Comparing Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) and Cognitive Therapy (CT) for Test Anxiety

NCT00850226 | Completed

• 1 other identifier: 17111
• Study Type: interventional
• Target: 50
• Locations: 1 country
• Sites: 1

Brief Summary

This study proposes to compare the effectiveness of an acceptance-based intervention and a cognitive control-based intervention for coping with test anxiety in nursing students during the HESI (Health Education Systems, Inc.) examination. Subjects will be randomized to receive either the CT or the ACT condition. In both conditions, subjects will receive an education on test anxiety to inform them about what test anxiety is and why it occurs. Then, the different conditions will receive the respective treatment of either CT or ACT. The study is considered minimum risk because the nursing students will only be exposed to an amount of anxiety that is typical of their testing experience. Both conditions will meet three times, with each session lasting approximately one and a half hours. The purpose of the treatment is to provide subjects with tools to help them cope with their test anxiety.

Conditions

Anxiety

Keywords

test anxiety

Outcome Measures

Primary Outcomes (1)

• grades on final exams

  2-3 months

Study Arms (2)

ACT

EXPERIMENTAL

Acceptance-and-Commitment Therapy Intervention: Subjects receiving the ACT strategies will be taught to defuse from their anxiety (or recognize that their thoughts are just thoughts). They will be taught to accept their anxiety and to learn to live with anxiety. Subjects will be told that while they cannot control the occurrence of their thoughts, they can control whether or not they choose to view them as separate from the self versus part of the self.

Behavioral: ACT

CT

EXPERIMENTAL

Cognitive Therapy Intervention: Subjects receiving the CT strategies will be taught to restructure their negative thoughts to make them more positive, based on the concept that thoughts are linked to their problems with test anxiety because beliefs can cause strong powerful emotions and behaviors. Subjects will be taught not to blame their environments for emotional and behavioral responses, and they will be shown how to change their beliefs in order to affect their emotions and their behaviors.

Behavioral: CT

Interventions

CT BEHAVIORAL

Cognitive Therapy Intervention: Subjects receiving the CT strategies will be taught to restructure their negative thoughts to make them more positive, based on the concept that thoughts are linked to their problems with test anxiety because beliefs can cause strong powerful emotions and behaviors. Subjects will be taught not to blame their environments for emotional and behavioral responses, and they will be shown how to change their beliefs in order to affect their emotions and their behaviors.

CT

ACT BEHAVIORAL

Acceptance-and-Commitment Therapy Intervention: Subjects receiving the ACT strategies will be taught to defuse from their anxiety (or recognize that their thoughts are just thoughts). They will be taught to accept their anxiety and to learn to live with anxiety. Subjects will be told that while they cannot control the occurrence of their thoughts, they can control whether or not they choose to view them as separate from the self versus part of the self.

ACT

Eligibility Criteria

• Age: 18 Years - 65 Years
• Sex: all
• Healthy Volunteers: Yes
• Age Groups: Adult (18-64), Older Adult (65+)

You may qualify if:

• Nursing student subjects may only participate if they are currently enrolled as an undergraduate student at Drexel University.
• They must be nursing majors enrolled in Nursing 492 and intending to take the cumulative HESI examination.
• Psychology students must be enrolled in the courses where recruitment will occur.
• Pre-professional students must be currently enrolled at Drexel University, and planning to take a Standardized test within 6 months.
• All subjects must be at least 18 years of age or older.

You may not qualify if:

• Persons may not participate if they are unable to see/read words off of a computer screen.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Drexel University: lead

Study Sites (1)

Drexel University

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 19104, United States

Location

MeSH Terms

Conditions

Anxiety Disorders

Condition Hierarchy (Ancestors)

Mental Disorders

Study Design

• Study Type: interventional
• Phase: not applicable
• Allocation: RANDOMIZED
• Masking: SINGLE
• Who Masked: PARTICIPANT
• Purpose: TREATMENT
• Intervention Model: PARALLEL
• Sponsor Type: OTHER

Study Record Dates

• First Submitted: February 23, 2009
• First Posted: February 24, 2009
• Study Start: February 1, 2009
• Primary Completion: February 1, 2010
• Study Completion: February 1, 2010
• Last Updated: June 2, 2010

Record last verified: 2010-05

Locations

US (1)