide
found in the newspapers during the period of examination. The symptoms of
examination anxiety mainly refer to feeling of tension, nervousness and worry as well as
trembling, heart palpitations and the throat being dry. There are four main areas which
can contribute to examination anxiety. - Lifestyle issues - Information needs - Studying
styles - Psychological factors Lifestyle issues that can contribute to examination anxiety
are: - Inadequate rest - Poor nutrition - Too many stimulants - Insufficient exercise - Not
scheduling available time - Not prioritizing commitments Information needs that can
contribute to examination anxiety are: - Exam taking strategies - Academic information
such as course requirements, teachers’ expectations, exam dates and testing location -
Knowledge of how to apply anxiety reduction techniques while studying, before an
examination and during an examination Studying styles are: - Trying to memorize the
text book - All night studying before exams - Reading without understanding - Can’t
recall the material - Not making review notes Psychological factors are: - Feeling no
control over the examination situation - Negative thinking and self-criticism - Irrational
thinking about exams and outcomes - Irrational beliefs, “If I don’t pass my parents will
kill me!” - Irrational demands, “I have to get 100% or I am worthless.” - Catastrophic
predictions “I will fail no matter what I do.” How can examination anxiety affect?
Examination anxiety affects different students in different ways: - Physical symptoms:
headache, insomnia, upset stomach, sweaty palms, dry mouth, increased heart rate,
shortness of breath, diarrhea, more frequent urination, etc. - Behavioral changes: tense
movements, losing focus of actions, less coordinated movements, nail biting, moving or
walking faster than normal, escaping behavior, etc. - Emotional changes: worry, fear,
anger, frustration, discouragement, panic, hopelessness, depression, etc. - Cognitive
changes: scattered attention, irrational thoughts, difficulty in concentration, negative and
self-abusing thoughts, etc. Social changes: social withdrawal, avoidance of friends and
family, etc. Students cannot focus on organize thoughts and they have poor recalling of
important concepts and keyword. They cannot understand examination questions, go
blank on familiar questions and recall correctly after the examination. Thus,
68
examination anxiety is an effective coping with the inevitable stress of an examination
before the examination and a strong emotional reaction of fear that interferes with
thinking clearly during the examination. The expectations of the teachers and the
parents as well as the problems regarding career development and the lack of job
opportunities etc. are more or less responsible for the examination anxiety of the
students. All parents want that their children must get the first class or the first rank in
the class. Each teacher expects 100% result in his or her subject. The other members of
the family also force the child to get first class. Students sometimes get frustrated and
commit suicide. Sometimes the examination anxiety affects the physical and mental
health of the students. No one wants physically and mentally disturbed students. If the
problem of examination anxiety and its effects are understood, suggestions can be given
to teachers and parents for the better future of the students.
2.4 RATIONALE OF THE STUDY
Modern education is examination-oriented and the target of the students is only to
achieve higher marks so that they can get a secured future. As the result of examination
is closely associated with getting a good job, thus it automatically brings an excessive
stress in the minds of the students. Higher Secondary stage is the most crucial stage
which plays a significant role in the career of the students. The marks they get direct
them towards the path of their higher studies which again help them to fulfill the desired
goals. In such a case, Examination anxiety is a common problem among the Higher
Secondary students which is leading them towards excessive tension, depression, and
nausea, excessive sweating and somatization etc. on this level, self-confidence of the
students may be high/low. If high level of examination anxiety find in the students, then
observe low self-confidence by the research. It will effect on the psychological well-
being of the students. Or if observe low level of examination anxiety find in the students
then visible high attitude of self-confidence that means students may be control the
exam anxiety. It will not effect on his/her psychological well-being. Hence, it is very
significant to conduct a study in this area to understand the levels of Examination
anxiety, self-confidence and psychological wellbeing among the Higher Secondary
Students in relation to their gender, locality and management type of the institution.
With the help of this research, the higher secondary school students have become aware
of their examination anxiety. The researcher got different kinds of information about the
examination anxiety of the students. With the help of this information suggestions can
69
 be given to teachers, parents and principles. Suggestions and ways can be provided to
students which can help them in overcoming anxiety. Guidance to teachers and parents
can be given which can help students in overcoming anxiety. Then, parents will become
able to understand their children in better way. This research can help students, parents,
teachers, Higher Secondary School Board and Society.
Following are the other importance of the study:
- This research provides examination anxiety scale.
- The level of examination anxiety of the students can be known with the help of this
scale.
- Suicide cases of the students can be stopped.
- Students can become free from frustration, depression and stress.
- Students can become able to understand the real importance of examination that it is
only an art to express their mental ability and thoughts.
- The relation between educational achievement and examination anxiety can be known.
2.5 OBJECTIVES OF THE PRESENT STUDY
1) To examine demographic differences in Examination anxiety, Self-confidence and
Psychological Wellbeing among higher secondary students in New Delhi
2) To examine significant relationship between Examination anxiety, Self-confidence
and Psychological Wellbeing.
3) To examine whether Examination anxiety and Self-confidence would be predict
higher secondary students’ Psychological Wellbeing.
2.6 RESEARCH HYPOTHESES
Hypothesis-1: There would be a significant demographic difference of Examination
anxiety, Self-confidence and Psychological Wellbeing among Higher Secondary Students
in New Delhi.
H1.1: There would be a significant difference of Examination anxiety, Self-confidence
and Psychological Wellbeing between Government and Private Higher
Secondary Students in New Delhi.
H1.2: There would be a significant difference of Examination anxiety, Self-confidence
and Psychological Wellbeing between Boys and Girls Higher Secondary
Students in New Delhi.
Hypothesis-2: There would be a significant relationship between Examination anxiety,
70
Self-confidence and Psychological Wellbeing.
H2.1: Examination anxiety would be significant negative relationship with Self-
confidence and Psychological Wellbeing.
H2.1: There would be a significant positive relationship between Self-confidence and
Psychological Wellbeing.
Hypothesis-3: Examination anxiety and Self-confidence significantly accounted for
predicting Higher Secondary Students Psychological Wellbeing.

CHAPTER SUMMARY
In this chapter of review literature refers to the useful operational variables based on
examination anxiety, self-confidence and psychological wellbeing. And also from this
literature we had studied relationship between anxiety, confidence of the students and
their psychological wellbeing among for higher secondary school and their gender
differences. And various reviews studies by many psychologist researchers as his
perception. The study of this review of literature refer to New Delhi students for higher
secondary schools how child to get difficulties during the exam time due to many
uncertain problems regarded of high anxiety, self-confidence and psychological
wellbeing.

CHAPTER 3

METHODOLOGY

Overview

71
 The study of this chapter describes in details of Research design, Participants, Sampling
techniques, Inclusion & Exclusion, Tool use, Procedure, Pilot study, Ethical Guidelines
and chapter summary.
Research Design
Under the study aims to achieved the objectives, the Descriptive research design
would followed in the present study to examine Examination anxiety, Self-confidence
and Psychological Wellbeing among secondary students in New Delhi. It is descriptive
and co-relationship in nature. Thus, the relationship of the research variables and other
demographic factors verified by the government and private school higher secondary
students and also find the relationship of the research variables between boys and girls
in the study.
Participants
Student data collected from Higher Secondary Students of Government and
Private Schools in New Delhi. The sample for the study variables Examination anxiety,
Self-confidence and Psychological wellbeing found total 75 samples from Government
and Private school. The sample from government school is found 32 and sample from
private school found 43. All study samples for data analysis has collected by using
purposive sampling technique.
Sampling Techniques
At the outset, a sample 75 higher secondary students was selected through multi stage
purposive sampling technique. The sample was further classified on the basis of school
type and gender differences. As per the norms given in synopsis manual about study
variables that significant difference of Examination anxiety, Self-confidence and
Psychological wellbeing between government and private school and also boys and girls
based on low or high levels. In this technique, also use of study negative and positive
relationship between Self-confidence and Psychological wellbeing and prediction.
Inclusion & Exclusion
1. Only Government and Private higher secondary schools student boys and girls in New
Delhi included in the present study as the role of participants.
2. Participant willingness must be needed
3. Tools of the study variable Examination anxiety, Self-confidence and Psychological
wellbeing used by the students only in government and private school.
4. Information for the data collection by the choice of participant response accepted in
72
 government and private school.
5. History of significant physical, psychological or neurological condition by birth or by
accident participants were excluded.
6. Others variables were excluded out except only Examination anxiety, Self-confidence
and Psychological wellbeing in the study.
7. The Schools were excluded out of New Delhi Region.
Tool Use
 Examination Anxiety It has
the following details about of the Examination Scale.

Introduction
The Examination Scale was developed to measure individual differences in examination
as a situation-specific personality trait (Spielberger, 1972; Spielberger et al., 1978). The
Examination Anxiety Scale includes 50 statements and space for recording response.
The respondents are asked to report how frequently they experience specific symptoms
of anxiety before, during, and after examinations.
Liebert and Morris (1967), having identified worry as cognitive concern about the
consequences of failure and emotionally as reactions of the autonomic nervous system
that are evoked by evaluative stress. The construction, development and standardization
of the Examination Anxiety Scale was guided by these concepts of Test Anxiety.

Objective
The Examination Anxiety Scale (EAS) is a standardized scale developed by the
researcher for measuring the anxiety of secondary pupils. The Scale is planned to locate
the anxiety level of boys and girls belonging to the age group 15 to 18 years.

Planning and Development of the Scale

Item Construction
During the pre-preparatory stage of the construction of the scale, the researcher
identified about fifty individuals, both males and females who were students of
secondary courses as having symptoms of Examination anxiety. The items of this scale
were initially written on the basis of anxious behavior of the students and on the basis of
73
the previous experience and study over this matter by the researcher.
These individuals made many frank confessions when they were involved in a free and
informal discussion sessions. On the basis of these discussion sessions, the test
constructor was able to write a few more items and modified some of the old ones thus,
initially one hundred items were written and the first draft of the Examination Anxiety
Scale was prepared. These items were given to five judges who were considered experts
in identifying symptoms of Examination anxiety for examining the merit of each item.
On the basis of the criteria of hundred percent agreement among the experts, 25 items
were eliminated. Thus a second draft with 75 (Seventy-five) items were prepared for
further work.

Try-out of the Second Draft

During the first try-out of the second draft of the examination-anxiety scale with 75
items, it was found that the respondents had difficulty in interpreting some items. So
necessary modifications were made in the scale so that the items were intelligible to the
testees. In the process 15 items were eliminated. Thus the researcher prepared a revised
version of the third draft of the scale which consisted of 60 items.

Administration of the Third Draft of the Scale for the Second Try-out
The scale was administered on a sample of 200 boys and girls of classes IX and X from
different Schools in the West Tripura district by the researcher himself. Before the
administration of the scale necessary instructions were given to the testees.
The scores obtained through the administration of the scale on two hundred pupils of
class IX and X were used for item analysis.

Item Analysis of the Examination Anxiety Scale

The Examination Anxiety Scale (EAS) is a Three-point scale in which the testee has to
either show his Agreement or Disagreement as two extremes and undecided in the
middle. The scoring being 2 for Agree, 1 for Undecided and 0 for Disagree.

On the basis of the scores of the sample of 200 students, the scores were arranged in the
highest to the lowest order. After this 27 percent scores from the highest to lower side

74
and 27 percent from the lowest to upper side were found out and the Mean and SD of
each item was calculated.

The t-test of the difference been the means was done for each item and those items
which had less than 0.05 table value were rejected.

As such 10 items, viz., serial number 9, 16, 22, 33, 39, 43, 48, 53, 57 and 58 were
rejected.

The final form of the Examination Anxiety Scale (EAS) has 50 items and is a three-
point, viz., Agree, Undecided and Disagree scale.

Scoring System

All the statements are positively worded and the scoring system is as per table 1.

Table No.1
Scoring System
Agree Undecided Disagree
Score 2 1 0

As such the minimum and maximum possible score on this scale is 00 to 100.

Reliability

The Reliability of this scale was calculated by Split-Half (Odd-Even) method. Their
coefficients of correlations are given in table 2.

Table No.2
Reliability Coefficients
Sample N r.(split-half) Significance Level
Boys 901 0.80 0.001
Girls 1099 0.79 0.001
Total 2000 0.79 0.001

Validity

75
 The Examination Anxiety Scale (EAS) validity was established on levels:
1. Experts opinion where 100 agreement of the experts was the first criteria of
selection-elimination of item.
2. First Try-out and as per difficulty level, selection and elimination of items.
3. Item Analysis by finding out the t-difference between the mean of high scoring
group (27%) and low scoring group (27%) and on this basis elimination of
items and final selection of the items. The scale has successfully completed all
the above criterians.

 Self-confidence

It has the following details about of the Self-confidence inventory.

Introduction

The Self-Confidence Inventory (SCI) has been designed in Hindi to assess the level
of Self-Confidence among adolescent and adults. The abbreviated name has been
used so that the respondent may not decipher the real purpose of the test and take
good. The personality pattern is a unified multidimensional structure in which the
concept of self is the core or centre of gravity (Breckenridge and Vincent, 1965).
Into this structure are integrated many patterns of response tendencies, known as
‘traits’ which are closely related to and influenced by the concept of self. Self-
confidence is one such personality trait. The self is a composite of a person’s
thoughts and feelings, strivings and hopes, fears and fantasies, his view of what he
is, what he has been, what he might become, and his attitude pertaining of his
worth. Self-Confidence is a positive attitude of oneself towards one’s self-concept.
It is an attribute of perceived self. Self-Confidence refers to a person’s perceived
ability to tackle situations successfully without learning on others and to have a
positive self-evaluation. In the words of Basavanna (1975). “In general terms, self-
confidence refers to an individual’s perceived ability to act effectively in a situation
to overcome obstacles and to get thing go all right”. A self-confident person
perceives himself to be socially competent, emotionally mature, intellectual
adequate, successful, satisfied, decisive, optimistic, independent, self-assured,
forward-moving, fairly assertive and having leadership qualities.
76
Item- Analysis
The preliminary form of the inventory consisting of ninety true-false type items,
was administered to a sample of 200 individuals. The extreme group were
identified by taking 27% of the top scores and 27% of the bottom scores. On the
basis of the proportion of true and false answer for each item the validity index of
each item was determined with the help of Flanagan;s Table of normalized bi-serial
coefficients. The obtained validity indices ranged between 0.07 and 0.73. the items
having validity indices 25 and above were retained for the final form of the
inventory. Thus, the final form of the inventory has 56 items.

Standardization Sample
The inventory was then administered in two far-flung cities of the U.P. State-
Meerut in the Western U.P. and Allahabad in the Central U.P.- to a sample of 2074
individuals of both the sexes ( Males N= 748; Females N= 1326).

Instruction for Administration

1. The inventory is self-administering in nature. In group administration, the
instructions, given in the test-booklet may be read aloud by the examiner in
order to facilitate starting at a time.
2. There is no fixed time-limit, Ordinarily an individual takes 20 minutes to
complete the inventory.

Scoring System
The inventory can be scored by hand. A score of one is awarded for a response
indicative of lack of Self-Confidence, i.e., for making cross ‘x’ to wrong response
to item nos. 2, 7, 23, 31, 40, 41, 43, 44, 45, 53, 54, 55 and for making cross ‘x’ to
right response to the rest of the items. Hence, the lower the score, the higher would
be the level of Self-Confidence and vice-versa.

Reliability
The obtained reliability coefficient and the index of reliability are reported in table
3.
77
 Table No.3
Reliability Coefficients
Method N Reliability Index of
Coefficient Reliability
Split-Half 362 0.91 0.95
K-R Formula 200 0.89 0.94
Test-Retest (After 116 0.78 0.88
one month)

Validity
In term-analysis validity coefficients were determined for each item by bi-serial
correlation method and only those items were retained which yielded 0.25 or above
bi-serial correlation with the total score.

The inventory was also validated by correlating the scores obtained on this
inventory with the scores obtained by the subject on Basavanna’s (1975) Self-
Confidence Inventory. The validity coefficient obtained is 0.82 which is significant
beyond 0.01 levels.

 Psychological Wellbeing

It has the following details about of the Ryffs Psychological Wellbeing Scale.

Introduction

Ryffs Psychological well-being scale was developed by Ryffs (1989). It measures

six aspects of well-being and happiness: autonomy, environmental mastery,
personal growth, positive relations with others, purpose in life and self-acceptance.
It has 42-items and can be used on all age-groups. It took around 6-8 minutes to
administer the full scale.

Scoring Pattern

Participants rate the 42 items how strongly they agree or disagree using a 7-point
scale where:
78
 ‘1’ = Strongly agree

‘2’ = Somewhat agree

‘3’ = a little agree

‘4’ = neither agree or disagree

‘5’ = a little disagree

‘6’ = somewhat disagree

‘7’ = strongly disagree

1) Recode negative phrased items

3,5,10,13,14,15,16,17,18,19,23,26,27,30,31,32,34,36,39,41. (i.e., if the scored is
7 in one of the items, the adjusted score will be 1 ; if 6, the adjusted score will
be 2 and so on..)
2) Add together the final degree of agreement in all the 6 dimensions:
a. Autonomy: items 1,7,13,19,25,31,37
b. Environmental mastery: 2,8,14,20,26,32,38
c. Personal growth: 3,9,15,21,27,33,39
d. Positive relations: 4,10,16,22,28,34,40
e. Purpose in life: 5,11,17,23,29,35,41
f. Self- acceptance: 6,12,18,24,30,36,42

Reliability of the scale

The reliability of scale was determined by test-retest reliability rages from 0.77 to
0.90

Validity of the scale

The validity of the scale was accounted by correlation of coefficient is 0.78

Procedure
Examination Anxiety, Self-Confidence and Psychological Wellbeing Scale were
personally administered to 75 Higher Secondary School Children from Government and
Private School. First the investigator instructed the students to write the name, school
79
name, sex and standard in which they are studying. After the completion of these, the
investigator instructed the way to answer the given questions in the scale. The scales
were scored and tabulated systematically for statistical calculation.
Pilot Study
In the pilot study, discussion based on study variables found the frequency and
percentage between the Gender-Boys and Girls and also School Type- Government and
Private Schools.
Table No.4
Variable Frequency Percentage
Gender Boys 54 72
Girls 21 28
School Government 32 42.7
Type Private 43 57.3

In the above table no.4 observed that Boys has frequency 54, percentage (72%) and
Girls has frequency 21, percentage (28%). Also Government School Student has
frequency 32, percentage (42.7%) and Private School Students has frequency 43,
percentage (57.3%). In the pilot study, found the number of Boys strength more than
Girls. And Government School Higher Secondary Student has less strength than the
Private School Higher Secondary Student.

Ethical Guidelines
 Rapport Building
Rapport was created with the participant of 75 Higher Secondary Students from
Government and Private School. Informed consent of the students is to be taken
prior to test. Permission from school’s principle also required for proper support of
teaching staff. The test and its significance explained to students and confidentiality
is assured, that there name and report will not be disclosed to the school staff and
this is for a research purpose and enhancement of our knowledge.

 Compliance
The research of the study compliance with variable- Examination anxiety, Self-
confidence and Psychological wellbeing among the Higher Secondary Students in
80
 which with the help of this studies find the Examination anxiety, Self-confidence
and Psychological wellbeing of the higher secondary students in New Delhi. In the
study, Examination Anxiety is a very common problem for the students because
they face problem due to lack of facilities from the school teacher or also by the
parents behavior and not well prepared by own during the exam time and other
possible reason is that Examination anxiety is a major area of concern among
students as it brings different negative outcomes like depression, suicide, cheating,
using unfair means, mental health, psycho-education, coping with bullying etc in
examination. Student anxiety level may be low or high so based on anxiety level
find the low or high self-confidence levels and psychological wellbeing level of
higher secondary students in the study.

 Willing to Participate
Total 75 Higher Secondary Students was willingly participated from Government
and Private School. In which the number of Boys frequency was 54 and Girls
frequency was 21. And also number of government school student strength was 32
and private school student strength was 43. The participation from Government and
Private School done by the investigator/ researcher based on the student interests in
the study variables.

 Responsibility
The responsibility based on studies to understand the concept of the study variable
Examination Anxiety, Self-confidence and Psychological wellbeing. And prepared
tools/scale so that collection of the student data from Government and Private
Higher Secondary Student. From this data, observed that if anxiety level is high
then level of self-confidence will be low and effect on psychological wellbeing of
the Higher Secondary Students. But anxiety level is low then high level of self-
confidence may be increase and no effect on the psychological wellbeing of Higher
Secondary Students. The above observation will be observed by using IBM SPSS
statistical analysis of student data from government and private school. How will be
Examination anxiety, Self-confidence and Psychological wellbeing comparatively
Government and Private Schools. The main responsibility from this study was
81
control Examination anxiety under the students in which students got stress,
tension, depression disorder, nausea etc. and positively increases the Self-
confidence of Higher Secondary Students.

Chapter Summary

The chapter summary explain that the concept and theory of research design,
number of participants, using of sampling techniques, inclusion and exclusion, tool
use, procedure, pilot study, and ethical guidelines. In which found the relationship
of the research variables and other demographic factors verified by the government
and private school higher secondary students and also find the relationship of the
research variables between boys and girls in the study. And found total number of
participant 75 from Government and Private school in respect of research variable
Examination anxiety, Self-confidence and Psychological wellbeing. Some items are
included and excluded as per need of study. And Examination anxiety, Self-
confidence and Psychological wellbeing tool was used for the study purpose. Data
collection was classified in tabular form based on gender and school type. And
lastly, we discussed about rapport building, compliance, willing to participate and
responsibility of the study in the ethical guidelines.

CHAPTER 4
82
 RESULTS ANALYSIS & DISCUSSION

Overview
In this chapter, we are going to result analysis and discussion based on hypothesis. This
hypothesis will be very helpful for result analysis and discussion. Hence, result analysis
and discussion find out the from four section:
Section I – Demographic information of total sample.
Section II- Mean level Analysis
Section III- Relationship between study variables:- Examination Anxiety, Self-
Confidence and Psychological wellbeing.
Section IV- Prediction Analysis.
Each section has different analysis of this study variable like gender relation- boys and
girls, school type- Government and private schools, relations and prediction analysis
reference to examination anxiety, self-confidence and psychological wellbeing.

Section I- Demographic Analysis

Table No. 2
Demographic Information among total samples
Variables Frequency Percentages
Boys 54 72%
Gender Girls 21 28%
Total 75 100%
Government 42.7%
School 32
Type of School Students
Students Private School 57.3%
Students 43
Total 75 100%

In the above table No.2 observed frequency and percentages of total sample in
references to demographic information- Gender and Type of school students. The result
revealed that gender has 75 higher secondary students in New Delhi comprised by boys
has 54 (72%) higher secondary students and girls has 21 (28%) higher secondary
students. And also type of school students has 75 higher secondary students comprised

83
 by government school students 32 (42.7%) and private school students 43 (57.3%). And
the graphical representation (pie chart) was mentioned in below:
Figure-1

GENDER SCHOOL TYPE

Boys Girls Government Private

28%

43%

57%

72%

NOTE: The pie chart shows total frequency and percentage of total study sample.

Section II- Mean Level Analysis

Table No.3
Mean, Standard Deviation and t-ratio between Government and Private school higher
secondary students in reference to Examination Anxiety, Self-confidence and
Psychological wellbeing.

Type of
Variable School N Mean S.D t-ratio p-value
Students
Government 32 56.90 12.06
Examination School 4.36** 0.001
Anxiety Private 43 43.46 14.54
School
Government 32 30.37 6.63
Self School 3.94** 0.001
Confidence Private 43 24.09 7.07
School

84
 Government 32 172.21 23.02
Psychological School 3.85** 0.001
Wellbeing Private 43 197.69 34.14
School
NOTE: **- this sign indicate significant at 0.01levels
In the above Table No.3 we observed that mean, standard deviation and t-ratio between
government school and private school in reference to examination anxiety, self-
confidence and psychological wellbeing. The results found significant difference
between government and private school in reference to examination anxiety, self-
confidence and psychological wellbeing. The results indicate that Examination anxiety
was found in government school (M= 56.90, S.D= 12.06) has high level of examination
anxiety than private school (M= 43.46, S.D= 14.54) higher secondary students. The
difference was found statistically as per the t-ratio (t= 4.36, p= 0.001). The results found
significant difference between government school and private school in self-confidence.
The results indicate that government school (M= 30.37, S.D= 6.63) higher secondary
students has high level of self-confidence than private school (M= 24.09, S.D= 7.07)
higher secondary students. Hence the differences was found statistically significant as
per the t-ratio (t= 3.94, p= 0.001). The results found significant difference between
government school and private school in psychological wellbeing. The results indicates
that government school (M= 172.21, S.D= 23.02) higher secondary students has low
level of psychological wellbeing than private school (M= 197.61, S.D= 34.14) higher
secondary students. Hence the differences was found statistically significant as per t-
ratio (t= 3.85, p= 0.001).
The discussion was explained as per the basis of result analysis. And the discussion was
made on the basis of formulated hypothesis. So the hypothesis no-1.1formulated that
there would be a significant difference of Examination anxiety, Self-confidence, and
Psychological wellbeing between Government and Private school Higher Secondary
Students in New Delhi as per the result analysis the hypothesis 1.1 was accepted. As
observed the result of present studies are consistent with earlier studies by Russell and
Shaw (2009), Hemamalini (2010), Vazalwar and Yadav (2005) and Studsrød, Ingunn;
Bru, Edvin (2009) and Shanthi (2008) etc.
Russell and Shaw (2009) conducted a study on potential impact on students
studying in higher education. Results showed that approximately 10% of students
reported marked to severe social anxiety, a figure that is broadly in line with
85
evidence from recent community epidemiological surveys of adults and young
people. The study suggested that social anxiety is present in a relatively small, but
significant proportion of students studying in higher education.
Hemamalini (2010) conducted a study on English Language Anxiety in relation
to English Achievement among the High School Students. The major finding of
this study was that there was significant relationship between anxiety and English
achievement among the high school students of Ramanagaram city.
Deb, Chatterjee and Walsh (2010) conducted a study on anxiety among high
school students in New Delhi: comparisons across gender, school type, social
strata and perceptions of quality time with parents. Results showed that anxiety
was prevalent in the sample with 20.1% of boys and 17.9% of girls found to be
suffering from high anxiety. More boys were anxious than girls (p<0.01).
Adolescents from Bengali medium schools were more anxious than adolescents
from English medium schools (p<0.01). Adolescents belonging to the middle class
(middle socio-economic group) suffered more anxiety than those from both high
and low socio-economic groups (p<0.01). Adolescents with working mothers were
found to be more anxious (p<0.01). Results also showed that a substantial
proportion of the adolescents perceived they did not receive quality time from
fathers (32.1%) and mothers (21.3%). A large number of them also did not feel
comfortable to share their personal issues with their parents (60.0% for fathers and
40.0% for mothers).
Vazalwar and Yadav (2005) observed that there was significant joint effect of
school environment and anxiety on reading comprehension in English.
Studsrød, Ingunn; Bru, Edvin (2009) showed that perceived parental socialization
practices are only moderately associated with school adjustment among upper secondary
school students.
Shanthi (2008) conducted a study on influence of school environment of academic
achievement of IX standard students. The findings of the study were: (i) there was
no significant difference between male and female IX standard students in academic
achievement. (ii) there was no significant difference between government, aided
and self-financed IX standard students in academic achievement. (iii) there was no
significant relationship between school environment, school management, physical

86
facility, teacher role, peer group relationship teaching techniques, and academic
achievement of IX standard students.
Table No.4
Mean, Standard Deviation and t-ratio between Boys and Girls higher secondary students
in reference to Examination Anxiety, Self-confidence and Psychological wellbeing.

Variable Gender N Mean S.D t-ratio p-value

Examination Boys 54 51.48 15.33 2.18* 0.02
Anxiety Girls 21 43.33 12.74
Self Boys 54 28.23 7.53 3.03** 0.01
Confidence Girls 21 23.04 6.24
Psychological Boys 54 184.35 31.60 2.03* 0.03
Wellbeing Girls 21 193.19 34.04
NOTE: **- this sign indicate significant at 0.01 levels.
* - this sign indicate significant at 0.05 levels.
In the above Table No.4 we observed that mean, standard deviation and t-ratio between
boys and girls in reference to examination anxiety, self-confidence and psychological
wellbeing. The results found significant difference between boys and girls in reference
to examination anxiety, self-confidence and psychological wellbeing. The results
indicate that Examination anxiety was found in Boys (M= 51.48, S.D= 15.33) has high
level of examination anxiety than Girls (M= 43.33, S.D= 12.74) higher secondary
students. The difference was found statistically as per the t-ratio (t= 2.18, p= 0.02). The
results found significant difference between boys and girls in self-confidence. The
results indicate that Boys (M=28.23, S.D= 7.53) higher secondary students has high
level of self-confidence than Girls (M= 23.04, S.D= 6.24) higher secondary students.
Hence the differences was found statistically significant as per the t-ratio (t= 3.03, p=
0.01). The results found significant difference between boys and girls in psychological
wellbeing. The results indicates that Boys (M= 184.35, S.D= 31.60) higher secondary
students has low level of psychological wellbeing than Girls (M= 193.19, S.D= 34.04)
higher secondary students. Hence the differences was found statistically significant as
per t-ratio (t= 2.03, p= 0.03).
The discussion was explained as per the basis of result analysis. And the discussion was
made on the basis of formulated hypothesis. So the hypothesis no-1.2 formulated that
there would be a significant difference of Examination anxiety, Self-confidence, and
Psychological wellbeing between Boys and Girls Higher Secondary Students in New
87
Delhi as per the result analysis the hypothesis 1.2 was accepted. As observed the result
of present studies are consistent with earlier studies by klein (2004), Lupart, Cannon
and Telfer (2004), Bhanot and Jovanovic (2005), Mok and Kennedy (2011),
Mehotra (2003) and Kolb (2006) etc.
Klein (2004) conducted a study on gender related achievement differences the
teacher gender of the students. Stated that the gender related achievement
differences could be due to teacher gender rather than the gender of the students.
The gender of teachers contributed significantly to variance in assigned grades,
whereas the students’ gender only influenced achievement when the teacher was
male.
Lupart, Cannon and Telfer (2004) conducted a study on boys and girls have a
positive attitude toward education. Found that the Research had shown that both
boys and girls can had a positive attitude toward education, but the girls’ positive
attitude is more related to their love of learning, as compared to boys, whose
attitude toward school had more to do with the socialization aspect.
Bhanot and Jovanovic (2005) conducted a study on achievement differences
between the boys and girls. This reported that boys were recipients of more parental
intrusive support with homework; despite this fact, girls were more sensitive to the
little help they did get, especially when the assistance wa in math. These behaviors
further strengthen the girls’ beliefs that they were not strong in math and that it was
a “male” subject. Parents’ perceptions were consistent with the actual achievement
differences between the boys and girls.
Mok and Kennedy (2011) conducted a study on academic attribution of
secondary students: gender, year level and achievement level. This study is
concerned with the attribution of secondary students. Causal interpretations for
academic success and failure were analyzed to investigate the effect of gender, year
level and achievement level on students’ academic attributions in New Delhi, a
Confucian Heritage Culture. The study found secondary students of both genders
and across all achievement and year levels, consistently ascribed to effort as the
most important reason for academic outcomes. Secondary students were
significantly more inclined than students of lower levels to attribute their academic
outcomes to effort and strategy use.

88
Mehotra (2003) conducted a study on relationship between intelligence, socio-
economic status, anxiety, personality adjustment and academic achievement of
high school students. The major findings of the study were: (i) both boys and girls
there was inverse relationship between level of anxiety and academic achievement.
(ii) There was a positive relationship between intelligence and academic
achievement. (iii) In general the girls had a comparatively higher level of anxiety
than boys.
Kolb (2006) studied the effect of gender role, attitude toward leadership, and self
confidence on leader emergence to know its implications for leadership development.
The research has shown no substantial differences between the behaviours of male and
female leaders, differences exist in perceptions of these behaviours.

Section III- Relationship Between study variables:- Examination

Anxiety, Self-confidence and Psychological wellbeing
Table No.5
Pearson product moment co-relationship between study variables:
Variables Examination Self-confidence Psychological
Anxiety wellbeing
Examination 1 -0.58** -0.32**
Anxiety
Self 1 0.37**
confidence
Psychological 1
wellbeing
NOTE: **- this sign indicate significant at 0.01 levels.
* - this sign indicate significant at 0.05 levels.
Observation in the above Table No.5 observed relationship between examination
anxiety, self-confidence and psychological wellbeing. The results found negative
relationship between Examination anxiety and Self-confidence (r = -0.58, p= 0.01). The
results found negative relationship between Examination anxiety and Psychological
wellbeing (r= -0.32, p= 0.01). So furthermore, the results found significant positive
relationship between Self-confidence and Psychological wellbeing (r= 0.37, p= 0.01).
The discussion was explained as per the basis of result analysis. And the discussion was
made on the basis of formulated hypothesis. So the hypothesis no-2.1 formulated that
Examination anxiety would be a significant negative relationship with Self-confidence

89
and Psychological wellbeing and also hypothesis 2.2 formulated that there would be a
significant positive relationship with Self-confidence and Psychological wellbeing as
per the result analysis the hypothesis 2.1 and 2.2 were accepted. As observed the result
of present studies are consistent with earlier studies by Ergene (2011), Khan, Haider,
Ahmed & Khan (2011), Bradburn’s (1969), Diener, Emmons, Larsen & Griffen’s
(1985) and Prussia et al. (1998) etc.
Ergene (2011) studied the relationships among study habits, test anxiety, achievement
motivation, and academic success in a Turkish tenth grade high school, sample
consisting of 510 participants, 267 (52.4%) of whom were females and 243 (47.6%)
were males. A positive relationship between study habits scores and achievement
motivation level was found. No correlation was observed between achievement
motivation and academic success. Test anxiety and study habits were associated
positively with academic success and there was no association with achievement
motivation.
Khan, Haider, Ahmed & Khan (2011) explored the relationship of sports achievement
motivation and sports competition anxiety among intervarsity badminton players. The
total sample consisted of twenty players age ranged from 17 to 25 years for the study.
They found that there was a negative relationship between achievement motivation and
sports competition anxiety among badminton players.
Bradburn’s (1969) initial understanding of psychological well-being provided a
depiction of the difference between positive and negative affect. Preliminary research
was mainly concerned with the experiences of positive and negative affect, subjective
well-being and life satisfaction that were formed around the Greek word ‘eudemonia’,
which was translated as ‘happiness’ (Ryff, 1989b).
Diener, Emmons, Larsen & Griffen’s (1985) Satisfaction with Life Scale on which a
vast amount of research was conducted, used this initial subjective conception of well-
being (Conway & Macleod, 2002; Diener et al., 1985). The Satisfaction with Life Scale
requires participants to indicate a cognitive rather than affective response in relation to
global satisfaction with their quality of life.
Alam (2001) conducted a study on Academic Achievement in Relation to Socio-
economic Status, Anxiety Level and Achievement Motivation: A Comparative
Study of Muslim and non-Muslim School Children of New Delhi. The major

90
findings were: (i) significant positive relationship had been witnessed between
socio-economic status and academic achievement, negative relationship existed
between anxiety and academic achievement, positive relationship found between
achievement motivation and academic achievement of Muslim and non-Muslim
children. (ii) both Muslim and non-Muslim children had significant inverse
relationship between socio-economic status and anxiety. Socio-economic status
went along with higher achievement motivation. (iii) the academic achievement of
non-Muslim children had been found superior in comparison to their Muslim
counterparts. The non-Muslim children had less anxiety in comparison to Muslim
children. On the measure of achievement motivation, non-Muslim children were
found to be superior to Muslim children.
Prussia et al. (1998), examined the effects of self-leadership skills and self-efficacy
perceptions on performance. Structural equations modelling determined whether the
influence of self-leadership on performance is mediated by self-efficacy perceptions.
Results for the sample of 151 respondents indicated self-leadership strategies had a
significant effect on self-efficacy evaluations, and self-efficacy emerged as a mediating
factor directly affecting performance. Further, self-efficacy perceptions were found to
fully mediate the self-leadership/performance relationship.

91
Section IV- Predication Analysis
Table No.6
Regression model summary for outcome variable Psychological wellbeing from the
predictor Examination anxiety and Self-confidence

Model R R2 Adjuste ΔR2 F- P-

Summary d R2 ratio value
Examinatio 0.120 0.014 0.001 0.014 3.07* 0.02
n Anxiety
Self 0.176 0.031 0.004 0.017 3.22* 0.02
Confidence
NOTE: *- this sign indicate significant at 0.05 levels.

Observed in the table no.6 indicates Regression model summary of outcome factor
Psychological wellbeing from the predicators such as Examination anxiety and Self-
confidence. The regression was found statistically significant towards criterion factor
Psychological wellbeing.
Psychological wellbeing the significant predictor come out to be Examination anxiety
with R equals to (0.120), R2 equals to (0.014), and ΔR2 equals to (0.014). it contributed
that the Examination anxiety are accounted 1.4% of total variance in Psychological
wellbeing. The strong contribution are statically significant as found by the F-ratio (F=
3.07, P= 0.02) at 0.05 levels. In the next step Self-confidence is included with
Examination anxiety. The significant predictor come out to be Self-confidence with R
equals to (0.176), R2 equals to (0.031) and ΔR2 equals to (0.017). it contributes that Self-
confidence are accounting for 1.7% of total variance in Psychological wellbeing. The
strong contribution are statistically significant as found by the F-ratio (F= 3.22, p=
0.02).
Table No.7
Regression coefficient model for outcome factor Psychological wellbeing from
predictors
Model Unstandardized Standardized t-ratio p-value
Coefficient Coefficient Coefficient
B Standard β (beta)

92
 Error
Constant 207.93 14.89 13.95** 0.001
Examination -0.058 0.308 -0.027 2.18* 0.02
Anxiety
Self 0.682 0.616 0.159 2.10** 0.02
Confidence
NOTE: **- this sign indicate significant at 0.01 levels.
* - this sign indicate significant at 0.05 levels.

In the above Table No.7 indicates regression coefficient for predicating degrees of
Psychological wellbeing from predicators Examination anxiety and Self-confidence.
The predicator variables independently explain the regression coefficient towards
Psychological wellbeing. The ‘β’ beta coefficient defines how strongly each predictor
variable influence towards criterion variable Psychological wellbeing. The regression
coefficient model clearly indicates that Examination anxiety (β= -0.027, t= 2.18, p=
0.02) are negatively predicated Higher Secondary Students Psychological wellbeing.
The regression coefficient model clearly indicates that Self-confidence (β= 0.159, t=
2.10, p= 0.02) are significantly positive predicators towards Psychological well being.
The discussion was explained as per the basis of result analysis. And the discussion was
made on the basis of formulated hypothesis. So the hypothesis no-3 formulated that
Examination anxiety and Self-confidence significantly accounted for predicting Higher
Secondary Students and Psychological wellbeing as per the result analysis the
hypothesis no.3 was accepted. As observed the result of present studies are consistent
with earlier studies by John W. Best (1995), Naomi (2008), Khatoon and Mahmood
(2010) and Diener & Tay (2010) etc.
John W. Best (1995) pointed out that review of related literature is “A brief
summary of previous research and writing of recognized experts provide the
researchers familiar with what is already known and with what is still unknown and
untested. Since effective research must be based on past knowledge this step helps
to eliminate the duplication of what has been done already and provides useful
hypothesis and helpful suggestions for significant investigation”.
Naomi (2008) conducted a study on Anxiety affects school achievement, yet it is
rarely targeted for intervention in students with Emotional or Behavioral Disorders
(EBD). This review of the literature summarizes existing research on (i) the
93
prevalence of anxiety disorders in students with EBD, (ii) the academic effects of
anxiety disorders, and (3) the school interventions designed to ameliorate them.
Conclusions regarding the state of educational intervention for these students.
Highlights on measuring psychosocial symptoms, rather than on academic
achievement.
Khatoon and Mahmood (2010) conducted a study on Mathematics Anxiety among
Secondary school students in New Delhi and its relationship to Achievement in
Mathematics. According to the results of the analysis, nearly half of the secondary
school students have moderate level of anxiety and females display more anxiety
toward math than the male. High level of math anxiety was observed in students of
Government and Government aided schools and low level of math anxiety was
observed in students of AMU and Missionary schools. Findings also revealed a
significant negative correlation (-0.48) between math anxiety and math
achievement.
Diener & Tay (2010) found that societies that are strong in social relationships have
higher SWB. The effects were not just due to the fact that more individuals in such
nations have strong relationships and therefore higher SWB. In addition to this, people
with strong relationships were even happier in nations where such relationships are
prevalent, and people with weak social support were better off in societies with strong
social support compared to their counterparts in nations with weak social support.
Furthermore, helping others was about as important as receiving social support, and
society-wide helping was beneficial to the subjective well-being even of non-helpers.

Chapter Summary
The chapter summary explain that significant difference found between government
higher secondary students and private higher secondary students, boys and girls in
reference to Examination anxiety, Self-confidence and Psychological wellbeing.
Examination anxiety significantly negative relationship with self-confidence and
Psychological wellbeing further more Self-confidence and Psychological wellbeing
significantly positive relationship found by using pearson product moment of
correlation of coefficient. The regression model indicates Examination anxiety
negatively accounted for predicting Psychological wellbeing and Self-confidence
positively accounted for predicting Psychological wellbeing.
94
 CHAPTER 5

SUMMARY, MAJOR FINDINGS AND CONCLUSION

OVERVIEW
The chapter describes in details of summary like Introduction, Rational of the study,
objectives and hypothesis of the study, Methods and Limitation of the study,
Implication of the study, Future recommendation and conclusion.
INTRODUCTION
The research area of the study variables Examination anxiety, Self-confidence and
Psychological wellbeing has recently focused on a number of Government and Private
Higher Secondary School in New Delhi. The direction of the research area based on
differences and relationship between the study variables and also found some prediction
by statically with the help of the student data from Government and Private school. The
present study set out to investigate to what extent Examination anxiety, Self-confidence
and Psychological wellbeing influence each other over time. A sample of N= 32
Government Higher Secondary students (M= 56.90, SD= 12.08) and sample N= 43
from Private Higher Secondary Students (M= 43.43, SD= 14.54) completed measures of
Examination anxiety. And observed Government Higher Secondary Student has high
Anxiety than the Private Higher Secondary students. Similarly we found in the study
that Self-confidence of government school students has high than private school. And
also found high psychological wellbeing in private school students than government
school students. Because to required for the physical and mental development of the
child. They can help with the required facilities for the students to learn lessons in a
better way than government school. And private school maintains better hygiene and
environment which could safeguard the health of the students. And also private school

95
provides better sport activities and equipments available for the physical development of
the children than government school students.
Variables used for the study in the research area refer to describe in terms of
Examination anxiety, Self-confidence and Psychological wellbeing among higher
secondary students in New Delhi. Firstly, Examination anxiety refers to the combination
of psychological over-arousal, tension and somatic symptoms, along with worry, dread,
fear of failure, and catastrophizing, that occur before or during the exam time. Exam
anxiety is one of the most important problems among moderate and low average
students. In the time of examination, many students and parents approach counselors
and psychologists which show the existence of the severity of this problem. It prompted
the researcher to make an in depth study of this subject. Besides examination anxiety,
students are facing problems like loneliness, learning disabilities, physical changes,
emotional problems, peer group pressures, rebellious behaviours etc.
Secondly, Self-confidence refers to a person’s perceived ability to tackle situations
successfully without leaning on others and to have a positive self–evaluation. Self-

Confidence is the conviction that one is generally capable of producing desired results.
Increase in self-confidence helps to develop innate qualities of self-worthy and
competency by the reinforcement. Self-confidence is related with success. A confident
attitude, a belief and a faith in oneself and one’s ideas are essential in getting ahead but
it should also be remembered that self-confidence grows with success that means it is

desirable to develop those qualities within oneself that makes for success. It has been
found that the child who perceives himself to be able, confident, adequate and a person
of worth has more energy to spend on academic achievement and will use his
intelligence confident may not come up to the optimum level of attainment.
Lastly, Psychological wellbeing refers to school age student which is considered a hard
stage in the development process. It is period of crises because so much change occurs
in this stage of life. many students go through this very easily without experiencing any
stress, reporting a level of relative wellbeing (Bandura, 1964; offer & schonert-Reichl,
1992; Dauvan & Adelson, 1996). For the promotion and sustenance Psychological
wellbeing of students main factor at an individual and interpersonal level need to be
identified.

96
RATIONAL OF THE STUDY
Modern education is examination- oriented and the target of the students is only to
achieve higher marks so that they can get a secured future. As the result of examination
is closely associated with getting a good job, thus it automatically brings an excessive
stress in the minds of the students. Higher Secondary stage is the most crucial stage
which plays a significant role in the career of the students. The marks they get direct
them towards the path of their higher studies which again help them to fulfill the desired
goals. In such a case, Examination anxiety is a common problem among the Higher
Secondary students which is leading them towards excessive tension, depression, and
nausea, excessive sweating and somatization etc. on this level, self-confidence of the
students may be high/low. If high level of examination anxiety find in the students, then
observe low self-confidence by the research. It will effect on the psychological well-
being of the students. Or if observe low level of examination anxiety find in the students
then visible high attitude of self-confidence that means students may be control the
exam anxiety. It will not effect on his/her psychological well-being. Hence, it is very
significant to conduct a study in this area to understand the levels of Examination
anxiety, self-confidence and psychological wellbeing among the Higher Secondary
Students in relation to their gender, locality and management type of the institution.

OBJECTIVE
1) To examine demographic differences in Examination anxiety, Self-confidence and
Psychological Wellbeing among higher secondary students in New Delhi
2) To examine significant relationship between Examination anxiety, Self-confidence
and Psychological Wellbeing.
3) To examine whether Examination anxiety and Self-confidence would be predict
higher secondary students’ Psychological Wellbeing.

HYPOTHESES
Hypothesis-1: There would be a significant demographic difference of Examination
anxiety, Self-confidence and Psychological Wellbeing among Higher
Secondary Students in New Delhi.

97
 Hypothesis-1.1: There would be a significant difference of Examination anxiety,
Self-confidence and Psychological Wellbeing between
Government and Private Higher Secondary Students in New Delhi.

Hypothesis-1.2: There would be a significant difference of Examination anxiety,

Self-confidence and Psychological Wellbeing between Boys and
Girls Higher Secondary Students in New Delhi.

Hypothesis-2: There would be a significant relationship between Examination anxiety,

Self-confidence and Psychological Wellbeing.

Hypothesis-2.1: Examination anxiety would be significant negative relationship

with Self-confidence and Psychological Wellbeing.

Hypothesis-2.1: There would be a significant positive relationship between Self-

confidence and Psychological Wellbeing.

Hypothesis-3: Examination anxiety and Self-confidence significantly accounted for

predicting Higher Secondary Students Psychological Wellbeing.

METHODOLOGY
Research Design
Under the study aims to achieved the objectives, the Descriptive research design
would followed in the present study to examine Examination anxiety, Self-confidence
and Psychological Wellbeing among secondary students in New Delhi. It is descriptive
and co-relationship in nature. Thus, the relationship of the research variables and other
demographic factors has been verified.
Participants
Data had collected from Higher Secondary Students of Government and Private
Schools in New Delhi. The sample for the study consists 75 (32 sample from
Government and 43 sample from Private). The study sample has been collected by using
simple purposive sampling technique.
Inclusion and Exclusion Criteria

Inclusion Criteria
1) Only Government and Private higher secondary schools student in New Delhi was
included in the present study.
98
2) Participant willingness must be needed.

Exclusion Criteria

1. History of significant physical, psychological or neurological condition by birth or

by accident participants were excluded.
2. The Schools were excluded out of New Delhi Region.

Statistical Analysis
The data were collected from participants and consolidated, coded, scored and
entered into a spread sheet for statistical analysis using SPSS package (IBM 20)
software. Under the study aim to achieve the objectives, The Frequency and Percentage,
Mean, Standard Deviation, t-ratio and Correlation coefficient and regression used to test
the Hypotheses. In order to depict the typical picture of the Demographic information
schedule of participants such as name, gender, age, address, language, residence, Family
status. Frequency and percentage were calculated separately and for better
understanding to used statistical tables, pie chart and line diagram.

MAJOR FINDING OF THE STUDY

Data Collection in Reference of study variables

The data collection was major finding as per the need of research of this study by higher
secondary students in reference of the study variable to find the level of Examination
anxiety, Self-confidence and Psychological wellbeing from boys and girls as well as
government and private higher secondary students. Which has what level of
examination anxiety, self-confidence and psychological wellbeing present? Examination
anxiety and Self confidence of government higher secondary students has very high
than private higher secondary students and also boys had high anxiety and self-
confidence found than girls. Psychological wellbeing for both Government Higher
Secondary students and boys was low than private higher secondary student differences
of the study variable and negative and positive relationship as in major role for the study
research.

99
School Type

It is found from the data that the distribution of respondents according to their Type of
Schools shows that 42.7% of the respondents are from Government Higher Secondary
School, 57.3% of the respondents are from Private Higher Secondary School in
reference to Examination anxiety, Self-confidence and Psychological wellbeing. The
major finding between Government and Private School Students in New Delhi that
Examination anxiety level found of government school students (M= 56.90, SD= 12.06)
has high than the private school higher secondary students (M= 43.46, SD= 14.54). The
difference was found statistically significant as per the t-ratio (t= 4.36, p= 0.001) which
is significant at 0.01 levels. The results found significant difference between
government school and private school in self-confidence. The results indicate that
government school (M= 30.37, S.D= 6.63) higher secondary students has high level of
self-confidence than private school (M= 24.09, S.D= 7.07) higher secondary students.
Hence the differences was found statistically significant as per the t-ratio (t= 3.94, p=
0.001) which is significant at 0.01 levels. The results found significant difference
between government school and private school in psychological wellbeing. The results
indicates that government school (M= 172.21, S.D= 23.02) higher secondary students
has low level of psychological wellbeing than private school (M= 197.61, S.D= 34.14)
higher secondary students. Hence the differences was found statistically significant as
per t-ratio (t= 3.85, p= 0.001) which is significant at 0.01 levels.

Gender

It is found from the data that the distribution of respondents according to their Gender
shows that 72 % of the respondents were Boys and only 28 % were Girls in reference to
Examination anxiety, Self-confidence and Psychological wellbeing. The major finding
between Boys and Girls Higher Secondary Students in New Delhi that The study
indicate that Examination anxiety was found in Boys (M= 51.48, S.D= 15.33) has high
level of examination anxiety than Girls (M= 43.33, S.D= 12.74) higher secondary
students. The difference was found statistically as per the t-ratio (t= 2.18, p= 0.02)
which is significant at 0.01 levels. The results found significant difference between boys
and girls in self-confidence. The results indicate that Boys (M=28.23, S.D= 7.53) higher
secondary students has high level of self-confidence than Girls (M= 23.04, S.D= 6.24)
100
higher secondary students. Hence the differences was found statistically significant as
per the t-ratio (t= 3.03, p= 0.01) which is significant at 0.01 levels. The results found
significant difference between boys and girls in psychological wellbeing. The results
indicates that Boys (M= 184.35, S.D= 31.60) higher secondary students has low level of
psychological wellbeing than Girls (M= 193.19, S.D= 34.04) higher secondary students.
Hence the differences was found statistically significant as per t-ratio (t= 2.03, p= 0.03)
which is significant at 0.05 levels.
Relationship between the variables

It is found from the data that negative relationship between Examination anxiety and
Self-confidence (r= -0.58, p= 0.01) which is significant at 0.01 levels and also the
negative relationship Examination anxiety and Psychological wellbeing (r= -0.32,
p=0.01) which is significant at 0.01 levels. So furthermore we found positive
relationship between Self-confidence and Psychological wellbeing (r= 0.37, p= 0.01)
which is significant at 0.01 levels.

Regression Model Analysis

It is found from the data that the predicator variables independently explain the
regression coefficient towards Psychological wellbeing. The ‘β’ beta coefficient defines
how strongly each predictor variable influence towards criterion variable Psychological
wellbeing. The regression coefficient model clearly indicates that Examination anxiety
(β= -0.027, t= 2.18, p= 0.02) are negatively predicated Higher Secondary Students
Psychological wellbeing. The regression coefficient model clearly indicates that Self-
confidence (β= 0.159, t= 2.10, p= 0.02) are significantly positive predicators towards
Psychological well being.

LIMITATION OF THE STUDY

 In the study only selected Government and Private Schools Higher Secondary
Students for the collection of data.
 The study was limited to those were willing to participate in the study.
 Participants were selected only Boys and Girls from Government and Private
Higher Secondary School.

101
 Data was collected by sampling purposive techniques.
 For this study we were used only three variables Examination anxiety, Self-
confidence and Psychological wellbeing.
 Schools were selected only in New Delhi region for the study.
 This study could also be extended to understand the effect of anxiety on student
performance by treating a group of students to overcome anxiety and then
comparing exam result with the untreated control group over time.
 This study was based on prepare self report anxiety could be biased by the
willingness of students to report real thoughts because of gender, cultural
influences.
 Examination anxiety and Self-confidence was found high only for government
school students than private school students.
 In the study, only Boys has found high Examination anxiety and high Self-
confidence than that of Girls.
 Psychological wellbeing had found vice versa of above level in reference of Exam
anxiety and Self- confidence.
 There was time limitation to complete the study.

IMPLICATION OF THE STUDY

The results of the present study reflect that problem of Higher Secondary Students has a
great impact on Examination anxiety, Self-confidence and Psychological wellbeing of
students. So it is highly recommended that teacher should adopt new and technological
enhanced method of teaching in exam time. Prudent teachers should understand and
employ the available information on student abilities and then design a curriculum and
learning environment should be flexible for students. It is the responsibility of the
teachers to identify such students who have low Examination anxiety, Self-confidence
and Psychological wellbeing try to modify their learning and thinking power through
various audio-visual aids and techniques. The findings of the study also exhibited that
demographic variable such as school type and gender has significant effect on
Examination anxiety, Self-confidence and Psychological wellbeing of higher secondary
school students. Government School student possess significantly high Examination
anxiety and Self-confidence than Private school students. So it is important for children
102
to reduce Exam anxiety of government school and increase the self-confidence of
private school students found in the study research. But the level of Psychological
wellbeing of private school students was better than government school students as per
analysis of the research. Similarly The Boys students possess significantly higher
Examination Anxiety and self-confidence than their Girls counterparts did. As
educators, it is important for us to foster the reduce Examination anxiety of Boys and
development of high self-confidence among female students. The Psychological
wellbeing was good in Girls than boys in the analysis of study. For this purpose, the
school teachers are required to be trained for use of diagnostic and criterion based
evaluation procedures to make teaching-learning process more effective as well as child
centered to enhance level of Examination anxiety, self-confidence and Psychological
wellbeing.

FUTURE RECOMMENDATION
 Larger sample size can be taken for similar study.
 An information booklet can be prepared for Higher Secondary School Students on
stress, stressors and various coping strategies.
 The children needs to encourage by parents to participate in exercise and physical
activities, sports in their free time to get pleasure also extra-curricular activities to
be inspired to cope stress and depression.
 A good teacher student relationship should be maintained in school. Teachers
manipulating students psychologically and physically (especially in sexual) leads
them in to mentally depressed which may resulted in over tension in exams.

 A multidisciplinary team consists of representatives of school teachers, school

social workers, parents should be implemented in schools. They can discuss the
problems in the same platform which dilutes the biggest issues to simple.

 A school counselor is needed in each school to reduce the increasing behavioral and
emotional problems of students. Now a days in New Delhi only some CBSE
schools appointed school counselors where economically well off students are
studying. Actually the behavioral problems are seen mostly from the economically

103
 backward students. The relevance of school counseling is not yet understood by the
Government or the public people.

 Adequate diet practices and nutritious food is an important factor that uplifts the
physical well being. And through which psycho- social balance can be achieved.
The economical, educational and social situations in the school should be
substantially changed.

 Adolescents are the asset of our future generation. So awareness about the physical,
psychological, and social problems are needed among them. For this, we should
conduct programmes among them.

 As the study indicates after the intervention programme, the examination anxiety
level is decreased. It indicates the effectiveness of the intervention programme. So
the intervention programme should conduct to decrease the anxiety level. The
planned intervention programmes will supplement the positive stroke.

 Awareness about physical conditions, mental status and psychological needs of the
adolescents is essential among parents and teachers. For example if the student is in
under performance in studies parents and teachers may compels and torture the
children. It will diminish the self esteem and self confidence.

 Carry out campaigns / Seminars / Workshops to encourage support and positive

expectations of life skills education. It enhances self esteem and self confidence of
those who are depressed because of under performances.

CONCLUSION
The conclusion drawn from the finding of the study were as follows:

 From the study, Examination anxiety and Self-confidence level of Government

Higher Secondary Students has high than Private Secondary Students. But
Psychological wellbeing of Government school students found lower than Private
school students in the study.
104
 It is also found conclusion from the study that Examination anxiety and Self-
confidence of Boys which was found greater than the Girls Higher Secondary
Students. But Psychological wellbeing of Boys was found lower than the Girls
Higher Secondary Students in New Delhi.

 The experimental group has reduced Examination anxiety levels but increase self
confidence and Psychological wellbeing as a result of intervention programme for
Higher Secondary Students.

 Prepared a relaxed study environment for Government and Private Higher

Secondary students, providing family monetary/social support, and encouraging
participation in social activities are recommended to decrease Examination anxiety
in Higher Secondary Students preparing for Government and Private Schools.

 Counselling was very effective and beneficial to enable the Higher Secondary
Students to pass through this phase of storm and stress.

 Group Counselling was effective and economical to work with Higher Secondary
Students problems in Government and Private schools.

 Examination anxiety significantly negative relationship with Self-confidence and

Psychological wellbeing but in reference of Self-confidence and Psychological
wellbeing shows significantly positive relation found by pearson correlation
product of coefficient. The regression model indicate Examination anxiety
negatively accounted for predicting Psychological wellbeing and Self-confidence
positively accounted for predicting Psychological wellbeing.

105
REFRENCES
Abraham KG, Presser S, Helms S. (2009). How social processes distort measurement,
The impact of survey non-response on estimates of volunteer work in the
United States. American Journal of Sociology, 114(4), 1129–1165.
Agnihotry, R. (1987). Manual for Agnihotri’s self-confidence inventory (ASCI), Agra,
National Psychological Corporation.

Aguiar M, Hurst E. (2007) Measuring trends in leisure: The allocation of time over five
decades. The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 122(3), 969–1006.
Akca, F. (2011). The Relationship between Test Anxiety and Learned Helplessness,
Social Behaviour and Personality, 39(1), 101-112.

Akerlof G, Kranton R. (2002). Identity and schooling, Some lessons for the economics
of education. Journal of Economic Literature, 40(4), 1167–1201.

Akerlof G, Kranton R. (2010). Identity Economics, How Our Identities Shape Our
Work, Wages, and Well-Being. Princeton, Princeton University Press.
Akerlof, G. A., & Dickens, W. T. (1972). "The Economic Consequences of Cognitive
Dissonance". American Economic Review, 72 (3), 307–319.

106
Alam, K. & Halder, U.K. (2017). Adjustment and Academic Achievement of the
Secondary Students, International Journal of Informative & Futuristic
Research, 4(10), 7894-7907.
Albarracín, D., & Mitchell, A. L. (2004). "The role of defensive confidence in
preference for proattitudinal information, How believing that one is strong can
sometimes be a defensive weakness". Personality and Social Psychology
Bulletin, 30 (12), 1565–
1584. doi:10.1177/0146167204271180. PMC 4803283. PMID 15536240.

Amato PR. Children of divorced parents as young adults. Hetherington EM, editor.
Mahwah, NJ, Lawrence Erlbaum, 1999. pp. 147–163. (Coping with Divorce.
Single Parenting, and Marriage, A Risk and Resiliency Perspective).

Andrews F, Withey S. (1976). Social Indicators of Well-Being. New York, Plenum

Press.

Antenucci D, Cafarella M, Levenstein M, Shapiro M. (2012). Creating Measures of

Labor Market Flows Using Social Media, Presentation to the National Bureau
of Economic Research, Cambridge, MA.
Argyle, Michael (2013). The Social Psychology of Everyday Life.
Routledge. ISBN 9781134961733.

Baars BJ. (2010). Spontaneous repetitive thoughts can be adaptive, Postscript on

McKay and Vane. Psychological Bulletin, 136(2), 208–210.
Bala, P. and Shaafiu, K.Q. (2016). Academic achievement of secondary school students
in relation to their problem solving ability and examination anxiety. The
international journal of Indian psychology, 3(4), 138-154.
Bandura, Albert (1997). Self-Efficacy, The Exercise of Control. Macmillan. ISBN 978-
0-7167-2850-4.
Barber, B. M., & Odean, T. (2001). "Boys will be boys, Gender, overconfidence, and
common stock investment". Quarterly Journal of Economics, 116, 261–
292. CiteSeerX 10.1.1.295.7095. doi:10.1162/003355301556400.

107
Barinder, M. (1985). A study of general anxiety and test anxiety with reference to the
environmental factors and extraversion- introversion of Delhi students, Ph.D.
Edu., Del. Uni.
Bauer, Raymond (1964-05-01). "The obstinate audience, The influence process from the
point of view of social communication". American Psychologist, 19 (5), 319–
328. doi:10.1037/h0042851. ISSN 1935-990X.
Baumeister, Roy F., Campbell, Jennifer D., Krueger, Joachim I., Vohs, Kathleen D.
(2003-05-01). "Does High Self-Esteem Cause Better Performance,
Interpersonal Success, Happiness, or Healthier Lifestyles?". Psychological
Science in the Public Interest, 4 (1), 1–44. doi:10.1111/1529-
1006.01431. ISSN 1529-1006. PMID 26151640.
Beattie, Stuart, Hardy, Lew, Savage, Jennifer, Woodman, Tim, Callow, Nichola (2011-
03-01). "Development and validation of a trait measure of robustness of self-
confidence". Psychology of Sport and Exercise, 12 (2), 184–
191. doi:10.1016/j.psychsport.2010.09.008.
Beer, J., Lombardo M., Bhanji J. (September 2010). "Roles of Medial Prefrontal Cortex
and Orbitofrontal Cortex in Self-evaluation". Journal of Cognitive
Neuroscience, 22 (9), 2108–2119. doi:10.1162/jocn.2009.21359.
Berger, R., & Shechter, Y. (1996). Guidelines for choosing an “intervention package”
for working with adolescent girls in distress. Adolescence, 31, 709-717.

Bertrand M, Mullainathan S. (2001). Do people mean what they say? Implications for
subjective survey data. American Economic Review, 91(2), 67–72.
Bhatt, M. A. (2014). Effect of problem solving ability on the achievement in
mathematics of high school students. Indian Journal of Applied Research, 4(8),
285- 288.
Bhogle, S., & Prakash, I.J. (1985). Development of the Psychological wellbeing (PWB)
questionnaire. Journal of Personality and Clinical Studies, 11, 5-9.
Bilimleri, E.U. (2008). Prospective Teacher’s problem solving skills and Self-
confidence levels. Educational Sciences: Theory and Practice, 8(3), 915-923.
Bishop, J.B., Baner, K.W & Becker, E.T. (1998). A survey of counselling needs of male
and female college students. Journal of College Student Development, 39 (2),
205-210.
108
Blattman C, Fiala N, Martinez S. (2013). The Economic and Social Returns to Cash
Transfers, Evidence from a Ugandan Aid Program. Available: http://cega
.berkeley.edu/assets/cega_events/53/WGAPE_Sp2013_Blattman.pdf.

Boehm JK, Kubzansky LD. (2012). The heart's content, The association between
positive psychological well-being and cardiovascular health. Psychological
Bulletin, 138(4), 655–691.
Boring, Langfield., & Weld. (1963). Foundation of Psychology. Asia Publishing House,
Bombay.

Borton J, Markowitz L, Dieterich J. (2005). Effects of suppressing negative self-referent

thoughts on mood and self-esteem. Journal of Social and Clinical
Psychology, 24(2), 172–190.

Bradburn N. (1968). Dimensions of marriage happiness. American Journal of

Sociology, 73(6), 715–731.
Breckenridge, E.M., & Vincent, E.L. (1965). Child Development. Philadelphia,
Saunders.

Brickman P, Campbell DT. (1971). Hedonic relativism and planning the good
society. Appley MH, editor. New York, Academic Press, pp. 287–305.
(Adaptation-level Theory: A Symposium).

Brickman P, Coates D, Janoff-Bulman R. (1978). Lottery winners and accident victims,

Is happiness relative. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 36(8),
917–927.

Broderick JE, Schwartz JE, Schneider S, Stone AA. (2009). Can end-of-day reports
replace momentary assessment of pain and fatigue. The Journal of Pain,10(3),
274–281.

Brodeur A. (2012). Smoking, Income, and Subjective Well-Being, Evidence from

Smoking Bans. Paris, Paris School of Economics,(PSE working paper, no.
2012-03).

Brülde B. (2010). Happiness, morality, and politics. Journal of Happiness Studie, 11(5),
567–583.

109
Burchell B. (1999). Day D, Hudson M, Ladipo D, Mankelow R, Nolan J, Reed H,
Wichert IC, Wilkinson F. Job Insecurity and Work Intensification. York, UK,
Joseph Rowntree Foundation.
Burns, D. J. (2004). Anxiety at the time of the final exam: relationships with
expectations and performance. Journal of Education for Business, 80(2), 119-
124.
Campbell, M. (2004). Teaching Tips for the Prevention of Anxiety in Children.
Brisbane QLD QSS.

Cantril H. (1965). The Pattern of Human Concerns. New Brunswick, NJ, Rutgers
University Press.

Capps C, Wright T. Amstat News. 2013. [November 2013]. Toward a vision, Official
statistics and big data. (The Membership Magazine of the American Statistical
Association). Available: http://magazine.amstat.org/blog/2013/08/01/official-
statistics.

Carstensen LL. (2006) The influence of a sense of time on human

development. Science. 312(5782), 1913–1915.
Cassady, J.C., & Johnson, R.E. (2001). Cognitive test anxiety and academic
performance. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 27, 270–295.
Chang, J. I. (1997). Contexts of adolescent worries: Impacts of ethnicity, gender, family
structure, and socioeconomic status. Paper presented at the annual meeting of
NCFR Fatherhood and Motherhood in a Diverse and Changing World,
Arlington, VA.

Charles ST, Mather M, Carstensen LL. (2003). Aging and emotional memory, The
forgettable nature of negative images for older adults. Journal of Experimental
Psychology, 132(2), 310–324.
Chichester, Wiley., Hembree, R. (1988). Correlates, causes, effects and treatment of test
anxiety. Review of Educational Research, 58, 47–77.

Christodoulou C, Schneider S, Stone AA. (2013). Social Indicators Research. Validation

of a brief yesterday measure of hedonic well-being and daily activities,
Comparison with the Day Reconstruction Method. Available: http://link

110
 .springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007%2Fs11205-013-0240-z.pdf. [PMC free
article]

Clark AE, Diener E, Georgellis Y, Lucas RE. (2008). Lags and leads in life satisfaction,
A test of the baseline hypothesis. The Economic Journal, 118(529), F222–
F243.

Cohen S, Doyle WJ, Turner RB, Alper CM, Skoner DP. (2003). Emotional style and
susceptibility to the common cold. Psychosomatic Medicine, 65(4), 652–657.
Costello, E. J., Mustillo, S., Erkanli, A., Keeler, G. & Angold, A. (2003). Prevalence
and development of psychiatric disorders in childhood and adolescence.
Archives of General Psychiatry, 60, 837-844.
Cunha, M.A. & Paiva, M.J. (2012). Text Anxiety in Adolescents: The Role of Self-
Criticism and Acceptance and Mindfulness Skills, The Spanish Journal of
Psychology, 15(2), 533-543.

Daly MC, Gardiner C. Disability and subjective well-being. Couch K, Daly MC,
Zissimopoulus J, editors. Redwood City, CA, Stanford University Press, in
press. (In Unexpected Lifecycle Events and Economic Well-Being).

Davidson RJ. (2004). Well-being and affective style, Neural substrates and
biobehavioural correlates. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of
London Series. Biological Sciences, 359(1449), 1395–1411.

Deaton A, Stone AA. (2013a). Evaluative and Hedonic Well-Being Among Those With
and Without Children at Home. Department of Economics, Princeton
University (Unpublished manuscript).

Deaton A, Stone AA. (2013b). Two happiness puzzles. American Economic Review,
103(3), 591–597.

Deaton A. (2012) The financial crisis and the well-being of Americans. Oxford
Economic Papers, 64(1), 1–26.
Dehadray, V (2013). Impact of Medium of Instructions, Socioeconomic Status and
Gender on Test Anxiety in Students, Journal of Community Guidance &
Research, 30(3), 364-380.

111
Denscombe, M. (2000). Social conditions for stress. British Educational Research
Journal, 26(3), 259–374.
Devi, P. and Sharma, H.L. (2014). A study of academic achievement of 10th class
students in relation to their metacognition, self-confidence and family
environment. Published Doctoral Thesis of Education, Rohtak,
M.D.University.

Di Tella R, MacCulloch RJ, Oswald AJ. (2001). Preferences over inflation and
unemployment, Evidence from surveys of happiness. American Economic
Review, 91(1), 335–341.

Diener E, Chan M. (2010). Happier People Live Longer, Subjective Well-Being

Contributes to Health and Longevity. Department of Psychology, University of
Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. (Unpublished manuscript).

Diener E, Emmons R, Larsen RJ, Griffin S. (1985). The satisfaction with life
scale. Journal of Personality Assessment, 49(1), 71–75.

Diener E, Kahneman D, Tov W, Arora R, Harter J. (2009). Income's differential

influence on judgments of life versus affective well-being. Diener E, editor.
Oxford, UK, Springer. pp. 233–246. (Assessing Well-Being).

Diener E, Ng W, Harter J, Arora R. (2010). Wealth and happiness across the world,
Material prosperity predicts life evaluation, whereas psychosocial prosperity
predicts positive feeling. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 99(1),
52–61.

Diener E, Seligman MEP. (2004). Beyond money, Toward an economy of well-

being. Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 5(1)
Available: http://internal.psychology.illinois.edu/~ediener/Documents/Diener-
Seligman_2004.pdf.

Diener E, Smith H, Fujita F. ( 1995). The personality structure of affect. Journal of

Personality and Social Psychology, 69(1), 130–141.

Diener E, Suh EM, Lucas RE, Smith HL. (1999). Subjective well-being: Three decades
of progress. Psychological Bulletin, 125(2), 276–302.

112
Diener E. (2006). Guidelines for national indicators of subjective well-being and ill-
being. Applied Research in Quality of Life, 1(2), 151–157.

Diener E. (2011). The Validity of Life Satisfaction Measures. Department of

Psychology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. (Unpublished
manuscript).
Diener, Ed (1994). Assessing subjective well-being Progress and opportunities. Social
Indicators Research. 31 (2), 103–157. doi:10.1007/BF01207052.
Dixon, T. (2007). Evolving self-confidence. How to become free from anxiety disorders
and depression. Newton Aycliffe Co, Durham. Help-For.
Dodge, Rachel, Daly, Annette, Huyton, Jan, Sanders, Lalage (2012). The challenge of
definingwellbeing. InternationalJournalofWellbeing, 2(3),222235. doi:10.550
2/ijw.v2i3.4.

Dolan P, Kahneman D. (2008). Interpretations of utility and their implications for the
valuation of health. The Economic Journal, 118(525), 215–234.

Dolan P, Kavetsos G, Tsuchiya A. (2013). Sick but satisfied: The impact of life and
health satisfaction on choice between health scenarios. Journal of Health
Economics, 32(4), 708–714.

Dolan P, Kavetsos G. (2012). Happy Talk, Mode of Administration Effects on

Subjective Well-Being. London, UK, Centre for Economic Performance,
London School of Economics and Political Science.

Dolan P, Metcalfe R. (2008). Comparing Willingness-to-Pay and Subjective Well-Being

in the Context of Non-Market Goods. London, UK: Centre for Economic
Performance, London School of Economics and Political Science. (CEP
discussion paper, no. 890).

Dolan P, Metcalfe R. (2010). Oops… I did it again, Repeated focusing effects in reports
of happiness. Journal of Economic Psychology, 31(4), 732–737.

Dolan P, Metcalfe R. Comparing Measures of Subjective Well-Being and Views About

the Role They Should Play in Policy. London, UK: Office for National
Statistics; 2011.

113
Dolan P. (2008). Developing methods that really do value the “Q” in the QALY. Health
Economics, Policy, and Law, 3(1), 69–78.

Dolan P. (2011). Thinking about it, Thoughts about health and valuing QALYs. Health
Economics, 20(12), 1407–1416.
Dubey, L.N. (2011). Manual of Problem Solving Ability for school student (PSAT).
Agra, National Psychological Corporation.

Durlauf SN. (2002) On the empirics of social capital. Economic Journal, Royal
Economic Society, 112(483), 459–479.

E, Inglehart R, Tay L. (2013). Theory and validity of life satisfaction scales. Social
Indicators Research, 112(3), 497–527.

Easterlin RA. ( 2001). Income and happiness: Towards a unified theory. The Economic
Journal, 111(473), 465–484.

Easterlin RA. ( 2004). Explaining happiness. Proceedings of the National Academy of

Sciences of the United States of America, 100(19), 1176–1183.

Easterlin RA. (2005). Diminishing marginal utility of income? A caveat emptor. Social
Indicators Research, 70(3), 243–255.
Egan, G. (2007). The skilled helper. A problem-management and opportunity-
development approach to helping, Eighth edition. Belmont, CA. Thompson
Brooks/Cole.

Eid M, Diener E. (2004). Global judgments of subjective well-being, Situational

variability and long-term stability. Social Indicators Research, 65(3), 245–277.
Elliot, A.J. & McGregor, H.A. (1999). Test anxiety and the hierarchical model of
approach and avoidance achievement motivation. Journal of Personality and
Social Psychology, 76(4), 628–644.
Elliot, A.J. &McGregor, H.A. (2001). A 2 x 2 achievement goal framework. Journal of
Personality and Social Psychology, 80 (3), 501–519.
Ergene, T. (2003). Effective interventions on test anxiety reduction, A Meta-analysis.
Journal of School Psychology International, 24(3), 313–328.

114
Ersner-Hershfield H, Mikels JA, Sullivan SJ, Carstensen LL. Poignancy, Mixed
emotional experience in the face of meaningful endings. Journal of Personality
and Social Psychology, 94(1), 158–167.
Eysenck, M.W., Derakshan, N., Santis, R. &Calvo, M.G. (2007). Anxiety and cognitive
performance: Attentional control theory. Emotion, 7(2),336–353.
Feingold, A. (1994). Gender differences in personality: a meta-analysis. Psychology
Bull, 16, 429–456.

Fernandes M, Ross M, Wiegand M, Schryer E. (2008). Are the memories of older adults
positively biased. Psychology and Aging, 23(2), 297–306.
Ferrando, P. et al. (1999). A Psychometric Study of the Test Anxiety Scale for Children
in a Spanish Sample. Personality and Individual Differences, 27(1), 37-44.

Ferrie J, Shipley M, Stansfeld S, Marmot M. Effects of chronic job insecurity and

change in job security on self-reported health, minor psychiatric morbidity,
physiological measures, and health related behaviours in British civil servants,
The Whitehall II study. Journal of Epidemiology and Community
Health, 56(6), 450–454.
Flaxman, P., Bond,F.W. & Keogh, E. (2002). Preventing and treating evaluation strain.
In F.W. Bond & W. Dryden (Eds.) Handbook of brief cognitive behavioural
therapy.

Fujiwara D, Campbell R. (2011). Valuation Techniques for Social Cost-Benefit

Analysis, Stated Preference, Revealed Preference and Subjective Well-Being
Approaches. A discussion of the current issues. London, UK, Her Majesty's
Treasury, Department of Works and Pensions.

Fulmer CA, Gelfand MJ, Kruglanski AW, Kim-Prieto C, Diener E, Pierro AA, Higgins
ET. (2010). Feeling “all right” in societal contexts: Person-culture trait match
and its impact on self-esteem and subjective well-being. Psychological
Science, 21(11), 1563–1569.

Gandelman N, Hernández-Murillo R. (2009). The impact of inflation and

unemployment on subjective personal and country evaluations. Federal
Reserve Bank of St. Louis Review, 91(3), 107–126.

115
Ganesan, V. (2012). Development of a Brief Behaviour Technology for the Reduction
of Rate of Breathing. Global Institute of Behaviour Technology, Coimbatore.

Garau M, Shah KK, Mason AR, Wang Q, Towse A, Drummond MF. (2011). Using
QALYs in cancer, A review of the methodological
limitations. Pharmacoeconomics, 29(8), 673–685.
Gates, A.S. & Jersild, A.T. (1970). Educational Psychology, Macmillan, New York.
Gerber, S.K. (2003). Responsive therapy, A systematic approach to counseling skills.
Boston. Houghton Mifflin Company/Lahaska Press.

Gere J, Schimmack U. (2011). A multi-occasion multi-rater model of affective

dispositions and affective well-being. Journal of Happiness Studies, 12(6),
931–945.
Gierl, M. J. & Rogers, W.T. (1996). A Confirmatory Factor Analysis of the Test
Anxiety Inventory Using Canadian High School Students. Educational and
Psychological Measurement, 56(2), 315-324.
Goodstein, L.D. & Lanyon, R.I. (1975). Adjustment, Behavior, and Personality,
Addison-Wesley Publishing Company Sydney.

Graham C, Higuera L, Lora E. Which health conditions cause the most

unhappiness. Health Economics., 20(12), 1431–1447.

Graham C, Markowitz J. (2011). Aspirations and happiness of potential Latin American

immigrants. Journal of Social Research and Policy, 2(2), 9–25.

Graham C. (2008). Happiness and health, Lessons—and questions—for public

policy. Health Affairs, 27(1), 72–87.

Graham C. (2011). The Pursuit of Happiness, An Economy of Well-Being. Washington,

DC, The Brookings Institution Press.
Greenfield EA, Marks NF. (2004). Formal volunteering as a protective factor for older
adults' psychological well-being. Journals of Gerontology Series B,
Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences, 59(5), S258–S264.
Gregor, A. (2005). Examination anxiety. School Psychology International, 26(4), 617–
635.

116
Guida, F.V., & Ludlow, L.H. (1989). A cross-cultural study of test anxiety. Journal of
Cross Cultural Psychology, 20, 178-190.
Gupta, M. (1987). A Study of Relationship between Locus of Control, Anxiety, Level of
Aspiration Academic Achievement of Secondary Students, D.Phil. Edu., All.
Uni.
Gupta, M., Kavita and Pasrija, P. (2016). Problem Solving Ability & Locality as the
influential factors of academic achievement among high school students. Issues
and Ideas in Education, 4(1), 37- 50.
Halder, U.K. Bairagya, S. & Mete, J. (2014). Development and Standardization of a
Multidimensional Scale of Test Anxiety (MSTA) for Students of Secondary
Education, International Journal of Informative & Futuristic Research, 1(9),
79-90.

Harmon-Jones E. (2004). On the relationship of anterior brain activity and anger:

Examining the role of attitude toward anger. Cognition and Emotion, 18(3),
337–361.
Harris, H. L., & Coy, D. R. (2003). Helping students cope with test anxiety. ERIC
Digests.
Harrison, L.A., Stevens, C.M., Monty, A.N., & Coakley, C.A. (2006). The
consequences of stereotype threat on academic performance of White and non-
White lower income college students. Social Psychology of Education, 9, 341-
357.

Hay JL, Mccaul KD, Magnan RE. (2006). Does worry about breast cancer predict
screening behaviors? A meta-analysis of the prospective evidence. Preventive
Medicine, 42(6), 401–408.

Heckman JJ, Stixrud J, Urzua S. (2006). The effects of cognitive and noncognitive
abilities on labor market outcomes and social behavior. Journal of Labor
Economics, 24(3), 411–482.

Heckman JJ. (2000). Causal parameters and policy analysis in economics, A twentieth
century retrospective. Quarterly Journal of Economics, 115(1), 45–97.

117
Helliwell JF, Putnam RD. (2004). The social context of well-being. Philosophical
Transactions of the Royal Society of London Series B, Biological Sciences,
359(1449), 1435–1446.
Jenaabadi, H. Rooh, S.V. Khods, H.R., & Hajiabadi, H. (2016). The Relationship of
Anxiety with Adjustment and Procrastination in Female High School Students.
Mediterranean Journal of Social Sciences, 7(2), 66-72.

Kahneman D, Deaton A. High income improves evaluation of life but not emotional
well-being. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United
States of America, 107(38), 16489–16493.

Kapteyn A, Smith JP, Van Soest A. (2010). Life satisfaction. Diener E, Helliwell JF,
Kahneman D, editors. Oxford, UK, Oxford University Press, pp. 70–104.
(International Differences in Well-Being).

Kennedy Q, Mather M, Carstensen LL. (2004). The role of motivation in the age-related
positivity effect in autobiographical memory. Psychological Science, 15(3),
208–214.

Kessler EM, Staudinger UM. (2009). Affective experience in adulthood and old age,
The role of affective arousal and perceived affect regulation. Psychology and
Aging, 24(2), 349–362.

Keyes CLM. (2002). The mental health continuum, From languishing to flourishing in
life. Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 43(2), 207–222.

Kim HS, Park JY, Jin BB. (2008). Dimensions of online community attributes:
Examination of online communities hosted by companies in
Korea. International Journal of Retail and Distribution Management, 36(10),
812–830.

Loewenstein G, Ubel PA. (2008). Hedonic adaptation and the role of decision and
experience utility in public policy. Journal of Public Economics, 92(8-9),
1795–1810.
Loomes G, McKenzie L. (1989). The use of QALYs in health care decision
making. Social Science and Medicine, 28(4), 299–308.

118
Lowe, P.A., Lee, S.W., Witteborg, K.M. et al. (2008). The Test Anxiety Inventory for
Children and Adolescents (TAICA). Journal of Psycho educational
Assessment, 26(3), 215-230.

Lucas RE, Clark AE, Georgellis Y, Diener E. (2003). Reexamining adaptation and the
set point model of happiness, Reactions to changes in marital status. Journal of
Personality and Social Psychology, 84(3), 527–539.

Lucas RE, Clark AE, Georgellis Y, Diener E. (2004). Unemployment alters the set point
for life satisfaction. Psychological Science, 15(1), 8–13.

Lucas RE, Diener E, Suh E. (1996). Discriminant validity of well-being

measures. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 71(3), 616–628.

Lückenhoff CE, Carstensen LL. (2007). Aging, emotion, and health-related decision
strategies: Motivational manipulations can reduce age differences. Psychology
and Aging, 22(1), 134–146.

Lückenhoff CE, Carstensen LL. (2008). Decision strategies in healthcare choices for
self and others: Older adults make adjustments for the age of the decision
target, younger adults do not. Journals of Gerontology Series B, Psychological
Sciences and Social Sciences, 63(2), 106–109.

Luechinger S. (2009). Valuing air quality using the life satisfaction approach. Economic
Journal, 119(536), 482–515.

Luhmann M, Schimmack U, Eid M. (2011). Stability and variability in the relationship

between subjective well-being and income. Journal of Research in Personality,
45(2), 186–197.
Lunt, P. (2003). The histories of social psychology. Social Psychological Review, 5(1),
3–19.
MacIntyre, P.D. & Gardner, R.C. (1991). Methods and results in the study of anxiety
and language learning, A review of the literature. Language Learning, 41(1),
85-117.

119
MacKerron G, Mourato S. (2013). Global Environmental Change. [July 2013].
Happiness is greater in natural environments. In. Available: http://www
.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0959378013000575.
Mahoney, Michael J., Avener, Marshall (1977). "Psychology of the elite athlete, An
exploratory study". Cognitive Therapy and Research, 1 (2), 135–
141. doi:10.1007/BF01173634. ISSN 0147-5916.
Makwana, M. D. & Kaji, S. M. (2014). Adjustment of Secondary School Students in
Relation totheir Gender. The International Journal of Indian Psychology, 2(1),
5-12.
Mandler, G. & Sarason, I. G. (1952). A study of anxiety and learning, Journal of
Abnormal and Social Psychology, 87, 166-173.

Mather M, Johnson MK. (2000). Choice-supportive source monitoring, Do our

decisions seem better to us as we age. Psychology and Aging, 15(4), 596–606.

Mather M, Knight M, McCaffrey M. (2005). The allure of the alignable, Younger and
older adults' false memories of choice features. Journal of Experimental
Psychology General, 134(1), 38–51.
Mathews, G., Hillyard, E.J. & Campbell, S.E. (1999). Meta cognition and maladaptive
coping as components of test anxiety. Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy,
6(2), 111–125.

May J, Andrade J, Willoughby K, Brown C. (2011). An Attentional Control Task

Reduces Intrusive Thoughts About Smoking. Oxford, UK, Oxford University
Press.
McLeod, S. (2007). Maslow's hierarchy of needs. Retrieved May 06, 2016.
McNulty, James K.; Fincham, Frank D. (2012). Beyond positive psychology? Toward a
contextual view of psychological processes and well-being.. American
Psychologist, 67(2),101110. doi:10.1037/a0024572. PMC 4112753. PMID 2
1787036.
Mehregan, F., Najjarian, B. & Ahmadi, A. (2001). The relation between test anxiety and
performance among Ahvaz university students. Ferdowsi J Psychology, 2, 7-
24.

120
Metcalfe R, Powdthavee N, Dolan P. (2011). Destruction and distress, Using a quasi-
experiment to show the effects of the September 11 attacks on mental well-
being in the United Kingdom. Economic Journal, 121(550), F81–F103.

Meyer BD, Sullivan JX. (2009). Economic Well-Being and Time Use. [October 2013].
(Working paper, June 22). Available: http://www.sole-jole.org/12460.pdf.

Mikels JA, Larkin GR, Reuter-Lorenz PA, Carstensen LL. (2005). Divergent
trajectories in the aging mind, Changes in working memory for affective versus
visual information with age. Psychology and Aging, 20(4), 542–553.
Mousavi, M., Haghshenas, H., & Alishahi, M.J. (2008). Effect of gender, school
performance and school type on test anxiety among Iranian adolescents.
Iranian Red Crescent Medical Journal, 10, 4-7.
Musch, J. & Bröder, A. (1999). Test anxiety versus academic skills. British Journal of
Educational Psychology, 69(1), 105–116.
Mwamwenda, T. S. (1993). Gender differences in scores on test anxiety and academic
achievement among South African University graduate students. South African
Journal of Psychology, 24(4).
Numan, A.& Hasan, S.S. (2017). Effect of Study Habits on Test Anxiety and Academic
Achievement of Undergraduate Students. Journal of Research and Reflections
in Education, 11 (1), 1-14.
Nweze, T. (2014). Assessing the Level of Test-Anxiety Manifestation among Junior
Secondary School Students in Ebonyi State, Journal of Educational Policy and
Entrepreneurial Research (JEPER), 1(1), 1-14.

Oishi S, Schimmack U, Colcombe SJ. (2003). The contextual and systematic nature of
life satisfaction judgments. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology,
39(2003), 232–247.

Oswald AJ, Wu S. Well-Being Across America, Evidence from a Random Sample of

One Million U.S. Citizens, Presented at the IZA Prize Conferenc, October 22,
Washington, DC. 2009. [November 2012].
Available: http://www.iza.org/conference_files/prizeconf2009/oswald_a262.pd
f.

121
Pandey, D.D. (2007). Manual of Self-Confidence Inventory for school students (PSCI).
Agra, National Psychological Corporation.
Rao, J.V.R.C. (2014). Anxiety among Adolescent Students. Conflux Journal of
Education, 2(4), 25-28.

Redelmeier DA, Kahneman D. (1996). Patients' memories of painful medical

treatments, Real-time and retrospective evaluations of two minimally invasive
procedures. Pain, 66(1), 3–8.

Reed AE, Carstensen LL. (2012). The theory behind the age-related positivity
effect. Frontiers in Psychology, 3(339), 1–9.
Revika, R. (2013). A Comparative Study of the Adjustment of Secondary School
Students. I-manager’s Journal on Educational Psychology, 7 (3), 18-22.
Rezazadeh, M. & Tavakoli, M. (2009). Investigating the Relationship among Test
Anxiety, Gender, Academic Achievement and Years of Study: A Case of
Iranian EFL University Students. English Language Teaching, 2(4), 68-74.

Riis J, Lowenstein G, Baron J, Jepson C. (2005). Ignorance of hedonic adaptation, A

study using ecological momentary assessment. Journal of Experimental
Psychology, General, 134(1), 3–9.

Robinson MD, Clore GL. (2002). Belief and feeling, Evidence for an accessibility
model of emotional self-report. Psychological Bulletin, 128(6), 934–960.
Rook, Karen S. (1984). The negative side of social interaction, Impact on psychological
well-being. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 46 (5), 1097–
1108. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.4

Ryff C, Keyes C. (1995). The structure of psychological well-being revisited. Journal of

Personality and Social Psychology, 69(4), 719–727.
Ryff, C. D. (1989). Happiness is everything, or is it? Explorations on the meaning of
psychological well-being. Journal of Personality and Social
Psychology, 57 (6), 1069–1081. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.57.6.1069.

Sampson RJ, Graif C. (2009). Neighborhood social capital as differential social

organization, Resident and leadership dimensions. American Behavioral
Scientist, 52(11), 1579–1605.
122
Sarbin, T. R. (1968). Ontology recapitulates philology, The mythic nature of anxiety.
American Psychologist, 23, 411-428.
Scheier, Michael F. Carver, Charles S. (1992). Effects of optimism on psychological
and physical well-being. Theoretical overview and empirical update. Cognitive
Therapy and Research, 16(2), 201–228. doi:10.1007/BF01173489.

Schimmack U, Oishi S. (2005). The influence of chronically and temporarily accessible

information on life satisfaction judgments. Journal of Personality and Social
Psychology, 89(3), 395–406.

Schimmack U. (2008). The structure of subjective well-being. Eid M, Larsen R, editors.

New York, Guilford Pre. pp. 97–123. (The Science of Subjective Well-Being).

Schlagman S, Schulz J, Kvavilashvili L. (2006). A content analysis of involuntary

autobiographical memories: Examining the positivity effect in old
age. Memory, 14(2), 161–175.

Schneider S, Stone AA, Schwartz JE, Broderick JE. ( 2011). Peak and end effects in
patients' daily recall of pain and fatigue: A within-subjects analysis. The
Journal of Pain, 12(2), 228–235.

Schuller T, Wadsworth M, Bynner J, Goldstein H. (2012). The Measurement of

Wellbeing: The Contribution of Longitudinal Studies. London. UK: Longview.
[October 2013]. (Report prepared for the Office for National Statistics).
Available: http://www.longviewuk.com/pages/documents/Longviewwellbeingr
eport.pdf.

Schwarz N, Kahneman D, Xu J. (2009). Global and episodic reports of hedonic

experience. Belli R, Alwin D, Stafford F, editors. Newbury Park, CA, Sage. pp.
157–174. (Using Calendar and Diary Methods in Life Events Research).

Schwarz N, Schuman H. (1997). Political knowledge, attribution, and inferred interest

in politics: The operation of buffer items. International Journal of Public
Opinion Research, 9(2), 191–195.

Schwarz N, Strack F. (1999). Reports of subjective well-being, Judgmental processes

and their methodological implications. Kahneman D, Diener E, Schwarz N,

123
 editors. New York, Russell-Sage. [January 2013]. pp. 61–84. (Well-Being, The
Foundations of Hedonic Psychology). Available: http://sitemaker
.umich.edu/norbert.schwarz/files/99_wb_schw_strackreports_of_wb.pdf.

Seaford C. (2011). Policy, Time to legislate for the good life. Nature, 477(7366), 532–
533.
Seifert, T. A. (2005). The Ryff scales of psychological well-being. Assessment Notes.

Seligman M, Csikszentmihalyi M. (2000). Positive psychology, An

introduction. American Psychologist, 55(1), 5–14.
Senthamarai Kannan, B., Sivapragasam, C. and senthilkumar, R. (2016). A study of
problem solving ability in mathematics of Xth standard students in Dindigul
district. International Journal of Applied Research, 2(1), 797-799.
Sharma & Rao (1984). Review of research in test anxiety in Anup Sud (2001) Test
Anxiety Research in India, Twentieth Century in Retrospect, Psychology &
Developing Societies, 13(1), 51-69.
Sharma,V. P. (2001). Test Anxiety Scale, Psychological Corporation, Agra.
Singh , T. and Kaur, P. (2008). Effect of meditation on self-confidence of student-
Techers in relation to gender and religion. Journal of Exercise Science and
Physiotherapy, 4(1), 35-43.
Sinha, A.K.P. & Singh, R.P. (2006). A Manual for Adjustment Inventory for School
Students (AISS), Psychological Corporation, Agra.
Skinner, C.E. (1984). Educational Psychology (4th Ed). New Delhi: Prentice Hall of
India.

Smith NK, Larsen JT, Chartrand RL, Cacioppo JT, Katafiaz HA, Moran KE. (2006).
Being bad isn't always good, Affective context moderates the attention bias
toward negative information. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology,
90(4), 210–220.

Smith TW. (2005). Troubles in America, A Study of Negative Life Events Across Time
and Sub-Groups. [October 2013]. (Russell Sage Foundation Working Paper
Series). Available: http://www.russellsage.org/research/reports/troubles-in-
america.

124
Spielberger, C. (1995). Preliminary professional manual for the test anxiety inventory.
Palo Alto, CA, Consulting Psychologists Press.

Springer KW, Hauser RM, Freese J. (2006). Reply, Bad news indeed for Ryff's six-
factor model of well-being. Social Science Research, 35(4), 1120–1131.
Sridevi, K.V. (2013). A Study of Relationship among General Anxiety, Test Anxiety
and Academic Achievement of Higher Secondary Students. Journal of
Education and Practice, 4(1), 122-130.
Srimadevi, T.and Saraladevi, K. (2016). Decision making and self-confidence on
problem solving ability among higher secondary school students studying in
mathematics. International Journal of Innovative Research in Science,
Engineering and Technology, 5(3), 3509- 3514.

Tsai JL. (2007). Ideal affect, Cultural causes and behavioral consequences. Perspectives
on Psychological Science, 2, 242–259.

Van Soeste A, Delaney L, Harmon C, Kapteyn A, Smith JP. (2011). Validating the use
of anchoring vignettes for the correction of response scale differences in
subjective questions. Journal of the Royal Statistical Society, Series A
(Statistics in Society), 174(3), 575–595.

Vanhoutte B, Nazroo J, Chandola T. (2012). Measuring Well-Being in Later Life, Paper

presented at the SHARE Users Conference, July 28-29; Ca' Foscari University,
Venice, Italy.
Verma, R. K. & Kumari, S. (2016). Academic Achievement of Children at Elementary
Stage in relation to their Adjustment, GJRA - Global Journal for Research
Analysis, 5 (1), 310-312.
Von Der Embse, N., Barterian, J., & Segool, N. (2013). Test anxiety interventions for
children and adolescents: A systematic review of treatment studies from 2000-
2010. Psychology in the Schools, 50(1), 57-71.
Vyas, T. and Gunthey, R. (2017). Emotional maturity, self-confidence and academic
achievement of adolescents in relation to their gender and urban-rural
background. International Journal of Social Science & Interdisciplinary
Research, 6(7), 37-46.

125
White MP, Dolan P. (2009). Accounting for the richness of daily
activities. Psychological Science, 20(8), 1000–1008.

126