The Impact of Anxiety to Students

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The Impact of Anxiety

to Accountancy

Students


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THE IMPACT OF ANXIETY TOACCOUNTANCY

STUDENTS

An Undergraduate ResearchPresented tothe College of Business Administration

University of the East Manila

In Partial FulfilmentOf the Requirements

in English 113

byCahucom, Nestor, Jr. B.

Calasag, Elysee Jermaine, E.Carranza, Sharmaine, A.

Del Rosario, Cedrik JamesGambal, Clarence Dave, C.

Libatique, Jera Ysa, R.Ortiz, Fil Joseph, N.

Vibar, Jury, A.

March 2012


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Chapter I: The Problem and Its Setting


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INTRODUCTIONAnxiety is a psychological and physiological state

characterized by cognitive, somatic, emotional andbehavioral components caused by a persons anticipation

that something is potentially threatening to him, whetherphysically or psychologically.

- it is normal for students- test anxiety, social anxiety (Wimbush and Nelson,

2000) - it can be developed to psychomatic symptoms:stomach pains, fatigue, headaches due to secretion ofhormones such as adrenaline and noradrenaline(Wimbush and Nelson, 2000)

- negative effects of anxiety are caused by


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- Depression and anxiety are prevalent problems incolleges among the U.S.

- 75 percent of all individuals with an anxietydisorder experience symptoms before age 22 (NationalInstitute of Mental Health of America)

- Accounting anxiety for the educator and thestudent is the reason for the decline in accounting

education (Fisher et al.)- Theres a lack of knowledge and awareness in the

Philippines about the problems brought by anxiety


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THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK OF THE STUDYThe following are the claims that this study sought

to prove in the course of its conduct.- When the anxiety or level of arousal of a person

goes beyond the saturation level, it results into a declinein performance, which, in the case of students, is duringtheir tests and examinations (Yerkes-Dodson Law)

- Anxiety has been proven to be a hindrance to

students ability to pay attention to anything nor thecapacity to take in information (Flaherty (1993))


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-Female college students are more susceptible toexperience anxiety than male students

* there is a degree of difference in theintensity of anxiety between male and female

undergraduates (Abdel-Khalek and Alansari (2004))* vulnerability of females to anxiety is

associatedto a genetic gender difference (Lewinsohn, Gotlib,Lewinsohn, Seeley, and Allen, 1998)

* cyclic fluctuations of estrogens andprogesterone enhance the response to stress, whichconfers susceptibility to depression and anxiety to female(Lewinsohn et al., Seeman

1997)


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CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK OF THE STUDY

INPUT PROCESS OUTPUT

Questionnaire

ChecklistsPart I:Respondents

ProfilePart II: Closed-ended Multriple

ChoiceQuestions

Part III: Likert

Items

Identifying theresearch problems

Gathering ofrespondents.Distribution,

answering andretrieval of

questionnaires.Tabulation, analysisand interpretation of

responses usingtheir mean scores,

modes, percentagesand computed z-

The Impact ofAnxiety to

AccountancyStudents


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STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEMThe main purpose of the study is to determine the impact ofanxiety to Accountancy students. Specifically, it sought to identify thefollowing:

1. The profile of the respondents in terms of:

a. Genderb. Age

2. The effects of anxiety to the respondents in terms of:a. Presentationsb. Tests and Exams

c. Recitationsd. Lectures

3. Which of the four criteria of education stated above is themost anxiety-affected.4. The common reasons why Accountancy students suffer from

anxiety.


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IMPORTANCE OF THE STUDYa. To the economy- this study will help the students

to assess themselves, and be able to reduce, if notcompletely eliminate this anxiety they feel, and become

more efficient and productive professionals in the future.b. To the students- this study will provide

information regarding the effects of anxiety in the differentaspects and elements of their studies in order for them to

improve their study habits and anxiety management.c. To parents- this study will aide them in theirdecisions regarding their childrens well-being and in theirassessment on whether or not their children alreadyexperience anxiety and what causes them to be anxious.


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d. To educators- the research will give them useful

ideas on how to make their teaching methods andcurriculum more effective by considering the impact ofanxiety to the different aspects of learning.

e. To school administrators- this examination willconvey relevant considerations in establishing schoolactivities, programs and facilities that can help in abatingthe negative impacts of anxiety to the learning process of

the students.f. To future researchers- the study will serve as areference or guide to support their further research studiesand will give inspiration to pursue further researches inconnection with the current study.


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SCOPE AND DELIMITATIONThe study, The Impact of Anxiety to

Accountancy Students was designed to identify theeffects of anxiety to the different elements of learning tosecond year Bachelor of Science in Accountancystudents of the University of the East-Manila,academic year, 2011-2012, and the reasons why theybecome such. The researchers decided to delimit the

study to the said respondents so as to create a uniformresponse as these respondents have common sources ofanxiety in school because they are of the same curriculumand of the same subjects taken.


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DEFINITION OF TERMSAnxiety. This is the focus of the study. This can bedescribed the tension experienced by students wheneverthey feel something that they consider as threat. The

researchers tried to find its effects (as indicated in thequestionnaires) to Accountancy students.Data. These refer to those that were collected from therespondents. These were collected first hand and were

subjected to different tests to answer the problems postedby the study and further derive the conclusions.Impact. Impact, as used in the study, relatively means thelevel of the effect that anxiety brings to students.


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Lectures. These were limited by the study to those madeby the professors when they clarify and discuss thelessons to their students.Likert Item. A statement which the respondent is asked toevaluate according to any kind of subjective or objectivecriteria; generally, it measures the level of agreement ordisagreement. It is considered symmetric or balancedbecause it contains equal amounts of positive andnegative positions.

Likert Scale. This is a statistical method of ascribingquantitative value to qualitative data, to make it amenableto statistical analysis. A numerical value is assigned toeach potential choice and a mean figure for all the

responses is computed at the end of the evaluation orsurvey. This was used in the study for the verbal


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Presentations. These were narrowed by the researchersto the oral performances of the students such asorations, oral reports and declamations, either voluntarilyor involuntarily.

Recitations. It refers to academic performance of thestudents in terms of oral communication and publicspeaking, either voluntary or involuntary, prepared or not.TestandExams. It refers to academic performance ofthe students in terms of written examinations.ThoroughStudy. This can be delineated, as it wasemployed in the study, as studying with restrictions (e.g.retention policy or grade).


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Chapter 2: Related Literature andStudies

Ch t 2 R l d Li d


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FOREIGN RELATED LITERATURE

Flaherty, et. Al, 1993- prolonged and continuous anxietycan raise levels of the hormone cortisol, boosting bloodpressure and leading to hypertension . It may lead to

anxiety disorders or other life threatening illnesses.Tartakovsky, M., 1993- anxiety may also be brought aboutby experiencing firsts and coping up with a newenvironment, such as going to a new school, where a

student will have to adjust to a new lifestyle, new friends,new cultures and new ways of thinking.Yerkes-Dodson Law- when the anxiety or level of arousalof a person exceeds the optimal level, it results in a declinein performance, which, in the case of students, is their

performance during their tests and examinations.

Ch t 2 R l d Li d


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FOREIGN RELATED STUDY

Laura Woble of University of North Carolina- The study,Impact of Stress Factors on College Students AcademicPerformance, signified that anxiety cannot really

automatically affect students academic performancenegatively. The study also proved a lot of related studiesshowing that the most common stressor is sleepdeprivation, a very consistent result with the other

researches.Zhang Xianping of Xiangfan University- The study,Language Anxiety and its Effect on Oral Performance inClassroom, proved that anxiety has really affected theacademic performance of the students. He chose a more

specific subject for anxiety and academic performance.

Ch t 2 R l d Li d


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Shireen Hashmat et al. of Medical Unit III, Civil Hospital& Dow University of Health Sciences and Karachi

Farhana Amanullah of Sindh Institute of Urology &Transplantation- The study, Factors causing ExamAnxiety in Medical students, showed that anxiety has amoderate effect to medical students. It can be positive that

it keeps the students task-oriented but it can be negative ifexcessive.

Ch t 2 R l d Li d


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LOCAL RELATED LITERATURE

Bucu, et al., 1981- Anxious individuals greatly differ fromthose who are not, either in their gestural or posturalbehavior in the performance of their interpersonal skills, in

academic performance or even on simple things such asvoice quality.Bustos et al., 1985 - The individual with anxiety hasconstant vague fear about the future. The tendency

towards these anxiety reactions is often acquired inchildhood usually because of overprotection by parents,embarrassment and ridicule.Evangelista, 1999- An anxious person may becomeaggressive to other people or he may withdraw into fantasy

and become a daydreamer. Anxiety can also lead a person

Ch t 2 R l d Li d


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LOCAL RELATED STUDY

Del Villar of University of the Philippines, Diliman- Thefactors which are expectation, training and experience,audience, self-worth, rejection, verbal fluency, preparation

and previous unpleasant experience may lead to oralcommunication anxiety. To overcome it, the studysuggested that the person needs more practice andpreparation.Acelajado, Ph.D. of De La Salle University Manila- Hisstudy on the impact of using technology on studentsachievement, attitude, and anxiety in mathematics showedthat the use of graphing calculators was found to reducetheir anxiety scores. Positive effects of using graphing

calculators include students improved achievement,


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Chapter 3: Methodology


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METHOD OF RESEARCHDescriptive research- The research utilized the

descriptive design for the aim of the study was todetermine the impact of anxiety to accountancy students

which is the population being referred to by the earlierstatement of Ariola. Furthermore, the researchersdetermined that it is the most suitable analysis becausethey wanted to find out what students do and how they feelwhile they are anxious which is the phenomenon underconsideration. Descriptive research according to Dr. Mariano M. Ariola, refers to

the type of research question, design and data analysis thatdescribes the current conditions, practices and situations about thepopulation or phenomena being studied. It answers the questions

who, what, where, when and how.


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METHOD OF COLLECTING DATA- the researchers devised a questionnaire checklist

consisted of four parts: Part I obtained the profiles of therespondents (names, ages and genders); Part II,

employed closed-ended multiple choice questionsexplored the reasons why students feel anxious duringtheir tests and examinations, lectures, recitations andpresentations; Part III, which is a Likert type instrument,asked the respondents to rate each statement as theygenerally related to them by as always , often,sometimes, seldom and never, investigated whatstudents do or how they feel during the said criteria; while,Part IV, an ordinal type question, delved into which of the

criteria of education aforementioned for them, is most


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- it was then conferred upon the researchersprofessor for grammaticality and format

- it was then reproduced, administered to and

retrieved from the 30 purposively selected respondents, 15of which are males and the rest are females. Theirresponses were then tabulated, computed, analyzed andinterpreted using their corresponding statistical treatments.

Weighted means, percentages, modes and computed z-values were used to analyze the subjects responses.


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SAMPLING DESIGNIn choosing the subjects who would respond to the

constructed questionnaires, the researchers used thepurposive type of sampling. Purposive sampling is a form

of sampling in which the selection of the sample is basedon the judgment of the researcher as to which subjectsbest fit the criteria of the study. The researchers decisivelyselected second year Accountancy students asrespondents in the reason that they are more anxious thanthose who take other business courses because of thepresence of the retention policy. Furthermore, theresearchers selected the second year level because theyhave the same sources of anxiety in school and are of the

same curriculum thus, with the same subjects taken.


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STATISTICAL TREATMENT


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Chapter 4: Presentation, Analysis andInterpretation of Data

Ch t 4 P i A l i d


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3.33%

40%

53.33%

0%

3.33%

16

17

18

19

20

Ch t 4 P i A l i d


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50%50%

Male

Ch t 4 P i A l i d


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Always 5.00 4.20

Often 4.19 3.40

Sometimes 3.39 2.60

Seldom 2.59 1.80

Never 1.79 1.00

Ch t 4 P i A l i d


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0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4

Question 1

Question 2

Question 3

Question 4

Question 5

MEAN

The Effects of Anxiety toRespondents Presentations

Always Often Sometimes Seldom

Never

Chapter 4: P i A l i d


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0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4

Question 1

Question 2

Question 3

Question 4

Question 5

MEAN

The Effects of Anxiety to RespondentsTests and Examinations


Never



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2.95 3 3.05 3.1 3.15 3.2 3.25 3.3 3.35 3.4 3.45

Question 1

Question 2

Question 3

Question 4

Question 5

MEAN

The Effects of Anxiety to RespondentsRecitations


Never



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2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 2.7 2.8 2.9 3

Question 1

Question 2

Question 3

Question 4

Question 5

MEAN

The Effects of Anxiety to RespondentsLectures


Never

Chapter 4: P t ti A l i d


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0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

Presentations Tests and Exams Recitations Lectures

The Ranks of the Criteria of EducationAccording to their Susceptibility to

Anxiety



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0

5

10

15

20

25

30

The Reasons behind the Respondents Anxietyand their Ranks



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Computed z-value of the Two Means of theResponses

Computedz-value Tabularz-value Level ofSignificance NullHypothesi

sVerbal

Interpretation

.11 1.645 = .05 Accepted No SignificantDifference


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Chapter 5: Summary of Findings,Conclusions and Recommendations

Chapter 5: Summary of Findings


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SUMMARY OF FINDINGS

1. The profile of 30 Second year Bachelor of Science inAccountancy students during the academic year, 2011-2012 is asfollows:

In terms of gender, the number of males (15) are equal to thenumber of females (15);

In terms of age, about 16 of them (53%) were 18 years old,12 (40%) were 17 years old, and the remaining 2 (7%) were16 and 20 years old.

2. Based on the analysis of the results in the Likert type instrumentused in the Part III of the questionnaire, the effects of theanxiety to the respondents:

During the presentations, the fear of criticism often occursamong the anxious students. Students may somehow feel

worried on how they will make their presentations meet the



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During tests and exams, the fear of failing the exam oftenarises among the anxious students. This could be inevitableespecially for those who are scholars and for those studentstaking courses with board exams. These students need tomaintain high grades in all subjects and having a good grade

in the major exams will be the key for it; thus, failure in examscould be unacceptable for them.

In recitations, shyness often comes in anxious students. Theymay know the correct answers but they are afraid to recite.They also oftentimes could not able to express themselves.

This could lead to a more severe effect of anxiety which is thelack of communication skills on the students.

During lectures, the effect of anxiety which is lack ofunderstanding of the lessons discussed among the students isseldom to happen. The respondents in the study, the students

of Bachelor of Science in Accountancy, especially those who-




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3. The results shown in the ordinal type question in the Part IVof the questionnaire revealed that tests and exams are the mostanxiety-affected criteria of education. One that could be areason for this is that the scores in major exams cover a bigpercentage of the students total grade for every semester.

Professors also use exams as a final assessment whether thestudents have learned something on the subject. Thus, getting ahigh score in exams is aimed by almost all students. Recitationsand presentations are the second and third anxiety-affectedcriteria of education respectively. Both need self-confidence tospeak inside the classroom and in front of many people in orderto express their thoughts. Sometimes, anxiety lessens this self-confidence which commonly leads to other severeconsequences of anxiety. The least anxiety-affected are the

lectures since the students tend to be passive during this timeand just receive, accept and understand the lessons being



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4. Based on the closed-ended multiple choice questions on thereasons of the anxiety (Part II of the questionnaire), the studyrevealed that the retention policy is the most common reason ofthe respondents anxiety, followed by sleep deprivation and timeconstraint. As accounting students, the respondents face a great

challenge to make their grades in the major subjects as high aspossible for them to be retained in the program. Sleepdeprivation is part of the students hardship to study hard to earnhigh grades. Anxiety sometimes occurs when the students donot have enough sleep and rest. Time constraint also becomesthe cause of anxiety especially at times when the schedule forexams, projects and other requirements are all fully-packed.The tendency for this is that the students may find their time toolimited to finish every activity therefore, making them feel

unprepared and unequipped for all their activities.



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CONCLUSIONS

1. The researchers found out that the ages of the 15 male and 15female respondents ranged from 16 to 20.2. The computed mean scores and their corresponding verbal

interpretations showed that anxiety plays a vital role on theperformance of students on the following factors of studying:

a. Presentations- The anxiety felt by students during theirpresentations often makes them afraid of being criticized thus,causing them to sometimes stutter when they speak and become

engrossed in presenting in front of them.b. Tests and Examinations- During tests, students with

anxiety often feel doubtful of their answers and often get tooworried of failing the exam that they sometimes get mentallyblocked.



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c. Recitations- Whenever there are recitations, anxiousstudents often feel unsure of their answer and often hesitate toraise their hands. This is because these students sometimes getpreoccupied by others opinions on their answers and that theysometimes find it hard to express themselves.

d. Lectures- Anxiety has a little effect to students duringlectures. However, these effects should not be taken for grantedbecause these may serve as the reasons why they failexaminations. One of these effects of anxiety to students is thatduring some times, they cant retain the lessons being taught to

them well because they sometimes find it hard to concentrate inlistening to their professors when they are anxious.These findings espouses the supposition made by Flaherty in 1993,that anxiety has been proven to be a hindrance to students as itcan cause them to have difficulty in concentrating and if it goes too

severe, they will no longer have the ability to pay attention to



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3. Among the four criteria, tests and exams ranked first as the mostanxiety affected followed by recitation, presentation and lectures asthe least affected. These results further sustain the conjecturesmade by Yerkes and Dodson in their Yerkes-Dodson Law, thatwhen the anxiety or level of arousal of a person goes above the

ceiling level, it ends up into a decline in his performance, which inthe case of the students, is during their tests and examinations.4. The most common reasons why Accountancy students sufferfrom anxiety are the retention policy implemented by the College,sleep deprivation and time constraint.

5. There is no significant difference between the responses of themale and female respondents. This insinuates that, they areequally susceptible to experience anxiety thus, disproving, in termsof the research, the claims made by Abdel-Khalek and Alansari in2004.


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