Annual Conference 2015 paper Anxiety manipulation in school-based research

Abstract

This paper describes the issues surrounding the implementation of a modified version of the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST), designed to manipulate anxiety under controlled conditions with adolescents in a schoolbased context. Such a procedure has utility in test anxiety research and associated interventions; however the manipulation of anxiety in educational settings provides practical and ethical challenges. An experimental design was employed with performance evaluation threat as the independent variable. Participants (N=30) were randomly allocated to low or high performance evaluation threat conditions; state anxiety was measured immediately pre- and post-experimental procedure. The procedure was successfully implemented and demonstrated a significant effect on participants’ anxiety levels. This paper shows it is both practically and ethically feasible to conduct research involving anxiety manipulation in a school-based context. The protocols employed have utility in research into the underlying causes of, and interventions for, test anxiety.