An Integrative Model for Academic Anxiety

1. An Integrative Model for Academic Anxiety Jerrell Cassady Ball State University, USA Paper Presented at the 31st World Conference on Stress and Anxiety Research. Galway, Ireland; August 4-6, 2010

2. Background • Personal experience as test anxiety researcher • Advisor to educational psychology and school psychology doctoral candidates • Academic Anxiety Research Consortium • Competing interests and needs from academic anxiety research community

3. Practical Problem and Need • Fragmentation in the broad perspective for practitioners when faced with a student experiencing “academic anxieties” • Generalized Anxiety Disorder • Internalizing Emotional Behavior Disorder • Various content/contextual anxieties • “School phobia”

4. Contextual Anxieties • Test Anxiety • Computer Anxiety Content Anxieties • Math Anxiety • Science Anxiety • Foreign Language Anxiety • Reading Anxiety Unique Populations • Minorities & Stereotype Threat • Anxiety in the gifted • Anxiety for special needs learners Generalized Coping Models

5. Contributors Shari L. Britner Mark Brosnan Jerrell Cassady Kathryn Fletcher Peter Goodison Abigail Holland Elaine K. Horwitz Thomas Huberty Molly M. Jameson Han Luo Rebecca S. Martinez Sal Mendaglio Jason W. Osborne Michael Putman Michael Tallon David Tillman

6. Unifying Themes and Findings • Prior experience as foundation • Sub-optimal functioning in multiple cognitive tasks when faced with stressor • Specificity in stress response – reactions localized to unique stressor • Personal interpretation of stressor, self, context, and support available serve as contributing determinants • Interventions necessitate identification of stressor and adjusting interpretation, problem solving, and self-regulation in events • Expectation that support and training can lead to overcoming the negative situational outcomes

7. Academic Anxieties Common Causes • Prior failures • Classical conditioning • Parental expectations • Societal expectations • Perfectionism • Goals • Motivational set • Perseveration on failure • Attentional biases Common Consequences • Cognitive overload • Cognitive interference • Negative self-image • Avoidance • Procrastination • Self handicapping • Withdrawal • Overgeneralization of failures

8. Pertinent Issues of Consideration • Mandated attendance and participation • High stakes evaluation • Initially isolated anxiety-related beliefs and behaviors to specific context can become generalized to broader frame of reference • Identification and treatment barriers • Need to promote practitioner-focused explanatory framework

9. Emotional Information Processing ModelCassady & Boseck (2008) • Functional model for encoding, interpreting, and acting upon environmental and personal stimuli • Applies a basic information processing network solution to emotional information • Builds upon: • Bandura’s conception for Human Agency and social cognitive learning • Crick & Dodge’s Social Information Processing model • Lazarus & Folkman’s transactional model for self-regulation • Carver & Sheier’s explanation for the role of developing and implementing coping resources

10. CUE INTERPRETATION • Attributions • Mental representation • Emotional reflection • ENCODING • Internal emotions • External/Social cues • Situational variables • KNOWLEDGE BASE • Past experiences • Social expectations • Cultural norms • Effective goals • Effective coping processes • Rules and guidelines • Tacit knowledge • Situation/Event • External agents • Personal emotions • Context factors • GOAL ARTICULATION • Establish expectations • Identify personal needs • Examine resources • ENACTMENT • Perform chosen action • Evaluate successfulness • Examine revised situation • RESPONSE SELECTION & PREDICTION • Generate possible actions • Evaluate efficacy • Coping mechanisms • Examine resources

11. CUE INTERPRETATION • Attributions • Mental representation • Emotional reflection • ENCODING • Internal emotions • External/Social cues • Situational variables • KNOWLEDGE BASE • Past experiences • Social expectations • Cultural norms • Effective goals • Effective coping processes • Rules and guidelines • Tacit knowledge • Situation/Event • External agents • Personal emotions • Context factors • GOAL ARTICULATION • Establish expectations • Identify personal needs • Examine resources • ENACTMENT • Perform chosen action • Evaluate successfulness • Examine revised situation • RESPONSE SELECTION & PREDICTION • Generate possible actions • Evaluate efficacy • Coping mechanisms • Examine resources

12. CUE INTERPRETATION • Attributions • Mental representation • Emotional reflection • ENCODING • Internal emotions • External/Social cues • Situational variables • KNOWLEDGE BASE • Past experiences • Social expectations • Cultural norms • Effective goals • Effective coping processes • Rules and guidelines • Tacit knowledge • Situation/Event • External agents • Personal emotions • Context factors • GOAL ARTICULATION • Establish expectations • Identify personal needs • Examine resources • ENACTMENT • Perform chosen action • Evaluate successfulness • Examine revised situation • RESPONSE SELECTION & PREDICTION • Generate possible actions • Evaluate efficacy • Coping mechanisms • Examine resources

13. ENCODING • Internal emotions • External/Social cues • Situational variables • CUE INTERPRETATION • Attributions • Mental representation • Emotional reflection • KNOWLEDGE BASE • Past experiences • Social expectations • Cultural norms • Effective goals • Effective coping processes • Rules and guidelines • Tacit knowledge • Situation/Event • External agents • Personal emotions • Context factors • GOAL ARTICULATION • Establish expectations • Identify personal needs • Examine resources • ENACTMENT • Perform chosen action • Evaluate successfulness • Examine revised situation • RESPONSE SELECTION & PREDICTION • Generate possible actions • Evaluate efficacy • Coping mechanisms • Examine resources Attend to stimuli Perceive/Interpret stimuli Attention “filter” leads to biases

14. CUE INTERPRETATION • Attributions • Mental representation • Emotional reflection • ENCODING • Internal emotions • External/Social cues • Situational variables • KNOWLEDGE BASE • Past experiences • Social expectations • Cultural norms • Effective goals • Effective coping processes • Rules and guidelines • Tacit knowledge • Situation/Event • External agents • Personal emotions • Context factors • GOAL ARTICULATION • Establish expectations • Identify personal needs • Examine resources • ENACTMENT • Perform chosen action • Evaluate successfulness • Examine revised situation • RESPONSE SELECTION & PREDICTION • Generate possible actions • Evaluate efficacy • Coping mechanisms • Examine resources Perceived Threat Level Personal risk factors Identify source of anxiety

15. CUE INTERPRETATION • Attributions • Mental representation • Emotional reflection • ENCODING • Internal emotions • External/Social cues • Situational variables • KNOWLEDGE BASE • Past experiences • Social expectations • Cultural norms • Effective goals • Effective coping processes • Rules and guidelines • Tacit knowledge • GOAL ARTICULATION • Establish expectations • Identify personal needs • Examine resources • Situation/Event • External agents • Personal emotions • Context factors • ENACTMENT • Perform chosen action • Evaluate successfulness • Examine revised situation • RESPONSE SELECTION & PREDICTION • Generate possible actions • Evaluate efficacy • Coping mechanisms • Examine resources Approach/Avoidance Self-regulatory control Initiate coping strategies

16. CUE INTERPRETATION • Attributions • Mental representation • Emotional reflection • ENCODING • Internal emotions • External/Social cues • Situational variables • KNOWLEDGE BASE • Past experiences • Social expectations • Cultural norms • Effective goals • Effective coping processes • Rules and guidelines • Tacit knowledge • Situation/Event • External agents • Personal emotions • Context factors • GOAL ARTICULATION • Establish expectations • Identify personal needs • Examine resources • RESPONSE SELECTION & PREDICTION • Generate possible actions • Evaluate efficacy • Coping mechanisms • Examine resources • ENACTMENT • Perform chosen action • Evaluate successfulness • Examine revised situation Self-regulation process Refer to KB & Goals Steady reliance on habit

17. CUE INTERPRETATION • Attributions • Mental representation • Emotional reflection • ENCODING • Internal emotions • External/Social cues • Situational variables • KNOWLEDGE BASE • Past experiences • Social expectations • Cultural norms • Effective goals • Effective coping processes • Rules and guidelines • Tacit knowledge • Situation/Event • External agents • Personal emotions • Context factors • GOAL ARTICULATION • Establish expectations • Identify personal needs • Examine resources • ENACTMENT • Perform chosen action • Evaluate successfulness • Examine revised situation • RESPONSE SELECTION & PREDICTION • Generate possible actions • Evaluate efficacy • Coping mechanisms • Examine resources Act upon selected strategy

18. Implications and Suggestions • Must avoid tendency to lump all specific anxieties together while balancing need for general model to serve practitioners • Use EIP (or various other diagnostic models) to identify strategies for mitigating anxiety responses • De-mystify anxiety responses as only “clinical” issues • Involve parents and teachers in identification and intervention efforts

19. Jerrell Cassady Professor, Dept. of Educational Psychology Director, Academic Anxiety Research Consortium Ball State University jccassady@bsu.edu