I i l‘ n 1 , ‘ 1 ' l 3 w ‘ ‘ \ ‘y ‘1 ,I ‘1‘. I I 7| “Ml ”‘ » Ii I m 1‘ MAEQEFEST ANMETY QM} ACfifléRfiiC PGTEKTEAL {I}? STUQEN'ES WHG SEEK HEP F3231 ACHEE‘V’EMW? fi'iiGELEJdS THESIS * LIBRARY Isfichzgan I‘m; Univcmty ROOM USE ONLY MANIFEST.ANXIETY AND ACADEMIC POTENTIAL OF STUDENTS WHO SEEK HELP FOR ACHIEVEMENT PROBLEI‘B by Richard H. Gatley Abstract of a Master's Thesis Completed Spring Term, 1965 Students seek help for achievement problems, when other res- ponses to academic difficulties are possible. An understanding of fileir motivation for seeking help with their problems is of practi- cal importance for attempts to aid those students. The present study proposed that: (1) help-seeking students are motivated to seek help because they are more anxious than other students; and (2) that help-seekers are anxious because their scholastic aptitude scores predict academic difficulties. Subjects for the study were freshmen males, and females, en- tering Michigan.State University, to whom the Taylor Manifest.Anxiety Scale (TMAS) was administered prior to enrollment in courses, and whose relative performance on two scholastic aptitude tests, the College Qualification Test, and the MSU Reading Test, was interpreted to them during Summer Counseling Clinics. Those freshmen who later sought help for achievement problems by voluntarily enrolling in Psychology 101, a course offering group and individual counseling for study problems, were taken to represent Richard H. Gatley a sample of the population of students who seek help for achieve- uent problems. A random sample of 200 Non-101 freshmen, who did not seek help their first year; and a sample of 86 Non-101 freshmen, Hatched with Fall term 101 students on scholastic aptitude scores, age, and sex, were selected for comparison with the 101 students. Three groups of 101 subjects were distinguished according to how soon they sought help; these were Fall, Winter, and Spring 101 groups, consisting of 88, 72, and67 subjects, respectively; to whom the TMAS was administered on two additional occasions - the second day of class, and during final examinations. Help-seeking 101 students scored much lower on the CQT and MSU Reading Test than the random sample of Non-101 students, but 101 groups did not differ significantly from either the random or matched Non-lOl groups in manifest anxiety. Little or no correlation was found between manifest anxiety and academic potential, for either 101 or Non—101 groups, although these students were aware of their rela- tive standings on the scholastic aptitude tests. Academic potential measures consistently predicted time of entrance into the 101 course - the lower their scores wereon the CQT and Reading Test, the sooner 101 students entered the course. However, no differences in manifest anxiety were found between Fall, Winter, or Spring 101 groups prior to their entrance into college. Norvere 101 students any more anxious during final examinations than they had been before beginning college. Richard H. Gatley Although it had long been assumed by their instructors that Fall term 101 students were the most anxious of the three 101 groups, since they seem to anticipate problems before having actually exper- ienced difficulty in college, it was found that the anxiety of Fall term 101 students actually decreased when they entered the course. No such drop was observed for'Winter or Spring term 101 students. ‘Winter and Spring 101 groups obtained lower test—retest correlations between first and second TMAS administrations than Fall term 101 students, however, suggesting that some Winter and Spring term 101 students be- come less anxious, and some more anxious as a result of their academic experiences. The finding that help-seeking students are no more anxious than other entering freshmen, despite their knowledge of low scholastic apti- tude scores predicting academic difficulties, was found consistent with previous findings characterizing help-seeking students as having a structuralized, and stable inadequate self-concept. According to this interpretation, low academic potential scores, as well as actual academic difficulties, are congruent with a poor self-concept, and therefore, would not be expected to lead to anxiety. While their relatively low scores on academic potential measures served to reaffirm the belief that it is worthwhile to provide help for students with achievement problems, their low anxiety suggests that they may not be sufficiently motivated to work on their problems. It Richard H. Gatley was hypothesized that a diffuse anxiety related to personal problems may underlie their moderate manifest anxiety, and that help-seeking students may focus on study problems as a way of allaying such covert anxiety. Implications for future research and counseling with help-seeking students were discussed. Approved: Q’W W YComiflFee Cha irman Date: 74/104,, 7 1765—“ I j Thesis Committee: Josephine Morse, Chairman Terrence M. Allen Robert E. McMichael MANIFEST ANXIETY.AND ACADEMEC POTENTIAL OF STUDENTS WHO SEEK HELP FOR ACHIEVEMENT PROBLEI'S By Richard H. Gatley A THESIS Submitted to Michigan State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF ARTS Department of Psychology 1965 To my wife, Fran. Ho Ho ACKNOWLEDGMENTS To Josephine Morse, whose encouragement and understanding have more than made a thesis possible - my gratitude - for helping me to learn to understand. To Dr. Terrence M..Allen, for his help in the statistical analysis of the data; and to Dr. Robert E. MdMichael, for his help in the early stages of the thinking for the study - my thanks. To Beulah Hedahl, and the Office of Evaluation Services, my gratitude for making available much of the data for the study. To my 101 teaching colleagues, for their help in gathering the data, and for the wonderful experience of knowing and working with them - my thanks. To the 101 students I have enjoyed teaching, and from whom I too, have learned - my gratitude. iii TABLE OF .ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS . . . . . . . . . LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES . . . . INTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . . . METHOD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Subjects . . . . . . . . . . . . Measuring Instruments. . . . . . Procedure. . . . . . . . . . . . RESULTS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . DISCUSSION . . . . . . . . . . . . SUMMARY. . . . . . . . . . . . . . BIBLIOGRAHIY O O O O O O O O O O 0 APPENDIX 0 O O O O O C O O O O O 0 CONTENTS Page 0 O O O O O O O O O O O I 0 iii 0 o o o o o o o o o o o o 0 V . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50 o iv Table Figure LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES Descriptive Summary of the Psychology 101 Sample. . . TMAS (1), COT, and MSU Reading Test Means for 101 and Non-101 Samples, and Tests of Differences Between Ordered Pairs of CQT and MSU Reading Test Means . . . TEES (1) Correlations with the COT, and the MSU Read— ing Test for 101 and Non-101 Samples. . . . . . . . . Means of 101 Groups on Three Administrations of the ms. 0 C O I O O I O O O I O O O O O O I O O O O O 0 Analysis of Variance of TMAS Scores of 101 Groups on Three Administrations of the TMAS. . . . . . . . . Test-retest Correlations Between.Administrations of the TMAS for Fall, Winter, and Spring 101 Groups. . . Time Sequence of TMAS.Administrations. . . . . . . . Distribution of TMAS (1), COT, and MSU Reading Test Means of 101 and Non-101 Groups. . . . . . . . . .. . Page 12 18 21 22 22 25 16 19 INTRODUCTION Observable manifestations of anxiety appear so commonplace in the academic setting, that one would expect that measured anxiety might have some bearing on the achievement of college students. A number of studies (Matarazzo, Ulett, Guze & Saslow, 1954; Grooms & Endler, 1960) have reported that anxiety has little or no relation- ship to achievement. Other investigators, recognizing the discre- pancy, have suggested that other relevant variables have not been taken into account (Speilberger & Katzenmeyer, 1959; Speilberger, 1962), and that other approaches to the investigation of an achieve- ment-anxiety relationship should be followed (Malnig, 1964). Even if it may be assumed that anxiety plays a negligible role in the academic performance of most students, it is questionable that this holds true for those students who are actually experiencing aca- demic difficulties. There is good reason to believe that anxiety may be a significant aspect of their academic experience, when these stu- dents actively seek help for their achievement problems. Roth and Meyersburg (1963), reporting their clinical experiencewith students applying for help with achievement problems, suggest that "free- floating anxiety" is characteristic of them. .Anxiety, then, might well be expected to serve as motivation for the help—seeking behavior of these students. 2 Anxiety and Help-Seeking If anxiety motivates students to seek help for achievement problems, it is appropriate to ask why anxiety leads to the parti- cular response of help-seeking rather than some otharresponse. For, if a student experiences anxiety about his achievement behavior, he might respond most adaptively by changing his behavior in such a way that he need not feel anxious. If a student finds, for example, that he is doing poorly because he studies too little, his anxiety about this situation might be effeCtively reduced if he spends more time on his studies. It might be suggested that students who seek help for achieve- ment problems do not know what response is most appropriate when they find that they are not doing well. They may not know what study methods may be most effective, for example. Harris (1940) reports that a number of studies indicate that good students differ from poor students in regard to study methods used, ". . . although not all findings agree on which methods characterize which group." (Harris, l9h0, p. 134). More recently, Lum.(1960) has reported that under- achievers do not differ from overachievers in professed study habits. Considerable experience with students seeking help for achievement problems in a study methods course at Michigan State University, in- dicates that help-seeking students are well aware of more efficient methods of study than they practice. 3 If students know more appropriate ways of behaving academically, why do they seek help for achievement problems? Insofar as anxiety may motivate help-seeking behavior, two explanations might be posited. First, it may be suggested that students seek help for their achieve- ment problems because they are highly anxious. In other words, their anxiety level may be so high that it interferes with more appropriate ways of responding in the academic situation. Secondly, it may be that the anxiety experienced by these students is not directly related to achievement; i.e., the source of their anxiety may he in aspects of their lives other than academic, and although having an influence on academic functioning, may not be reduced simply through effective aca— demic functioning. Although the nature, or sources of anxiety experienced by stu- dents who seek help for achievement problems cannot be directly or definitely examined by the data available for the present study, con- sideration of questions regarding the level of manifest anxiety among these students is possible. It is the general purpose of the present study, therefore, to examine the relationship between manifest anxiety and the help-seeking behavior of students with achievement problems. Origins of the Study There is a very practical reason for conceptualizing college students seeking help for achievement problems as a distinct and unique population,and for devoting research to this population. Each year a thousands of students in universities and colleges seek some form of help for achievement problems. While a variety of approaches are currently in practice to meet the needs of these students, there exists very little systematic information about them.which might guide the efforts of those entrusted with the task of helping the students with achievement problems. The present study arose out of a continuing program of research with students voluntarily enrolled in a one credit course, at Michigan State University, offering individual and group counseling for students with achievement problems. The course, "Methods of Effective Study," Psychology 101, is described in the university catalog as follows: 101 Methods of Effective Study Fall, Winter, Spring. 1 credit Not open to Juniors and Seniors except on recommendation from the counseling center and approval of department. Group and indivi- dual counseling for students with problems in academic achievement, including motivation, concentration, and attitudes toward study; methods and techniques of study; utiliza- tion of time; and student efficiency in the classroom. (Michigan State University Catalog, 1963) As a part of the 101 research program, the Taylor Manifest Anxiety Scale (TMAS)(J.A. Taylor, 1953) was administered to students who were enrolled in Psychology 101 during Fall, Winter, and Spring terms of 1963-1964. The TMAS was given on the second day of class, and again during final examination week of each term. Additional data were made available for the study through the research and testing program, 5 conducted by the Office of Evaluation Services at Michigan State Univer- sity, during an “Orientation week" for freshmen just prior to the begin- ning of Fall term 1963. The TMAS was included among the tests adminis- tered during this week, and among the students taking the tests were freshmen who later enrolled in Psychology 101. All of the subjects drawn for the study were among the more than 4,000 entering freshmen who participated in Summer Counseling Clinics at MSU during the summer of 1963. As a part of this counseling pro- gram, students were administered a number of tests, including the College Qualification Test (COT), and the 1963 Michigan State University Read- ing Test. The results of these scholastic aptitude tests were inter- preted to each student during an individual counseling session by clinic counselors, or staff members of the University Counseling Center. Thus all the students in the sample were aware of their relative academic potential. In addition, students were frequently informed of the Psy- chology 101 program, and particularly those whose scores were relatively low. Election of the Methods of Study course was entirely voluntary, however. The available data make it possible, then, to explore two lines of inquiry about the population of students who seek help for achieve— ment problems. First, it may be asked how anxiety is related to the fact that these students seek help for their achievement problems. Here, the question of primary concern is whether or not anxiety accounts for the help-seeking behavior of these students. Secondly, the fact 6 that these students seek help specifically for achievement problems suggests that they are concerned (anxious) about their performance as college students. Since intellectual ability, or academic potential, has considerable bearing on achievement, the most obvious source of this concern might be an awareness of potential difficulty in doing college work. While they may experience anxiety for other reasons, the present study will consider whether expectation of problems with achieve- ment, because of knowledge of academic potential, functions as a source of anxiety for these students. Related Studies While personality variables related to achievement problems have long been of interest to investigators (wolf, 1938; Harris, 1940), virtually all of this research interest seems to have been focused on the underachiever. Students voluntarily seeking help for achievement problems, however, cannot be uniformly described as underachievers, in- cluding as they may, students ofxarying intellectual potential, and varying degrees of achievement for that matter. Moreover, the study of anxiety in underachievers has received short shrift. In a recent review of the literature from 1933 to 1963, R. G. Taylor (1964) cites only eleven studies bearing on the anxiety of "discrepant achievers." The problems of generalization from.this re- search to college students seeking help for achievement problems is demonstrated by the fact that many of these studies used adolescents, 7 high school students, or boys, and, at that, about half of them deal only with "bright" (welsh, 1956), "brilliant" (Horrall, 1957), "gifted" (Gowan, 1957), "talented" (Holland, 1959), or "superior" (Bond, 1960) students. Of the eleven studies, only one (Mitchell, 1959) makes use of a self-report anxiety scale; two (Roth & Meyersburg, 1963); (Cowan, 1957) are not studies in the strictest sense; and the remainder employing projective techniques, interviews or questionnaires, are of— ten only tangentially concerned with anxiety. Kimball (1953) was unable to find any significant difference in anxiety between adolescent male underachievers and a control sample, although it is not clear which instrument was used to measure anxiety. She reports, however, that underachievers showed greater anxiety on Rorschach signs. Mitchell (1959), using the TMAS, found that female college underachievers were less anxious than overachievers. Mitchell also reported, however, that students who were self rejecting, as measured by the Bills Index of Adjustment and Values, were more anxious than self accepting students; a finding which is supported by Winkler and Myers (1963). It is of interest to note that, in their descrip- tion of the “non-achievement syndrome," Roth and Mbyersburg (1963) in- clude both general self—depreciation and free-floatinganxiety as characteristic of students seeking help for achievement problems. Jensen (1958) suggests that scholastic ability favors the adjust- ment of students in general. Brown,.Ab1es, and Iscoe (1954) caution, however, that poor students do not necessarily score lower on intelligence 8 tests, such as the ACE, asserting that motivation and interest may be primary for these students. Kausler and Trapps' (1958) report of a negative relationship between achievement motivation and manifest anxiety might suggest that students seeking help for achievement pro- blems may be anxious for reasons associated with their motivation for being in college. This does not discount the possibility that most students seeking help for achievement problems may be anxious because they believe that they are not scholastically well equipped to compete in college. Taking the ability level of his subjects into account, Speilberger (Speilberger & Katzenmeyer, 1959; Speilberger, 1962) reports that anxiety on the TMAS is more highly, negatively, related to college grades for students of average abilitythan for students scoring either high or low on the ACE. He concluded that anxiety has an important effect on the average student but has little bearing on the achievement of students with either high or low ability. A recent study reported by Malnig (1964) suggests that anxiety, achievement, and measura of ability are more complexly related than other investigators seem to assume. Malnig reports that when ability is measured under stress, with the School and College Ability Test (SCAT), the ability of high anxiety students does not correlate with their college grades, while the SCAT performance of medium and low anxiety students is positively related to their academic achievement. 9 Yeomans and Lundin (1957), making rather gross use of the diag- nostic scales of the MMPI have suggested that poor students do not worry much about their grades; this would seem particularly untenable when students actively seek help for achievement problems. Propositions The data available for the present study permit an investigation of two basic questions, namely; (1) are students who seek help for achieve— ment problems motivated to seek help by high anxiety; and (2) are help— seekers anxious because their scholastic aptitude scores predict academic difficulties? The proposition that help-seeking students are motivated by anx- iety will be supported by evidence from these data, if: (1) Psychology 101 students score higher on the TMAS given Orientation Week than a control group of students who do not enroll in the course their first year. This would indicate that students seek help for achievement problems because they are more anxious than other students. (2) Fall term 101 students, who seek help earliest, have higher aims scores than 101 students enrolling later, in.Winter or Spring; and Spring term 101 students, who are last to seek help, score lower than Fall or Winter term 101 students. This would indicate that the more anxious a help-seeking student is, the sooner he seeks help. 10 (3) Psychology 101 students score lower on the TMAS given when they enter the Methods of Study course, than on the TMAS given Orien— tation Week. This would indicate that anxiety is reduced when stu— dents seek help. The second proposition will be supported, if: (4) TMAS scores are negatively related to CQT and MSU Reading Test scores for 101 and control subjects. This would indicate that anxiety is negatively related to scholastic aptitude, when students are aware of information predicting how well they are likely to do in college. (5) Psychology 101 students score lower on the COT and the MSU Reading Test than a control group of students who do not enroll in the course their first year. This would suggest that help-seeking students are anxious because their scholastic aptitude scores predict academic difficulties. (6) Fall term 101 students score lower on the COT and MSU Read- ing Test than students who enroll in Winter or Spring terms; and Winter term 101 students score lower than Spring term 101 students. This would indicate that the more difficulty predicted by their scholastic aptitude scores, the sooner students seek help for achievement problems. The supposition that help-seeking students are anxious because they anticipate poor academic performance, which underlies the second proposition, would receive further support from the data, if: 11 (7) Psychology 101 students score higher on the TMAS given dur— ing final examinations than on the TMAS given Orientation Week. This would indicate that help-seekers are more anxious in an academic stress situation, presenting direct consequences for achievement, than they are in a situation which presents no immediate academic consequences, emphasizing that help-seeking students are anxious about doing poorly in college. METHOD Subjects The 101 Sample. Students voluntarily enrolled in Methods of Effective Study,Psychology 101, at Michigan State University, are regarded, for purposes of the study, as representing a sample of the population of students who seek help for achievement problems. The 101 sample was limited to freshmen enrolled in Psychology 101 in either Fall, Winter, or Spring terms of 1963-1964, who attended the Summer Counseling Clinics, and were given the TMAS during Orientation Week. Table 1 presents a summary description of the 101 sample. Table 1 Descriptive Summary of the Psychology 101 Sample Fall 88 42 46 17-25 18.08 Winter 72 39 33 17-22 18.19 Spring 67 41 26 18-20 18.34 Total 227 122 105 17-25 18.20 The Non-101 Samples. Two samples of freshmen who attended Sum- mer Counseling Clinics and who were given the TEES during Orientation 12 13 Week, but did not enter Psychology 101 during their first year of college were selected for comparison with the Psychology 101 sample. A random sample of 200 Non-101 freshmen was drawn by random number procedure from among the more than 2,200 protocols of freshmen who took the TMAS during Orientation Week. This sample, which included 127 males and 73 females, between 17 and 19 years of age, permitted comparison of 101 students with a sample of the general population of entering freshmen, who did not enroll in Psychology 101 during their first year of college. A preliminary examination of CQT and Reading Test scores sug- gested that the 101 and Non-101 groups differed with respect to these measures of academic potential. Since a relationship between manifest anxiety and academic potential was anticipated, an additional sample of Non-101 freshmen was drawn from the Orientation.Week TMAS protocols, to permit comparison of TMAS scores of 101 and Non-101 freshmen, with academic potential held constant. The subjects in this sample were matched with the Fall term 101 sample on CQT Total score, MSU Reading Test score, age, and sex. Adequate matches could not be found for two members of the Fall 101 sample, who were dropped from some of the com- parisons. The 86 subjects of the matched sample consisted then, of 40 males, and 46 females, between the ages of 17 and 21. Measuringrlnstruments Taylor Manifest Anxiety Scale (TMAS). (See Appendix) The Taylor Manifest.Anxiety Scale (J. A. Taylor, 1953) consists of 50 statements, l4 drawn from.the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI), which the subject answers as true or false as applied to himself. Examples of these statements, and answers indicating anxiety, are: "I believe I am no more anxious than most others." (False) "I work under a great deal of tension." (True) Although the validity of the scale has at times been questioned, the TMAS has received wide use as a measure of anxiety. It receives similar use in the present study, particularly by reason of the fact that TMAS protocols on entering college freshmen were available for the present study. These data provided an exceptional opportunity for selecting comparison groups, and obtaining information about the 101 students prior to their enrollment in Psychology 101. The reliability of the scale has typically been reported as relatively high (J. A. Taylor, 1953; LaMonaca & Berkun, 1959; Martin, 1959). To obtain an estimate of the reliability of the TMAS with students seeking help for achievement problems, the TMAS scores of Fall term 101 subjects, obtained during Orientation'Week, were cor- related with their TMAS performance during the second class meeting in Fall term. A test-retest reliability of .83 obtained, with a one week interval between tests. Measures of.Academic Potential. Results of several "orienta- tion tests," administered by the Office of Evaluation Services to fresh- men during the 1963 Summer Counseling Clinics, were available for the present study. The College Qualification Test - Total Score, and the 15 Michigan State University Reading Test, which have been reported to predict academic achievement of MSU freshmen better than other measures administered (GPA Expectancy Tables for Freshmen, 1961) were selected as measures of academic potential for the study. The College Qualification Test - Form B (CQT) is designed to measure scholastic aptitude or college ability, and compares well with other tests similarly designed, such as the ACE and SCAT (Bennett et. a1., 1957). The total score yielded by the test, is a sum of verbal, information, and numerical subtest scores. The 1963 form of the Michigan State University Reading Test con— tains 50 items ". . . designed to measure the ability of students to comprehend thoughts expressed in reading passages that are representa- tive of textual materials found in several academic areas" (Comparative Standings . . . ., 1963, p. 1). Procedure The OQT and PSU Reading Test were group administered to entering college freshmen during Summer Counseling Clinics at MSU, and approxi- mately half of this entering freshman class, selected in alphabetical groups, were given the TMAS during Orientation Week by the Office of Evaluation Services. Raw scores for the CQT and MSU Reading Test, and the actual scored TMAS protocols were made available for the present study by Evaluation Services. The administration of the TMAS during Orientation Week, prior to the beginning of the Fall term, will be referred to as the TMAS (1). 16 The TMAS was administered to 13 Psychology 101 class sections each term (Fall, Winter and Spring) by six instructors, on two additional occasions. The TMAS (2) was given on the second class meeting at the beginning of the term, and the TMAS (3) on the scheduled final exami- nation hour, at the end of the term. Minimal instructions were given, emphasizing the research, as opposed to academic or evaluative pur- poses for the testing; specific instructions for completing the question- naire appeared at the top of the test booklets (See Appendix). Figure 1 presents a visual description of the time sequence in which the TMAS was administered to the 101 and Non-101 groups. Manifest anxiety and academic potential scores of the Fall, Winter and Spring 101 groups were compared with the scores of Non—101 samples. The relationship between manifest anxiety and academic potential measures was examined for all groups; and comparisons were made between Fall, Winter and Spring 101 groups on TMAS, and academic potential measures. To avoid redundancy, the specific statistical procedures which were used are discussed in the results sections where they are applied to the data. Summer Academic Year 1963-1964 m 3’2 ,3 x a: Orien- g Fall Term. 8 ‘Winter Termn 3 Spring Term tation F4 (10 weeks) 3 (10 weeks) ‘T (10 weeks) Week «3 H TMAS l TMAS 2 TMAS 3 TMAS 2 TMAS 3 TMAS 2 TMAS 3 (2nd class (Finals)(2nd class (Finals)(2nd class (Finals) meeting) meeting) meeting) All 101 Fall Fall Winter Winter Spring Spring & Non-101 101 Ss 101 Ss 101 Ss 101 Ss 101 Ss 101 SS 83 Figure 1. Time Sequence of TMAS administrations 17 RESULTS Table 2 presents the TMAS (l), CQT, and MSU Reading Test means for the 101 and Non—101 samples. The distribution of these means is graphically presented in Figure 2. .An analysis of variance for each test of academic potential revealed that Fall, Winter, and Spring 101 groups, and the Non-101 Random.Sample obtained significantly different means on both the CQT (F=55.54, P (.01), and the NBU Reading Test (F=29.24, P<.01). Order- ing the CQT and Reading Test means separately, according to magnitude, the Neuman-Keuls procedure (Winer, 1962) was followed in making tests of differences between all ordered pairs of OQT means, and between all ordered pairs of Reading Test means obtained by the three 101 groups, and the Non-101 Random Sample. The results of these tests, indicated in Table 2, reveal that all three of the 101 groups scored significantly lower than the Non-101 RandomISample on both the Reading Test and CQT. Thus, the proposition (5), which suggests that 101 stu- dents have low scholastic aptitude scores predicting academic difficul- ties, is clearly supported. Furthermore, as Figure 2 illustrates, the order of the Fall, Winter, and Spring 101 groups is consistently in the direction pre- dicted by Proposition 6 for both tests of academic potential; the Spring term 101 group exceeds Winter termn which in turn exceeds the Fall 101 group in the magnitude of scores obtained on both the OQT and the Reading Test. With the single exception of the difference 18 between.Winter and Spring term 101 groups on the Reading Test, the Neuman-Keuls test indicates that the differences between the CQT and Reading Test means of the three 101 groups are statistically signifi- cant. Table 2 TMAS (1), CQT, and MSU Reading Test Means for 101 and Non-101 Samples, and Tests3 of Differences Between Ordered Pairs of CQT and MSU Reading Test Means 101 101 101 Non-101 Fall Winter Spring Random Samples N ’I'MAS(1) CQT PBU RT CQT RT CQT RI‘ CQT RT CQT RT Fall 101 88 17.76 105.18 23.75 ** * ** ** ** ** ‘Winter 101 71 18.77 117.78 26.36 * ** ** Spring 101 67 18.16 127.04 27.86 ** ** Non-101 Random 200 16.79 143.06 31.74 ** ** Total 101 226 18.20 115.62 25.79 *Significant at .05 level Non-101 **Significant at .01 level Matched 86 16.84 106.20 23.64 aNewman-Keuls Method (Winer, 1962) While the data clearly support the proposition that 101 students have low scores on scholastic aptitude tests, on the basis of which they may anticipate academic difficulties, an analysis of variance of TMAS (1) scores indicates that 101 students are no more anxious than Non-101 students prior to beginning college; the TMAS (1) means (Table 2) SCALE OF 'IMAS (1) ~50 440 ~35 ~30 ~25 ~20 ~15 ~10 ~50 ~150 ~45 ~145 ~40 ~l40 E-BS ~135 O E~30 ~130 Q E? a D~25 m~125 E 0 [La LIJ C3~20 '-"~l20 m 5 A :0 5 CD~15 ~115 ~10 r110 ~ 5 ~105 0 100 Figure 2. l9 (3-. -EJ TMAS (1) A—-——--A CQT A 0-— -0 MSU RT 1 l l L NON-101 101 101 101 RANDOM FALL WINTER SPRING Distribution of TMAS (1), COT, and MSU Reading Test means of 101 and Non—101 groups 20 obtained by the three 101 groups, and the Non—101 Random Sample, were not significantly different (F=l.43, P>.05). Propositions l and 2 receive no support, then, from this analysis of the data; the 101 stu- -dents had neither higher manifest anxiety than Non-101 students, nor were Fall term 101 students, who sought help earlier, any more anxious than 101 students who entered the Methods of Study course later in Winter,or Spring terms. As a further test of the first proposition, the TMAS (1) scores of all three 101 groups were combined for comparison with the Non- 101 Random Sample. Although the combined mean for the Total 101 sam— ple exceeds the TMAS (1) means for the Non-101 group (Table 2), the difference does not reach significance at the .05 level (t=1.90). Comparison of OQT and Reading Test means of Fall 101 and Matched Non-101 samples indicated that matching was reasonably adequate on these two variables; neither t test reached significance at the .05 level. The Matched Non-101 group did not differ significantly from the Fall 101 group, however, on the TMAS (l), (t=.76, pgs.05). In fact, the mean anxiety score for the matched group was virtually identi- cal with that of the Non-101 Random Sample. (See Table 2) The proposi- tion that higher anxiety motivates students to seek help for achieve- ment problems still receives no support. Table 3 presents the Pearson correlations of the TMAS (l) with the CQT,£nd.the Reading Test for 101 and Non-101 groups. Of twelve correlations computed, only three are significantly different from zero. Although correlations between the TMAS (1) and both the CQT and Reading 21 Test are significant, and in the expected negative direction for the Non-101 RandomISample, neither correlation is appreciably large. More- over, comparisons of differences between the correlations obtaining among the groups revealed only two significant differences; the cor- relation of CQT and TMAS (1) was significantly greater for the Non-101 Random Sample than for the Total 101 sample (Z=2.69, P-(.01), and the correlation of the TMAS (l) with the Reading Test was greater for the Winter than for the Fall term 101 group (Z=2.25, P'(.05). Taken to- gether the evidence presents no support for the proposition (4) that anxiety is negatively related to scholastic aptitude for 101 students. Only minimal support for the proposition was found for non-101 students. Table 4 presents the means for Fall, Winter and Spring 101 groups on all three administrations of the TMAS. To facilitate comparisons, only those subjects who took the TMAS on all three occasions are con- sidered. A summary of the analysis of variance of the TMAS scores of the 101 groups, on the three administrations, is presented in Table 5. Table 3 TEES (1) Correlations with the CQT, and the MSU Reading Test for 101 and Non-101 Samples Sample N Correlation with TMAS (1) CQT Total MSU Reading Test Fall 101 88 .19 .11 Winter 101 71 -.08 -.25* Spring 101 67 .02 —.01 Total 101 226 .06 -.02 Non-101 Random 200 -.20** -.l49* Non-101 Matched 86 -.049 -.035 *Significant at .05 level **Significant at .01 level 22 Table 4 'Means of 101 Groups on Three.Administrations of the TMAS Grou s .Administrations Significance Test: p values P N masu) TMAS(2) mscs) lvs2 2vs3 lvs3 Fall 82 17.50 15.28 17.66 .001a .001a nsa Winter 64 18.70 18.86 18.83 ns3 ns8 ns8 Spring 63 18.59 17.82 18.29 ns8 ns8 ns8 Total 209 18.19 17.14 18.21 .05b .05b nsb at test bNewman-Keuls test of differences between all ordered pairs of means Table 5 Analysis of Variance of TMAS Scores of 101 Groups on Three Administrations of the TMAS Source Sum of df Mean F Squares Square Terms 464.37 2 232.18 1.39 Error (a) 34,400.91 206 166.99 .Administrations 155.81 2 77.91 4.27* Terms X Administrations 153.52 4 38.38 2.10 Error (b) 7,524.00 412 18.26 Total 42,698.61 626 *Significant at .05 level 23 A significant F ratio for Administrations indicates that the means for the three administrations are significantly different when anxiety scores are averaged across 101 groups. As reported in Table 4, a Neuman- Keuls test for differences between the ordered total means for the three administrations shows that 101 freshmen scored significantly lower on the TMAS (2) than on either the TMAS (l) or the TMAS (3); TMAS means for the first and third administrations did not differ significantly across 101 groups. Although the analysis of variance (Table 5) did not find a signi- ficant overall interaction between terms and administrations, the results of t test comparisons between means obtained on the three administra- tions, for each group (Table 4), suggest that the lower total mean.for the TMAS (2) is accounted for by the marked drop for the Fall term.group on this particular administration. The TMAS (2) mean for the Fall 101 group is lower than either TMAS (l) or TMAS (3) means for this group; the difference being significant beyond the .001 level in both cases. None of the t tests of differences between means on the three TMAS ad— ministrations are significant for'Winter or Spring term groups. The drop in anxiety for the Fall 101 students appears idiocyncratic to that group. The proposition (3) that anxiety is reduced for students when they seek help is supported, then, only with respect to Fall term 101 freshmen. Neither t tests, nor the Neuman-Keuls procedure found any dif- ference between TMAS (l), and TMAS (3) means obtained by any of the 24 101 groups. The proposition (7) that help-seeking students should be more anxious in an academic stress situation, than in a situation presenting no immediate consequences for achievement is not sustained by the evidence. A nonsignificant F ratio for Terms (Table 5) indicates that the Fall, Winter and Spring 101 groups do not differ significantly across the three administrationSOf the TMAS. The expectation of differences in anxiety between 101 groups, at the basis of the proposition (2) that students seek help sooner than others because they are more anxious, is not confirmed. Table 6, presenting the test-retest correlations between ad- ministrations of the TMAS for each 101 group, demonstrates the relia- bility of the anxiety measures from the beginning (TMAS 2) to the end (TMAS 3) of each term for all three 101 groups; these correlations all cluster closely around .80. The table is presented, however, because it shows that the correlations between first (TMAS l) and second (TMAS 2) administrations are significantly lower for Winter (Z=2.26, P«<.05), and Spring (Z=3.63, P<(.001) groups than for the Fall 101 group. The correlations for‘Winter and Spring groups, on the other hand, are not significantly different (Z=l.32, P35.05). The low correlations between TMAS (l) and TMAS (2) for Winter and Spring groups suggest that the anxiety which these students ex- perience may change during their one or two terms of college prior to entering the 101 course. Because TMAS means do notdrop for Winter and 25 Spring 101 groups on the second administration of the TMAS, the lower correlations suggest thatsome of these students have become more anxious, while about an equal number have become less anxious during the period of time prior to their enrollment in the Methods of Study course. In this respect Winter and Spring students differ from the more consistent Fall term 101 students. Table 6 Test-retest Correlations Between Administrations of the TMAS for Fall, Winter and Spring 101 Groups 101 Group N TMAS Administrations r Fall 88 TMAS (1) & TMAS (2) .837 Fall 82 ’IMAS (2) 8: TMAS (3) .85 Fall 82 TMAS (l) & TMAS (3) .809 Winter 72 TMAS (1) 8L TMAS (2) .686 Winter 64 TMAS (2) 81 TMAS (3) .808 Spring 67 TMAS (l) 81. TMAS (2) .54 Spring 63 TMAS (2) & TMAS (3) .799 DISCUSSION Logical considerations about the relationship between anxiety, academic potential, and help-seeking led to a number of propositions. It was thought that students came for help with achievement problems, because they were more anxious than other students, and that the more anxious they were, the sooner they would seek help. It was also ex- pected that once these students did seek help for their achievement problems, their anxiety would be lowered. No support was found for the first two propositions; the 101 freshmen were neither more anxious than Non-101 freshmen, nor did the 101 students who enrolled in Fall, Winter, or Spring terms of the Methods of Study course differ signifi- cantly in their anxiety before beginning college. Furthermore, the third proposition was supported only for the Fall term group; the anx- iety level of the Fall term students dropped significantly upon their entrance into the course, but no change was observed in the anxiety level of students entering in Winter or Spring terms. It had seemed reasonable to expect that students seeking help for achievement problems would be more anxious at a time when they were taking tests having direct consequences for achievement than when the testing situation had no consequences forfailure. Their anxiety during final examinations, however, was no different for the 101 stu- dents, than it had been for Orientation Week. 26 27 A negative relationship between anxiety and academic potential was anticipated if students were informed of their scholastic aptitude scores before beginning college. When the correlations for all the samples of entering freshmen, 101 and Non-101, were considered, the results indicated that anxiety has minimal if any relationship to aca- demic potential. It had also been suspected that knowledge of low academic potential scores might make students anxious enough to seek help for achievement problems, and further, that the lower their aptitude scores were, the sooner they would seek help. Confirming expectations with respect toscholastic aptitude scores, the results indicated that 101 students have much lower academic potential scores than Non-101 stu- dents; that Fall 101 freshmen score lower than those entering 101 later, in Winter or Spring;and that Winter term 101 students score lower, in turn, than Spring term 101 freshmen, who are the last to seek help in the Methods of Study course. Separately considered, the conclusions suggested by these re- sults seem straightforward; when taken together, however, they are strikingly paradoxical. In pursuing logically related propositions, we have found results which do not seem to follow logically from one another, presenting the question: How may we account for these re- sults; and how are they related to our present knowledge and theory about students seeking help for achievement problems? Oddly enough it is the paradoxes which are most enlightening, and consistent with pre- vious conclusions about help—seeking students. 28 Anxiety and.Anticipated Achievement Problems We are struck first by the fact that 101 freshmen score much lower than Non-101 freshmen on scholastic aptitude tests, yet evidence no more anxiety than Non-101 students. Since both 101 and Non-101 students were made aware of their relative standings on the academic potential measures, the evidence suggests that knowledge of their low scores does not make 101 freshmen any more anxious than students who are much better equipped to cope with academic tasks at the college level. The same conclusion seems to hold true for comparisons between Fall, Winter, and Spring term.101 grcups as well. It was found that freshmen who enrolled in Methods of Study in Fall term scored lower on academic potential measures than Winter term 101 students, who, in turn, scored lower than freshmen enrolling in Spring. One would think that Fall term 101 students would have had more reason to wnrry about failing than Winter term students, while the Spring termlgroup should have been least anxious of the 101 groups about having academic difficulties. Yet the three 101 groups were equally anxious before beginning college. Academic potential scores consistently predict how soon the 101 freshman seeks help for achievement problems; suggesting, perhaps, that their help-seeking behavior merely reflects a realistic response to academic difficulties. Perhaps more poorly prepared freshmen may be more likely to encounter academic difficulties sooner than students who 29 are better equipped. While this conclusion is consistent with the data; one would also expect the more poorly equipped student to be anxious as well, but the 101 students evidence no more anxiety than other entering freshmen. ‘Moreover, the Fall term 101 students have not actually experienced academic difficulties in college at the time they enter the Methods of Study course. They seem to seek help in anticipation of having study problems, which would lead one to believe that they must be more anxious than other students. Yet their anxiety scores on the TMAS (1) show them no more anxious than any other enter— ing freshman. Methods of Study students did not seem to be any more anxious during final examinations than they were before they began taking courses. Again, we are presented evidence suggesting that 101 stu- dents do not become anxious in the facecf very real academic problems. How are we to explain these seemingly paradoxical results? Anxiety and.Se1f-Concept If we turn to previous studies, we find that most investigators have defined the student with achievement problems as an underachiever. It has always been believed that 101 students differ from underachievers, as that term is usually defined, and that studies in which underachieve- ment was the criterion for selection were not applicable. The present data confirm this belief, since none of the 101 groups have even average scores on the OQT and Reading Test. They are not the bright, brilliant, or gifted students studied by previous investigators. Q'W“" . _ CL‘D‘L“ 'i - L. ' um 30 A recent study by DeBolt (1963), however, is directly comparable; the results of the present study are consistent, moreover, with his results and theoretical conclusions about the personality of Methods of Study students. He found that 101 students have a high need for Self Abasement, and low Dominance need, on the Edwards Personal Pre- ference Schedule (EPPS), and concluded that these are students who are: characterized predominantly by feelings of worthlessness, in- adequacy, and inferiority, and possessing little motivation to alter this state. In short, they are students with a struc- turalized and stable inadequate self-concept.(DeBolt, 1963, p. 23) This being the case, the low scores which 101 students obtain on academic potential measures would be consistent with such a self-concept. If 101 students are more comfortable with a view of themselves as poor students, it is logical that knowledge of low scholastic aptitude scores would not make them anxious. On the contrary, from the view- point of phenomenological personality theory, the 101 student would more likely experience anxiety if he were to anticipate doing well, not poorly, in school. .Anderson (1952), for example, says: To alter one's pattern of behavior is to court . . . anxiety . . . . One might expect that a person who has structuralized the assumption that he is incompetent would be eager to change. This is not according to fact, for it is the familiar rather than the hypothetically desirable that is the comfortable role (Anderson, 1952, pp. 235-236). Anderson goes on to say that: As long as a person can maintain his self image intact and func- tioning according to anticipation, he will be free from.anxiety. (Anderson, 1952, p. 237). 31 Problems, then, which low scholastic aptitude scores present for their academic success, being congruent with, and perhaps neces- sary for the maintenance of an inadequate self-concept, should not, and do not serve to make 101 students anxious. Roth and Meyersburg's (1963) observations support DeBolt's View that help-seeking students experience academic problems out of a need for self abasement. They believe that, because of "impulsive self disparagement," students seeking help for achievement problems are motivated to do poorly. "Poor achievement," according to these authors, "is an expression of the student's choice." (Roth & Meyersburg, 1963, p. 535) It is appropriate, at this time, to examine a major assumption made by DeBolt, as well as the present writer. We assume that an in- adequate self-concept precedes poor achievement rather than being a result of it, at the time 101 students seek help in the Methods of Study course. The assumption is supported by the fact that DeBolt found high need for Self Abasement among Fall 101 students, who had not as yet experienced academic problems in college. Furthermore, from'the writer's experience with these students, their poor self-concept is expressed in areas in addition to their academic performance. It is quite characteristic, for example, to observe considerable embarrass- ment and uneasiness among 101 students when they report something they are able to do well, be it school work, sports, or knitting; whereas, 32 they are able to describe a variety of inadequate or inferior per- formances with equanimity, and even zest. If their poor academic performances did lead to a new, and unexpected experience of self disparagement, rather than serving to maintain an already structuralized inadequate self-concept, one would expect such a change to be accompanied by considerable anxiety. The present study finds that achievement problems, and even their know- ledge of aptitude scores predicting such problems, do not make 101 students anxious. The findings add further support to view, then, that 101 students already have a structuralized inadequate self-con— cept by the time they seek help in the Methods of Study course. Anxiety Reduction and Help-Seeking Having set out to discover if anxiety plays a role in motivat- ing students to seek help for achievement problems, we have found that in spite of very good reasons for anxiety, 101 students are no more anxious than other freshmen. Surprisingly enough, anticipation, or experience of academic difficulties seems to operate directly as reason for taking the course, without anxiety as an accompainment. We have only taken part of the results into consideration so far, how- ever, basing much on anxiety measures taken during Orientation and final examination weeks. Additional evidence leads us to question the generality of the conclusion that anxiety plays no motivational part in the help-seeking behavior of 101 students. 33 Although the three 101 groups did not differ in manifest anxiety before entering college, a marked drop in anxiety accompanied the en- trance of Fall term 101 students into the Methods of Study course, but did not occur with either Winter, or Spring groups. According to the reasoning for proposition 3, such a reduction in anxiety is expected if achievement problems are a real, and important source of anxiety for students entering a course ostensibly designed to help students specifi- cally with their achievement problems. There is little question about the realiability of the drop in anxiety for the Fall term group. Fur- thermore, the anxiety of the Fall 101 students rises again during final examinations, as would be expected if they are concerned about their academic performance. Since the Fall 101 students clearly become less anxious, we must ask if anticipated academic problems are the only possible source of anxiety for entering freshmen. One might suspect that the novel situation presented by initiation into college social life might also evoke anxiety among students, most of whom.are away from.home. Many of the Fall 101 students, complaining that they are from small high schools in rural areas throughout the state, often voice feelings of loneliness and social isolation, as well as notions about being poorly prepared to compete in a large university. In view of the social context peculiar to the beginning of college, perhaps the drop in anxiety observed among freshmen entering the 101 course in Fall reflects, in fact, their increasing social ease with the college environment. Perhaps the opportunity of meeting 34 fellow students, offered by the Methods of Study course, accounts for some decrease in their anxiety. Certainly, it is common to hear, ammng the Fall 101 students, expressions of relief to discover that there are others who come from.small towns, and who expect to have, or have academic problems. By the same token, one might go so far as to sug- gest that freshmen, in general, may become less anxious once they have actually begun taking courses. Future studies would benefit from.con- trol measures of anxiety for freshmen who do not seek help, taken when they have started courses; this would make the results easier to inter- pret than they are at present. We are struck, nevertheless, by the reduction in anxiety ex- perienced by Fall term 101 students once they have entered the Methods of Study course. From an objective point of view, these students really should be worried more about failing than.either their Winter, or Spring term 101 peers, or Non-101 students. They score much lower on scholastic aptitude tests than other entering freshmen, yet they aren't any more anxious than other students before beginning college. How- ever much the Fall student may believe that the Methods of Study course will provide him with efficient study methods, it is startling that merely entering a course (among others which he anticipates doing poorly in) should alieviate his anxiety. It has long been an assumption among the group leaders who teach the Methods of Study course, that the Fall term.101 students are 2253_ anxious when they enter the course, than students who come in Winter 35 or Spring. This assumption has been based on the fact that Fall term students come to the course before having had any actual ex— perience of academic difficulty in college, in contrast to Winter and Spring students. DeBolt (1963), for example, felt it necessary to compare Fall term with the combined Winter and Spring 101 groups on the EPPS, because: . . . the fall term.group consists, originally, mostly of stu- dents who anticipate having study problems in college, whereas the winter and spring term groups consist of students who pre- sently have or did have study problems.(DeBolt, 1963, p. 13) Although DeBolt did not find the Fall group different froerin- ter or Spring groups on the Edwards, 101 instructors have continued to observe that Fall term students are unlike their Winter and Spring term peers. They have found that Fall 101 students are unclear about their motivation for taking, and working in the course. The present evidence suggests that this is not only due to their having little knowledge of what they should be concerned about, but that the Fall group actually become less anxious, and therefore less motivated to work with their study problems than are Winter and Spring term students. The confused behavior of the Fall students, which has hitherto been interpreted by instructors as a result of the debilitat- ing effect of high anxiety, actually seems to owe much to fact that these students simply are not anxious. Since the anxiety scores of Winter and Spring groups do not change significantly across the three administrations of the TMAS, it is also apparent that these students differ from those who enter the 36 course in their first term.of college. The Winter and Spring term students have actually experienced failure; many are on probation because of poor grades, and face, or believe they face dismissal from the univer- sity. In contrast to the Fall group, then, it would not be surprising if Winter and Spring term students may be pessimistic about finding workable solutions to their academic problems in.the Methods of Study course; and that their anxiety, as a consequence, is not alieviated by entering the course. This only takes into account the fact that TMAS means for the Winter and Spring groups do not change when they come to the course. An examination of the reliability coefficients for the TMAS suggests that the anxiety experienced by Winter and Spring 101 students does change from the time before they begin college to the time they enter Methodscf Study. While the test-retest correlations reamin consistent for the Fall group, despite change in means from one administration to another, the correlation between TMAS (l) and TMAS (2) drops significantly for both'Winter and Spring groups. Since their anxiety remains consistent once they are in the course, the correlations being virtually the same for Fall students, we may take the reliability of the test as well es— tablished. ‘We cannot satisfactorily account for the drop in correla— tion as merely a temporal function, since the period between first and third administrations for Fall is only a few weeks shorter than from first to second for the Winter group, and the Fall group remains con- sistent from first to last administrations. Although an additional 37 administration (TMAS 2) intervening between first and third adminis- trations, may account for the greater consistency of Fall 101 students, the drop in correlations for Winter and Spring groups can be logically interpreted as reflecting a change in the anxiety experienced by these students. Since the means remain the same, it is apparent that some of these Winter and Spring 101 students become more anxious as a result of their school experience, while about an equal number become less anxious. This suggests that anxiety doeshave something to do with Winter and Spring term students coming to 101, and that some are more motivated than others to work on their study problems. As earlier sug- gested, those who become less anxious would seem to be students for whom achievement problems may be congruent with an already structuralized inadequate self-concept. Like their Fall term peers, they may seek help as an expression of self-devaluation, in the same way that their study problems themselves seem to reflect "patterns of deliberate failure." (DeBolt, 1963, p. 29) Anxiety: Focused or Diffuse? We have said so far, that by having study problems, real or fancied, the 101 student isable to view himself as a poor student, and thus maintain a congruent concept of himself as an inadequate and in- ferior person; and that by so protecting the integrity of this needed concept of himself, he is able to allay anxiety. Roth and Meyersburg 38 (1963), however, while they see self disparagement as particularly characteristic of help—seeking students, also identify "free-float- ing anxiety" as a part of the "non-achievement syndrome." This ap— pears at variance with some of our findings, only if we view anxiety as a static, rather than as a dynamic form of experience. Certainly the kind of diffuse anxietyy'which Roth and Meyersburg saw with in- dividually counseled students, is observed by Methods of Study in- structors among 101 students. From the writer's experience, however, what is strikingly characteristic of 101 students is their strong tendency to focus anxiety on their study problems. Most of these stu- dents resist movement away from specific academic problems, despite considerable encouragement to discuss personal prdblems which seem to be related to their difficulties in academic functioning. Speilberger, Weitz, and Denny (1962) report their astonishment to find the same phenomenon in counseling groups of highly anxious students who volun- tarily seek help for achievement problems. Roth and Meyersburg seem to refer to something similar, when they say that ". . . the student's energies seem to be directed against experiencing and toward the main- tenance of a status quo." (Roth & Meyersburg, 1963, p. 536) It is the writer's opinion, then, that by focusing on study problems, the 101 students attempt to allay diffuse anxiety related to personal conflicts having unclear referents. ‘we get some notion from their more common complaints about the way this process seems to effect their studies. They express concern about doing poorly, for example, because they are distracted from their studies by the 39 persistent intrusion of thoughts, often about parents, relatives, and other significant people in their lives, which they struggle to disregard. The Methods of Study student may seek help for achieve- ment problems, not only as a manifestation of his need to maintain an inadequate self-concept,but also as a means for redirecting anxiety away from more personal, but poorly defined sources of anxiety, to reality problems related to achievement. The evidence would suggest that by focusing on study problems, anxiety may be reduced or held in check for some students. Practical Implications The present evidence raises many questions for future research: Is anxiety reduced for Fall 101 students by expectation of help with anticipated academic difficulties; by the experience of social con— tact within and outside the course; or does the reduction in anxiety represent satisfaction of a need to show themselves in a bad light? Since 101 students, in general, seem to have an inadequate self-con- sept, how is it that Fall students seem to be less motivated to work in the course than Winter and Spring 101 students? Are there other differences in their personality make-up, or is what we observe a func- tion of the actual experience of failure upon basically similar in— dividuals? Are the present findings generalizable to students more advanced than their first year of college, and to students who seek help for other problems in other ways, in counseling centers, for example, or from academic, or vocational advisors? 40 The evidence is very clear that the 101 student has lower aca- demic potential than.the average entering freshman. If the pattern of self depreciation, and need for self abasement is a stable character- istic of these students, however, it may be wondered if the OQT and Reading Test scores actually give an accurate reflection of potential. If it is necessary for these students to experience study problems, this may well apply to their test behavior in general. Nevertheless, the academic potential measures do correlate with academic success, according to reports from the Office of Evaluation Services at MSU, and we can be assured that 101 students do well to seek help. The question.which may be raised, however, is whether it is appropriate to go to the trouble of helping them. Speilberger has expressed some doubt about the efficacy of counseling low ability students, because his previous research ". . . indicated that students with low ability performed poorly regardless of their anxiety level:(Speilberger, weitz & Denny, 1962, p. 197) Are we to believe along with Speilberger that since 101 students are relatively poorly endowed they will do poorly anyway, and therefore cannot benefit from group and individual counseling? ‘We think not. In the first place, success, as measured by the yardstick of grade point average, may be a short-sighted, and constricted goal for counseling. Surely the fact thatuniversities present degrees to students who have other than the best grades, suggests that college education is a useful experience, resulting in productive citizens. 41 Secondly, we might remember that ability measures do not correlate perfectly with academic achievement by any means. Although the pre- sent study finds that 101 students scorelow on scholastic aptitude tests, these low scores need not predict their failure in college; but they do suggest that.help-seeking students will need to be motivated if they are to take a degree. Their lack of anxiety presents important implications for counseling these students, if they are to be helped. It is a common assumption that motivation is important for any change in behavior. Anxiety is regarded as one of the most important sources of motivation. Rogers (1957), in fact, sees anxiety as one of the necessary conditions for therapeutic change. That 101 students do not seem to be anxious would seem to bode ill for the success of counseling attempts. It has been suggested, however, that anxiety for these students may be held in abeyance by the ample possibilities for these students to focus anxiety on study problems. Their anxiety, ac- cording to this view, has personal problems as a primary source, rather than academic difficulties. It may be necessary, in any attempts to help these students, for the counselor to focus instead on the indivi- dual's personal problems, raising anxiety useful for motivating change, as well as working directly on the student's primary difficulty in ex- periencing himself as a worthwhile person. Considering its important implications for counseling, the hy- pothesis that study problems serve as a focus for anxieties stemming from personal conflicts, offers an important area for future research. 42 It remains for such research to discover if marked covert anxiety underlies apparent, moderate manifest anxiety. It is suggested that instruments more sensitive to covert anxiety, such as projective techniques, may be able to discover what the TMAS cannot. SUMMARY Students seek help for achievement problems, when other res- ponses to academic difficulties are possible. An understanding of their motivation for seeking help with their problems is of practical importance for attempts to aid these students. The present study proposed that: (l) help-seeking students are motivated to seek help because they are more anxious than other students; and (2) that help— seekers are anxious because their scholastic aptitude scores predict academic difficulties. Subjects for the study were freshmen males, and females, en- tering Michigan State University, to whom the TMAS was administered prior to enrollment in courses, and whose relative performance on twosnholastic aptitude tests, the College Qualification Test, and the MSU Reading Test, was interpreted to them during Summer Counseling Clinics at MSU. Those freshmen who later sought help for achievement problems by voluntarily enrolling in Psychology 101, a course offering group and individual counseling for study problems, were taken to represent a sample of the population of students who seek help for achievement problems. A Hen-101 RandomnSample of freshmen, who did not seek help their first year in college; and a sample of Non-101 freshmen, matChed with Fall term 101 students on scholastic aptitude scores, age, and sex, were selected for comparison with the 101 samples. 43 44 Three groups of 101 subjects were distinguished according to how soon they sought help; these were Fall, Winter, and Spring 101 groups, to whom the TMAS was administered on twr>additional occasions-the second day of class, and during final examinations. Help-seeking 101 students scored much lower on the CQT, and MSU Reading Test than the RandomnSample of Non-101 students, but 101 groups did not differ from either the Random, or Matched Non-101 groups in manifest anxiety. Little or no correlation was found between manifest anxiety and academic potential, for either 101 or Non-101 groups, even when these students were aware of their relative standings on the scholastic aptitude tests. Academic potential measures consistently predicted time of entrance into the 101 course, in that the lower their scores were on the CQT and Reading Test, the sooner 101 students entered the Methods of Study course;but no concomitant differences in manifest anxiety were found between.Fall, Winter, or Spring 101 groups prior to their entrance into college. Nor were 101 students any more anxious during final examinations than they had been before beginning college. Although it had long been assumed by theirinstructors, that Fall term 101 students were the most anxious of the three 101 groups, since they seem to anticipate problems before having actually experienced difficulty in college, it was found that the anxiety of Fall term 101 students actually decreased when they entered the course. No such drop was observed for‘Winter or Spring term 101 students, who had experienced academic difficulties. Winter and Spring 101 groups 45 obtained lower test-retest correlations between first and second TMAS administrations than Fall term 101 students, however, suggest- ing that some Winter and Spring term students become less anxious, and some more anxious as a result of their academic experiences. The finding that help-seeking students are no more anxious than other entering freshmen, despite their knowledge of low scholas- tic aptitude scores predicting academic difficulties, was found con- sistent with previous findings characterizing help-seeking students as having a structuralized, and stable inadequate self-concept. Ac- cording to this interpretation, low academic potential scores, as well as actual academic difficulties, are congruent with a poor self- concept, and, therefore, would not be expected to lead to anxiety. While their relatively low scores on academic potential measures served to reaffirm the belief that it is worthwhile to provide help for students with achievement problems, their low anxiety suggests that they may not be sufficiently motivated to work on their problems. It was hypothesized that a diffuse anxiety related to personal pro- blems may underlie their moderate manifest anxiety, and that help- seekingstudents may focus on more concrete study problems as a way of allaying such covert anciety. It was suggested that it may be ap- propriate for counselors to focus instead on personal problems related to academic difficulties to raise anxiety necessary for motivating change, as well as working directly on the student's primary difficulty in experiencing himself as a worthwhile person. BIBLIOGRAPHY BIBLIOGRAPHY Anderson, C. M. The Self—image: a theorycf the dynamics of behavior. Ment. Hzg., 1952, 36, 227-244. Bennett, G. K., Bennett,M. G., Wallace, W. L., & Wesman, A. G. College Qualification Tests: The psychological Corporation, 1957. In L. Siegel (Ed.) Test reviews. J. Counsel. Psychol., 1957, 4, pp. 327-328. Bond, P. J. The relationship between selected non-intellective factors and concealed failure among college students of superior scholas- tic ability. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Purdue Univer- sity, 1960. Cited by R. G. Taylor, Personality traits and discrepant achievement: A review. J. Counsel. Psychol., 1964, 11, 76-82. Brown, W}, Abeles, N., & Iscoe, I. Motivational differences between high and low scholarship college students. J. Educ. Psychol., 1954, 45, 215—223. Comparative standings of the various college and curriculum groups on the orientation.week examinations for the fall of 1963. Un- published report by the Office of Evaluation Services, Michigan State University, 1963. DeBolt, D. L. A dynamic approach to the investigation of some per- sonality factors related to study problems. Unpublished masters thesis, Michigan State University, 1963. Gowan, J. C. Dynamics of the underachievement of gifted students. Excep. Child., 1957, 24, 98-101. GPA Expectancy tables for freshmen. Unpublished report by the Office of Evaluation Services, Michigan State University, Fall, 1961. Grooms, R. R., & Endler, N. S. The effect of anxiety on academic achievement. J. Educ. Psychol., 1960, 51, 299-304. Harris, D. Factors affecting college grades: a review of the litera- ture (1930-37). Psychol. Bulletin., 1940, 37, 125-166. Holland, J. L. The prediction of college grades from the California Psychological Inventory and the Scholastic Aptitude Test. J; Educ. Psychol., 1959, 50, 135-142. 47 48 Horrall, B. M. Academic performance and personality adjustments of highly intelligent college students. Genet. Psychol. Monogr., 1957, 55, 2-83. Jensen, V. H. Influence of personality traits on academic success. Personnel Guid. J., 1958, 36, 497-500. Kausler, D. H., & Trapp, E. P. Relationship between achievement moti- vation scores and manifest anxiety scores. J. Consult. Psychol., 1958, 22, 448-450. Kimball, B. Case studies in educational failure during adolescence. Amer. J. Orthopsychiat., 1953, 23, 406-415. LaMonaca, H. L., & Berkun, M; M. .Army data on Taylor MAS, intelligence and ego strength. Educ. Psychol. Measmt., 1959, 19, 577-578. Lum, M. K. M. .A comparison of under- and over-achieving female college students. J. Educ. Psychol., 1960, 51, 109-114. Malnig, L. R. Anxiety and academic prediction. J. Counsel. Psychol., 1964, 11, 72-75. Martin B. The measurement of anxiety. J. Gen. Psychol., 1959, 61, 189-203. Matarazzo, J. D., Ulett, G. A., Guze, S. B., & Saslow, G. The relation- ship between anxiety level and several measures of intelligence. J. Consult. Psychol., 1954, 18, 201-205. Michigan.State University Catalog. East Lansing: MSU Publications, 1963. Mitchell, J. V. Jr. Goal-setting behavior as a function of self- acceptance, over- and under—achievement, and related personality variables. J. Educ. Psychol., 1959, 50, 93-104. Rogers, C.R. The necessary and sufficient conditions of therapeutic personality change. J. Consult. Psychol., 1957, 21, 95-103. Roth, R. M., & Meyersburg, H. A. The non-achievement syndrome. Per- sonnel Guid. J., 1963, 41, 535—540. Shaw, M. C., & Brown, D. J. Scholastic underachievement of bright college students. Personnel Guid. J., 1957, 36, 195-199. Spielberger, C. D., & Katzenmeyer, W. G. Manifest anxiety, intelli- gence, and college grades. J. Consult. Psychol., 1959, 23, 278. Spielberger, C. D. The effects of manifest anxiety on the academic achievement of college students. Ment. Hyg., 1962, 46, 420-426. 49 Spielberger, C. D., Weitz, H., & Denny, J. P. Group counseling and the academic performance of anxious college freshmen. J. Counsel Psychol., 1962, 9, 195-204. Taylor, J. A. A personality scale of manifest anxiety. J..Abnorm. Soc., Psychol., 1953, 48, 285-290. Taylor, R. G. Personality traits and discrepant achievement: A review. J. Counsel. Psychol., 1964, 11, 76-82. Walsh, A. M. Self concepts of bright boys with learning difficulties. Contributions to Education, Bureau of Publications, Teachers College, Columbia University, N.Y., 1956, p. 78. Cited by R. G. Taylor, J. Counsel. Psychol., 1964, 11, 76-82. Winer, B. J. Statistical principles in experimental design. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1962. Winkler, R. C., & Myers, R. A. Some concomitants of self-ideal discrep- ancy measures of self-acceptance. J. Counsel. Psychol., 1963, 10, 83-86. Welf, S. J. Historic background of the study of personality as it relates to success or failure in academic achievement. J. Gen. Psychol., 1938, 19, 417-436. Yeomans, W. N., & Lundin, R. W. The relationship between personality adjustment and scholastic achievement in male college students. J. Gen. Psychol., 1957, 57, 213-218. APPEND IX T SCALE This scale consists of numbered statements. Read each statement and decide whether it is true as applied to you or false as applied to 122. You are to mark your answers on the answer sheet you have. If a statement is TRUE OR.MDSTLY TRUE, as applied to you, blacken under the column headed T. If a statement is FALSE OR NOT USUALLY TRUE, as ap- plied to you, blacken under the column headed F. 1. My hands and feet are usually warm enough. (False) 2. I work under a great deal of tension. (True) 3. I have diarrhea once a month or more. (True) 4. I am very seldom troubled by constipation. (False) 5. I am troubled by attacks of nausea. (True) 6. I have nightmares every few nights. (True) 7. I find it hard to keep my mind on a task or job. (True) 8. My sleep is fitful and disturbed. (True) 9. I wish I could be as happy as others seem to be. (True) 10. I am certainly lacking in self-confidence. (True) 11. I am happy most of the time. (False) 12. I have a great deal of stomach trouble. (True) 13. I certainly feel useless at times. (True) 14. I cry easily. (True) 15. I do not tire quickly. (False) 16. I frequently notice my hand shakes when I try to do something. (True) 17. I have very few headaches. (False) 18. Sometimes, when embarrassed, I break out in a sweat which annoys me greatly. (True) 19. I frequently find myself worrying about something. (True) 20. I hardly ever notice my heart pounding and I am seldom short of breath. (False) 51 21. 22. 23. 24. 25. 26. 27. 28. 29. 30. 31. 32. 33. 34. 35. 36. 37. 38. 39. 40. 41. 42. 43. 52 I have periods of such great restlessness that I cannot sit long in a chair. (True) I dream frequently about things that are best kept to myself. (True) I believe I am no more nervous than most others. (False) I sweat very easily even on cool days. (True) I am entirely self-confident. (False) I have very few fears compared to my friends. (False) Life is a strain for me much of the time. (True) I am more sensitive than most other people. (True) I am easily embarrassed. (True) I worry over money and business. (True) I cannot keep my mind on one thing. (True) I feel anxiety about something or someone almost all the time. (True) Sometimes I become so excited that I find it hard to get to sleep. (True) I have been afraid of things or people that I knew could not hurt me. (True) I am inclined to take things hard. (True) I am not unusually self-conscious. (False) I have sometimes felt that difficulties were piling up so high that I could not overcome them. (True) I am usually calm and not easily upset. (False) At times I think I am no good at all. (True) I feel hungry almost all the time. (True) I worry quite a bit over possible misfortunes. (True) It makes me nervous to have to wait. (True) I have had periods in which I lost sleep over worry. (True) I must admit that I have at times been worried beyond reason over something that really did not matter. (True) 45. 46. 47. 48. 49. 50. 53 am a high-strung person. (True) practically never blush. (False) blush no more often than others. (False) am often afraid that I am going to blush. (True) shrink from facing a crisis or difficulty. (True) sometimes feel that I am about to go to pieces. (True)