1. Methods Participants. Participants (N = 72) were predominantly female (n = 54), Caucasian (85.5%) and 19.92 (SD = 3.41) years of age. Materials and Procedure. Participants engaged in a six step process that involved timed sessions. Asked to study a photocopied page of information taken from a clinical psychology textbook. Randomly assigned to answer an essay prompt that asked them to either write about their own death, or dental pain (e.g., Arndt, et al., 2003). Engaged in a filler word puzzle (e.g., Brius, Greenberg, Psyszczynski, Solomon, &Simon, 1994). Randomly assigned to write down five positive statements about themselves or bread. Complete the State Trait Anxiety Inventory (Spielberger, 1983) questionnaire which queries participants regarding how much they are feeling of 20 emotions (e.g., worried) on a scale from 1 (not at all) to 4 (very much), as well as a brief demographic questionnaire. Finally, an exam over the material. Background Students have a lot of pressure on them to succeed in college, especially when it comes to exams. Previous studies have shown that students who engage in negative self- statements, have higher anxiety and worse performance on tests than students who engage in positive self-statements (Hardy, Oliver & Todd, 2011). A person can only effectively devote attention to a certain number of things and when most of those things involve anxiety, it does not leave a lot of cognitive capacity for information or anything else (Tobias, 1983). However, no known research has looked at the specificity of the anxiety. That is, does the anxiety have to be current task-related, or is it just anxiety in general. Terror Management Theory (TMT) states that mortality salience (MS), or being made aware of the inevitability of death, creates anxiety in individuals (Greenberg, Goldenberg, Pyszczynski & Soloman, 2000). One way an individual can help to relieve his/her death anxiety is by increasing or bolstering his/her self-esteem (Florian, Hirschberger, &Mikulincer, 2000). TMT proposes that people need self- esteem because it provides a shield against a deeply rooted fear of death inherent in the human condition. When self- esteem is strong, this anxiety is mitigated and the person is able to behave effectively. When self-esteem is weak or challenged, this threatens a “leakage” of this core anxiety, which instigates various forms of defensive, and often deleterious, behavior ( Arndt et. al., 2003). Stephanie Patterson and Jana Hackathorn Murray State University Discussion Results of the current study indicated that participants hat were allowed to increase their self esteem prior to taking the exam reduced their anxiety and performed better on the test, as predicted. However, a direct test of anxiety on exam scores was not significant. Perhaps this indicates there is a different mechanism involved, such as rumination, that actually leads to lower exam scores. Additionally, participants who were high in anxiety and were allowed to increase their self-esteem actually performed better on the test than individuals who were low in anxiety and were allowed to increase their self-esteem. Perhaps this is because anxiety is arousal. That is, an optimal amount of anxiety leads to focus. Perhaps the self- esteem works as a buffer for anxiety overload, whereas, individuals without anxiety performed worse due to a lack of focus or even care. This should be investigated further because it adds an interesting caveat to the idea that anxiety takes up cognitive capacity and thus leads to detriments in performance. Perhaps one way teachers can help students who have high anxiety is to allow them to to increase their self-esteem, through positive self-statements, just before taking an exam. Results Hypothesis #1. Results of a 2 (Anxiety condition) X 2 (Self-esteem) ANOVA on anxiety scores indicated there was an interaction, F(1, 72) = 3.60, p =.031, η 2 p =.05 (See Figure 1). Results indicate mortality salience without positive self-statements rated higher anxiety (M = 41.42, SD = 13.07) above the other conditions, but was lowered to a normal state when participants made positive self- statements (M = 32.70, SD = 10.27). This replicates past findings. Hypothesis #2. Results of a 2 X 2 ANOVA on exam scores indicated there was no interaction. However, both main effects were significant (See Figure 2). Results indicate individuals who made positive self-statements had higher exam scores (F(1, 72) = 4.66, p =.017, η 2 p =.06) than participants who made no statements. Additionally, participants who had death anxiety had lower exam scores (F (1,72) = 8.15, p =.047, η 2 p =.04) than control. Hypothesis #3. There was no relationship between anxiety scores and exam scores (B = -.08, t = -.70, p =.485). Interestingly, a trend in the data indicated that of those individuals who were allowed to bolster their self-esteem, those with higher anxiety (M = 6.24, SD = 1.09) performed better on the exam than those with lower anxiety (M = 5.43, SD = 1.41, F(1, 72) = 2.17, p =.072). The Current Study The current study examined how much non-test related anxiety affects exam performance. Additionally, the effects of bolstering self-esteem were also examined. Hypothesis #1. There will be an interaction between anxiety condition (death anxiety vs. no anxiety) and self-esteem (positive self-statements vs. no statements) on anxiety levels. Hypothesis #2. There will be an interaction between anxiety condition and self-esteem on exam scores. Hypothesis #3. Anxiety scores will predict exam scores. Figure 1: Interaction between Anxiety Condition and Self-Esteem Bolstering on Anxiety Levels. Figure 2: Main Effects of Self-Esteem and Anxiety Condition on Exam Score Total "Becoming the Little Engine that Could" Anxiety, Self-Esteem, and Exam Performance Number of Correct Answers Level of Anxiety References Arndt, J., Dechesne, M., Pyszczynski, T., Ransom, S., Sheldon, K. M., Van Knippenberg, A., & Janssen, J. (2003). Literal and symbolic immortality: the effect of evidence of literal immortality on self-esteem striving in response to mortality salience. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 84, 722. Breus, M., Greenberg, J., Pyszczynski, T., Solomon, S.,& Simon, L. (1994). Role of consciousness and accessibility of death-related thoughts in mortality salience effects. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 67(4), 62. Florian, V., Hirschberger, G., &Mikulincer, M. (2000). Strivings for romantic intimacy following partner complaint or partner criticism: A terror management perspective. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 20, 675-687. 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