The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship of the perfectionism of high school students, their attribution pattern and career identity, one of career-related variables, to their test anxiety in an effort to provide information on how te...
The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship of the perfectionism of high school students, their attribution pattern and career identity, one of career-related variables, to their test anxiety in an effort to provide information on how teachers should guide students as counselors to help them improve their academic performance without feeling anxiety about tests. The subjects in this study were boys and girls who were in their first and second year of academic high school. The major findings of the study were as follows:
First, there were no significant gaps in overall perfectionism according to gender, but as to parent expectations, one of the subvariables, their parents had greater expectations for the boys than the girls. In terms of attribution pattern, no significant gender gaps were found in attributing something to ability and endeavor, which were internal attribution patterns, but attributing something to help from others and luck was more common among the girls than the boys. There were no significant gender gaps in career identity, and the girls suffered more test anxiety than the boys in every regard.
By grade, organizing, one of the subvariables of perfectionism, was more prevailing among the high school juniors than the sophomores Concerning attribution patterns, attributing something to endeavor was more dominant among the juniors than the sophomores as well. The juniors excelled the sophomores in career identity, and the former was ahead of the latter in the subvariables of career identity that involved target orientation, uniqueness and consciousness of one's own being. There were no differences in text anxiety according to grade.
Second, regarding connections between perfectionism and test anxiety, there was a significant positive correlation between the two. A significant positive correlation was found between all the subvariables of the two, which implied that a stronger perfectionism led to more serious text anxiety.
Third, as for links between attribution pattern and test anxiety, internal attribution patterns had nothing to do with test anxiety, but help from others and luck, which were external attribution patterns, had a significant positive correlation to test anxiety, which showed that stronger external attribution patterns were followed by more serious test anxiety.
Fourth, in regard to relationship between career identity and test anxiety, the subvariables of career identity had a partial significant negative correlation to those of test anxiety, but their correlation was very weak, which indicated that career identity wasn't linked a lot to test anxiety.
Fifth, concerning the influence of perfectionism, attribution pattern and career identity on test anxiety, perfectionism had the greatest significant impact on test anxiety, followed by help from others, ability, endeavor and career identity.
The above-mentioned findings illustrated that those who had a more perfectionistic inclination felt more test anxiety, and that stronger external attribution patterns led to more serious test anxiety. Among the variables, perfectionism exerted the largest influence on test anxiety.