Test Anxiety: An Integration of the Test Anxiety and Achievement Motivation Research Traditions

Test anxiety refers to a specific type of anxiety that is experienced in tests, exams, and other similar testing situations that evaluate one’s achievement. Research in test anxiety has been pursued under two traditions—the test anxiety and achievement motivation research traditions—more or less independently. The test anxiety research tradition is focused on the conceptualization and operationalization of test anxiety as a multidimensional construct. Under the achievement motivation research tradition, researchers who followed Atkinson’s research conceptualized test anxiety as a component of fear of failure while other researchers drew clear distinctions between the two constructs. The objective of this paper is to discuss the integration of the test anxiety and achievement motivation research traditions in order to further advance the understanding of the test anxiety construct. To this end, this paper begins with a brief review of the test anxiety and achievement motivation research traditions individually. The brief review highlights the lack of attention paid to the motivational component of test anxiety as a limitation of the test anxiety research tradition—this can be complemented by the achievement motivation research tradition which focuses on the motivational properties of test anxiety. We describe how the two traditions could be integrated by examining the relationships between the hope of success and test anxiety as well as by incorporating motivational properties into the test anxiety construct. The theoretical, research, and application implications of the integration of the two traditions are discussed.