Effects of reducing student anxiety in a statistics course

Abstract

Abstract The undergraduate statistics course can be a difficult hurdle for many Psychology students, particularly those who are anxious about the course. Undergraduate statistics students were divided into high-anxious and low-anxious groups by means of a questionnaire. Half the high-anxious students received a do-it-yourself desensitization program used at home with a tape player. It included training in deep-muscle relaxation and working through a hierarchy of fear situations related to the statistics course. Initial anxiety dropped for both anxious groups, but more so for the treated students. Performance on the exams also showed significance or borderline significance for the treated subjects. Multi-variate analysis revealed associations between treatment, lowered end of year anxiety and an increase in statistics knowledge. In the overview, keeping in mind the small N's involved in this study (13 exp, 12 cont), we feel that this approach to statistics anxiety has promise, requiring minimal instructor ...