Mathematical-Verbal Ability Differentials of Situational Anxiety as Measured by blood Pressure Change

Abstract

THIS STUDY was conducted to assess the effect of increased problem difficulty in mathematics and verbal areas on the anxiety of freshman students as measured by blood pressure change. Situational anxiety was tested earlier by this au thor with the polygraph, assessing five physiologi cal measurements, breathing rate and depth, heart rate, blood pressure, and GSR (2). The purpose of that research was to determine if somatic expres sions of anxiety would be found during the testing of abilities in the deficient aptitude area. Investiga tions of deficient skills and anxiety are common. Several studies have been conducted determining the relationship between divergent aptitude test scores and anxiety measures (1, 3, 4, 5, 6). The subjects for the author's study were forty eight student volunteers, twenty-four males and twenty-four females, from the freshman class or prospective freshmen group of The Univers it y of Denver on the basis of their aptitude scores on the SAT. Three groups of students were formed: (1) a high verbal-low mathematical group (V group), (2) a high mathematical-low verbal group (M group), and (3) an equivalent group (V-M group). The V and M groups were selected on the basis of differ ences of 100 or more points on the respective SAT subtests. The V=M group averaged less than a twenty-point difference, ranging from 0-39. To remove the effects of generalized anxiety, all students were administered the Taylor Manifest Anxiety Scale (MAS) and Spilka-Siegel Scales of Som atic, Feeling-tone, and Behavioral Anxiety. Those manifesting high generalized anxiety on the MAS or high Spilka-Siegel ratings were not used. The final samples met all the above criteria andwere select ed from eight-six students in the original sample of volunteer freshmen from the University of Denver. To test the original hypothesis, a modification of The American Council on Education Psychological Examination (ACE) was administered to each student to m easure his mathematical and verbal abilities. The ACE was modified so that two to four minute s of testing occurred in each subtest with item s arranged from easiest to hardest. A Keeler polygraph was employed to measure and record somatic anxiety. The data to be analyzed was taken from the first and last thirty-second intervals of testing from each sub test of the ACE? Both the means and the variances were statistic ally analyzed. Both initial and final testing data were analyzed separately. Thirty-two of the 140 effects tested attained significance beyond the five percent level of confidence. Blood pressure and PGR accounted for sixteen of these significant effects. Difference scores between easier and more difficult problems in either mathematical or verbal areas were not accounted for in this earlier design. The present study, consequently, used blood pres sure differences between initial (easy items) and fi nal (difficult items) testing. The blood pressure measures were employed as a measure of anxiety since a basal point was easily established for com parability. The sample and test conditions were the same as reported before.