The Strategic Relationship of Test Anxiety, Self Regulation and Action Control Among Students

Abstract

Self-regulation is understood as the ability to attain, maintain and change one’s level of arousal appropriately for a task or a situation (Baumiester and Vohs, 2004). In the realm of action control, action orientation is the capacity to regulate thoughts and behaviors to fulfill the intentions that are formed by the individuals. On the other hand, state orientation refers to the inability to regulate these emotions, thoughts, and behaviors wherein individuals are unable to modify their state i.e. their anxiety, dejection, confusion, and uncertainty (Kuhl, 1981, 1994b, 2000). The role of self regulation and action control seem to be important in relation to the test anxiety among students. The study in hand probed the relationship of self regulation, action orientation, state orientation and test anxiety among children. The sample comprised of female (N=100, Mean Age=14.09 yrs., S.D. =1.25) and male subjects (N=100, Mean Age=14.40 yrs., S.D. =1.02). The sample was taken from Government model schools of Chandigarh for the purpose. Correlations and t-ratios were used. The study revealed an interesting role of high, moderate and low self regulation with action control and test anxiety.