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ABSTRACT
Many studies have shown that test anxiety covaries with locus of control- and selfefficacy expectations. To analyze construct validity of the German Test Anxiety Inventory, a sample of 349 students was tested with this instrument and questionnaires on competence belief, locus of control and generalized self-efficacy. Construct validity was supported by correlational- and factor analysis: Significant negative correlations between test anxiety and self-efficacy as well as between test anxiety and internal locus of control were found. Furthermore, there were significant positive correlations between test anxiety and external locus of control. Also, in factorial analyses test anxiety could be differentiated from individuals' locus of control. We conclude that people with high test anxiety could benefit from systematic development of specific self-efficacy beliefs.
KEYWORDS: test anxiety, self-efficacy, locus of control.
In modern society, which is fittingly called performance society (Hondrich, Schumacher, Arzberger, Schlie, & Stegbauer, 1988), tests and evaluations in academic and job-related contexts have important practical implications for personal goals and people's careers. Therefore, evaluation situations form a class of anxiety-inducing stimuli: People experience test anxiety before and during test situations, and often they perceive this anxiety as distracting or even torturous. Test anxiety can be defined as the stable tendency to respond with anxiety to performance requirements which threaten individuals' self-worth. In the Trait-State- Theory of Anxiety, test anxiety is seen as a situation-specific personality trait (Spielberger, Gonzales, Taylor, Algaze, & Anton, 1978). Based on the Two- Components-Theory of Test Anxiety by Liebert and Morris (1967), Spielberger (1980) developed the Test Anxiety Inventory (TAI) to determine the characteristics of emotional and cognitive components of test anxiety. Unfortunately, this endeavour did not yield convincing empirical evidence for a theory-based separation of test anxiety into an emotional and cognitive component. Instead, there was a strong correlation between the emotional and the cognitive component (r = .55 to r = .76, Deffenbacher, 1980; r = .92, Hocevar & El-Zahhar, 1985). This and other methodological problems stimulated a revision of the questionnaire for the German-speaking countries.
Accordingly, the Test-Anxiety-Inventory-German (TAI-G) was designed by Hodapp and co-workers in several steps. In so doing, discrimination of the emotionality and worry component (Hodapp, Laux, & Spielberger, 1982) could be achieved. Wishing to operationalize theoretically distinguishable aspects of test anxiety, Hodapp...