The Impact of Anxiety to Accountancy Students

THE IMPACT OF ANXIETY TO ACCOUNTANCY STUDENTS An Undergraduate Research Presented to the College of Business Administration University of the East Manila In Partial Fulfilment Of the Requirements in English 113 by Cahucom, Nestor, Jr. B. Calasag, Elysee Jermaine, E. Carranza, Sharmaine, A. Del Rosario, Cedrik James Gambal, Clarence Dave, C. Libatique, Jera Ysa, R. Ortiz, Fil Joseph, N. Vibar, Jury, A.

March 2012

Chapter I: The Problem and Its Setting

Chapter I: The Problem and Its Setting

INTRODUCTION
Anxiety is a psychological and physiological state characterized by cognitive, somatic, emotional and behavioral components caused by a persons anticipation that something is potentially threatening to him, whether physically 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 of hormones such as adrenaline and noradrenaline (Wimbush and Nelson, 2000) - negative effects of anxiety are caused by

Chapter I: The Problem and Its Setting

- Depression and anxiety are prevalent problems in colleges among the U.S. - 75 percent of all individuals with an anxiety disorder experience symptoms before age 22 (National Institute of Mental Health of America) - Accounting anxiety for the educator and the student 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

Chapter I: The Problem and Its Setting

THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK OF THE STUDY
The 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 decline in performance, which, in the case of students, is during their tests and examinations (Yerkes-Dodson Law) - Anxiety has been proven to be a hindrance to students ability to pay attention to anything nor the capacity to take in information (Flaherty (1993))

Chapter I: The Problem and Its Setting

-Female college students are more susceptible to experience anxiety than male students * there is a degree of difference in the intensity of anxiety between male and female undergraduates (Abdel-Khalek and Alansari (2004)) * vulnerability of females to anxiety is associated to a genetic gender difference (Lewinsohn, Gotlib, Lewinsohn, Seeley, and Allen, 1998) * cyclic fluctuations of estrogens and progesterone enhance the response to stress, which confers susceptibility to depression and anxiety to female (Lewinsohn et al., Seeman 1997)

Chapter I: The Problem and Its Setting

CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK OF THE STUDY INPUT PROCESS OUTPUT
Questionnaire Checklists Part I: Respondents Profile Part II: Closedended Multriple Choice Questions Part III: Likert Items
Identifying the research problems Gathering of respondents. Distribution, answering and retrieval of questionnaires. Tabulation, analysis and interpretation of responses using their mean scores, modes, percentages and computed z-

The Impact of Anxiety to Accountancy Students

Chapter I: The Problem and Its Setting

STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
The main purpose of the study is to determine the impact of anxiety to Accountancy students. Specifically, it sought to identify the following:

1. The profile of the respondents in terms of: a. Gender b. Age 2. The effects of anxiety to the respondents in terms of: a. Presentations b. Tests and Exams c. Recitations d. Lectures 3. Which of the four criteria of education stated above is the most anxiety-affected. 4. The common reasons why Accountancy students suffer from anxiety.

Chapter I: The Problem and Its Setting

IMPORTANCE OF THE STUDY
a. To the economy- this study will help the students to assess themselves, and be able to reduce, if not completely 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 different aspects 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 their decisions regarding their childrens well-being and in their assessment on whether or not their children already experience anxiety and what causes them to be anxious.

Chapter I: The Problem and Its Setting

d. To educators- the research will give them useful ideas on how to make their teaching methods and curriculum more effective by considering the impact of anxiety to the different aspects of learning. e. To school administrators- this examination will convey relevant considerations in establishing school activities, programs and facilities that can help in abating the negative impacts of anxiety to the learning process of the students. f. To future researchers- the study will serve as a reference or guide to support their further research studies and will give inspiration to pursue further researches in connection with the current study.

Chapter I: The Problem and Its Setting

SCOPE AND DELIMITATION
The study, The Impact of Anxiety to Accountancy Students was designed to identify the effects of anxiety to the different elements of learning to second year Bachelor of Science in Accountancy students of the University of the East-Manila, academic year, 2011-2012, and the reasons why they become such. The researchers decided to delimit the study to the said respondents so as to create a uniform response as these respondents have common sources of anxiety in school because they are of the same curriculum and of the same subjects taken.

Chapter I: The Problem and Its Setting

DEFINITION OF TERMS
Anxiety. This is the focus of the study. This can be described the tension experienced by students whenever they feel something that they consider as threat. The researchers tried to find its effects (as indicated in the questionnaires) to Accountancy students. Data. These refer to those that were collected from the respondents. These were collected first hand and were subjected to different tests to answer the problems posted by the study and further derive the conclusions. Impact. Impact, as used in the study, relatively means the level of the effect that anxiety brings to students.

Chapter I: The Problem and Its Setting

Lectures. These were limited by the study to those made by the professors when they clarify and discuss the lessons to their students. Likert Item. A statement which the respondent is asked to evaluate according to any kind of subjective or objective criteria; generally, it measures the level of agreement or disagreement. It is considered symmetric or balanced because it contains equal amounts of positive and negative positions. Likert Scale. This is a statistical method of ascribing quantitative value to qualitative data, to make it amenable to statistical analysis. A numerical value is assigned to each potential choice and a mean figure for all the responses is computed at the end of the evaluation or survey. This was used in the study for the verbal

Chapter I: The Problem and Its Setting

Presentations. These were narrowed by the researchers to the oral performances of the students such as orations, oral reports and declamations, either voluntarily or involuntarily. Recitations. It refers to academic performance of the students in terms of oral communication and public speaking, either voluntary or involuntary, prepared or not. Test and Exams. It refers to academic performance of the students in terms of written examinations. Thorough Study. This can be delineated, as it was employed in the study, as studying with restrictions (e.g. retention policy or grade).

Chapter 2: Related Literature and Studies

Chapter 2: Related Literature and Studies

FOREIGN RELATED LITERATURE
Flaherty, et. Al, 1993- prolonged and continuous anxiety can raise levels of the hormone cortisol, boosting blood pressure and leading to hypertension . It may lead to anxiety disorders or other life threatening illnesses. Tartakovsky, M., 1993- anxiety may also be brought about by experiencing firsts and coping up with a new environment, 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 arousal of a person exceeds the optimal level, it results in a decline in performance, which, in the case of students, is their performance during their tests and examinations.

Chapter 2: Related Literature and Studies

FOREIGN RELATED STUDY
Laura Woble of University of North Carolina- The study, Impact of Stress Factors on College Students Academic Performance, signified that anxiety cannot really automatically affect students academic performance negatively. The study also proved a lot of related studies showing that the most common stressor is sleep deprivation, a very consistent result with the other researches. Zhang Xianping of Xiangfan University- The study, Language Anxiety and its Effect on Oral Performance in Classroom, proved that anxiety has really affected the academic performance of the students. He chose a more specific subject for anxiety and academic performance.

Chapter 2: Related Literature and Studies

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 Exam Anxiety in Medical students, showed that anxiety has a moderate effect to medical students. It can be positive that it keeps the students task-oriented but it can be negative if excessive.

Chapter 2: Related Literature and Studies

LOCAL RELATED LITERATURE
Bucu, et al., 1981- Anxious individuals greatly differ from those who are not, either in their gestural or postural behavior in the performance of their interpersonal skills, in academic performance or even on simple things such as voice quality. Bustos et al., 1985 - The individual with anxiety has constant vague fear about the future. The tendency towards these anxiety reactions is often acquired in childhood usually because of overprotection by parents, embarrassment and ridicule. Evangelista, 1999- An anxious person may become aggressive to other people or he may withdraw into fantasy and become a daydreamer. Anxiety can also lead a person

Chapter 2: Related Literature and Studies

LOCAL RELATED STUDY
Del Villar of University of the Philippines, Diliman- The factors which are expectation, training and experience, audience, self-worth, rejection, verbal fluency, preparation and previous unpleasant experience may lead to oral communication anxiety. To overcome it, the study suggested that the person needs more practice and preparation. Acelajado, Ph.D. of De La Salle University Manila- His study on the impact of using technology on students achievement, attitude, and anxiety in mathematics showed that the use of graphing calculators was found to reduce their anxiety scores. Positive effects of using graphing calculators include students improved achievement,

Chapter 3: Methodology

Chapter 3: Methodology
METHOD OF RESEARCH
Descriptive research- The research utilized the descriptive design for the aim of the study was to determine the impact of anxiety to accountancy students which is the population being referred to by the earlier statement of Ariola. Furthermore, the researchers determined that it is the most suitable analysis because they wanted to find out what students do and how they feel while they are anxious which is the phenomenon under consideration.
Descriptive research according to Dr. Mariano M. Ariola, refers to the type of research question, design and data analysis that describes the current conditions, practices and situations about the population or phenomena being studied. It answers the questions who, what, where, when and how.

Chapter 3: Methodology
METHOD OF COLLECTING DATA
- the researchers devised a questionnaire checklist consisted of four parts: Part I obtained the profiles of the respondents (names, ages and genders); Part II, employed closed-ended multiple choice questions explored the reasons why students feel anxious during their tests and examinations, lectures, recitations and presentations; Part III, which is a Likert type instrument, asked the respondents to rate each statement as they generally related to them by as always , often, sometimes, seldom and never, investigated what students 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

Chapter 3: Methodology

- it was then conferred upon the researchers professor for grammaticality and format - it was then reproduced, administered to and retrieved from the 30 purposively selected respondents, 15 of which are males and the rest are females. Their responses were then tabulated, computed, analyzed and interpreted using their corresponding statistical treatments. Weighted means, percentages, modes and computed zvalues were used to analyze the subjects responses.

Chapter 3: Methodology
SAMPLING DESIGN
In choosing the subjects who would respond to the constructed questionnaires, the researchers used the purposive type of sampling. Purposive sampling is a form of sampling in which the selection of the sample is based on the judgment of the researcher as to which subjects best fit the criteria of the study. The researchers decisively selected second year Accountancy students as respondents in the reason that they are more anxious than those who take other business courses because of the presence of the retention policy. Furthermore, the researchers selected the second year level because they have the same sources of anxiety in school and are of the same curriculum thus, with the same subjects taken.

Chapter 3: Methodology
STATISTICAL TREATMENT

Chapter 3: Methodology

Chapter 3: Methodology

Chapter 4: Presentation, Analysis and Interpretation of Data

Chapter 4: Presentation, Analysis and Interpretation of Data

0% 3.33% 3.33% 16 17 18

40% 53.33% 19 20

Chapter 4: Presentation, Analysis and Interpretation of Data

Male 50% 50%

Chapter 4: Presentation, Analysis and Interpretation of Data

Always Often Sometimes Seldom Never

5.00 4.20 4.19 3.40 3.39 2.60 2.59 1.80 1.79 1.00

Chapter 4: Presentation, Analysis and Interpretation of Data

The Effects of Anxiety to Respondents Presentations
Question 5

Question 4

Question 3

Question 2

Question 1 0 0.5 1 1.5 2 MEAN 2.5 3 3.5 4

Always Never

Often

Sometimes

Seldom

Chapter 4: Presentation, Analysis and Interpretation of Data

The Effects of Anxiety to Respondents Tests and Examinations
Question 5

Question 4

Question 3

Question 2

Question 1 0 0.5 1 1.5 2 MEAN 2.5 3 3.5 4

Always Never

Often

Sometimes

Seldom

Chapter 4: Presentation, Analysis and Interpretation of Data

The Effects of Anxiety to Respondents Recitations
Question 5

Question 4

Question 3

Question 2

Question 1 2.95 3 3.05 3.1 3.15 3.2 MEAN 3.25 3.3 3.35 3.4 3.45

Always Never

Often

Sometimes

Seldom

Chapter 4: Presentation, Analysis and Interpretation of Data

The Effects of Anxiety to Respondents Lectures
Question 5

Question 4

Question 3

Question 2

Question 1 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 MEAN 2.7 2.8 2.9 3

Always Never

Often

Sometimes

Seldom

Chapter 4: Presentation, Analysis and Interpretation of Data

The Ranks of the Criteria of Education According to their Susceptibility to Anxiety
100 90 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0

Presentations Tests and Exams

Recitations

Lectures

Chapter 4: Presentation, Analysis and Interpretation of Data

The Reasons behind the Respondents Anxiety and their Ranks
30 25 20 15 10 5 0

Chapter 4: Presentation, Analysis and Interpretation of Data

Computed z-value of the Two Means of the Responses
Computed z-value Tabular z-value Level of Null Significance Hypothesi s Verbal Interpretation

.11

1.645

= .05

Accepted

No Significant Difference

Chapter 5: Summary of Findings, Conclusions and Recommendations

Chapter 5: Summary of Findings, Conclusions and Recommendations

SUMMARY OF FINDINGS
1. The profile of 30 Second year Bachelor of Science in Accountancy students during the academic year, 2011-2012 is as follows: In terms of gender, the number of males (15) are equal to the number 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%) were 16 and 20 years old. 2. Based on the analysis of the results in the Likert type instrument used in the Part III of the questionnaire, the effects of the anxiety to the respondents: During the presentations, the fear of criticism often occurs among the anxious students. Students may somehow feel worried on how they will make their presentations meet the

Chapter 5: Summary of Findings, Conclusions and Recommendations

During tests and exams, the fear of failing the exam often arises among the anxious students. This could be inevitable especially for those who are scholars and for those students taking courses with board exams. These students need to maintain high grades in all subjects and having a good grade in the major exams will be the key for it; thus, failure in exams could be unacceptable for them. In recitations, shyness often comes in anxious students. They may 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 the lack of communication skills on the students. During lectures, the effect of anxiety which is lack of understanding of the lessons discussed among the students is seldom to happen. The respondents in the study, the students of Bachelor of Science in Accountancy, especially those who

Chapter 5: Summary of Findings, Conclusions and Recommendations

3. The results shown in the ordinal type question in the Part IV

of the questionnaire revealed that tests and exams are the most anxiety-affected criteria of education. One that could be a reason for this is that the scores in major exams cover a big percentage of the students total grade for every semester. Professors also use exams as a final assessment whether the students have learned something on the subject. Thus, getting a high score in exams is aimed by almost all students. Recitations and presentations are the second and third anxiety-affected criteria of education respectively. Both need self-confidence to speak inside the classroom and in front of many people in order to express their thoughts. Sometimes, anxiety lessens this selfconfidence which commonly leads to other severe consequences of anxiety. The least anxiety-affected are the lectures since the students tend to be passive during this time and just receive, accept and understand the lessons being

Chapter 5: Summary of Findings, Conclusions and Recommendations

4. Based on the closed-ended multiple choice questions on the

reasons of the anxiety (Part II of the questionnaire), the study revealed that the retention policy is the most common reason of the respondents anxiety, followed by sleep deprivation and time constraint. As accounting students, the respondents face a great challenge to make their grades in the major subjects as high as possible for them to be retained in the program. Sleep deprivation is part of the students hardship to study hard to earn high grades. Anxiety sometimes occurs when the students do not have enough sleep and rest. Time constraint also becomes the cause of anxiety especially at times when the schedule for exams, projects and other requirements are all fully-packed. The tendency for this is that the students may find their time too limited to finish every activity therefore, making them feel unprepared and unequipped for all their activities.

Chapter 5: Summary of Findings, Conclusions and Recommendations

Chapter 5: Summary of Findings, Conclusions and Recommendations

CONCLUSIONS
1. The researchers found out that the ages of the 15 male and 15 female respondents ranged from 16 to 20. 2. The computed mean scores and their corresponding verbal interpretations showed that anxiety plays a vital role on the performance of students on the following factors of studying: a. Presentations- The anxiety felt by students during their presentations 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 too worried of failing the exam that they sometimes get mentally blocked.

Chapter 5: Summary of Findings, Conclusions and Recommendations

c. Recitations- Whenever there are recitations, anxious students often feel unsure of their answer and often hesitate to raise their hands. This is because these students sometimes get preoccupied by others opinions on their answers and that they sometimes find it hard to express themselves. d. Lectures- Anxiety has a little effect to students during lectures. However, these effects should not be taken for granted because these may serve as the reasons why they fail examinations. One of these effects of anxiety to students is that during some times, they cant retain the lessons being taught to them well because they sometimes find it hard to concentrate in listening 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 it can cause them to have difficulty in concentrating and if it goes too severe, they will no longer have the ability to pay attention to

Chapter 5: Summary of Findings, Conclusions and Recommendations

3. Among the four criteria, tests and exams ranked first as the most anxiety affected followed by recitation, presentation and lectures as the least affected. These results further sustain the conjectures made by Yerkes and Dodson in their Yerkes-Dodson Law, that when the anxiety or level of arousal of a person goes above the ceiling level, it ends up into a decline in his performance, which in the case of the students, is during their tests and examinations. 4. The most common reasons why Accountancy students suffer from anxiety are the retention policy implemented by the College, sleep deprivation and time constraint. 5. There is no significant difference between the responses of the male and female respondents. This insinuates that, they are equally susceptible to experience anxiety thus, disproving, in terms of the research, the claims made by Abdel-Khalek and Alansari in 2004.

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