| Abstrakt: |
The article presents information on the construct validity, disconfirming evidence and test-anxiety research. Increase in anxiety research between 1950 and 1963 has been at least four-fold. However, scholar J. Adelson reviewing the anxiety field concluded, after all these years and after literally hundreds of studies on anxiety, there is still no general agreement as to what the commonly used scales are in fact measuring, whether it is drive level, maladjustment, affect, degree of defensiveness, or several of these in interaction. This discrepancy, between increase in empirical activity and general understanding of anxiety as well as other personality variables, can be explained by analyzing specifically the development of test-anxiety research. While the article shows a great growth in the number of studies published, again one is hard pressed to cite evidence for lasting findings regarding either the etiology or effects of test-anxiety. In fact, little elaboration of the original test-anxiety theory offered by scholars G. Mandler and S.B. Sarason has occurred. The lack of progress is due in part to the minimal impact of negative experimental findings on theory refinement, even a relatively well-articulated conceptual framework like the Mandler-Sarason theory is effectively spared the embarrassment of disconfirmation, as are other less precise personality theories. |
