Alden Zhang

Case Study 3:

For anyone who just entered college, it is a whole new experience trying to figure

everything out. It is a time of change and stress. So for someone who must maintain a specific

GPA or grade point average so this person may continue to maintain and use their scholarship

can put a lot of stress onto this person. So it would make absolute sense for Katya to be

experiencing a high level of stress and anxiety. Ontop of all this school there could be other

factors in her life outside of school that may be giving her stress and anxiety. From the case, I

believe that if Katya found a way to boost her levels of self-efficacy and other ways to manage

her stress or anxiety then it would surely boost her change of doing well on the exam. But in

order for that to happen she must be educated on self-efficacy. Based off the case it seems that

Katya already knows the material from all her diligent studying for her chemistry test. So for

Katya it is more of her own thoughts holding her back then instead of her having trouble

retaining the information.

Personally I remember how hard my first year of college was. Getting use to the course

load and everything was brand new to me. Unlike high school where teacher would remind

people of due dates and there would be guidance everywhere a student goes, college is where

they take the training wheels off the bike and the student is more or less on their own for the

most part. A student must be able to balance all their course load plus other stuff like a social life

or a job. If a student needs help they must go seek it out. Personally it was very stressful to

balance all this for me my first year and it just had to figure out a way to do it while keeping my

stress levels down.

 In an article written by Anna Zajacova, Scott M. Lynch, and Thomas J. Espenshade titled

“Self-efficacy, Stress, and Academic Success in College”, Self-efficacy is defined as “a

self-evaluation of one’s competence to successfully execute a course of action necessary to reach

desired outcomes”. In the article it also states that “ stress is defined as a state of psychological

arousal that results when external demands tax or exceed a person’s adaptive abilities”. To link

these two together each external demand is seen as a threat or challenge. For a person with high

self-efficacy they would see these demands as more of challenges then as of threats. But this is

only to the extent of the persons feels confident about their competence to handle the demand/

situation. So for katya as of right now she sees her chemistry test as more of a threat to her

scholarship then as a challenge which in result is affecting her ability. Overall this study shows

the importance of self-efficacy both in moderating stressors for college students and also in

predicting academic success. So one may now ask the big question on how does one boost

self-efficacy? An article posted by Karin Kirk explains there are 4 ways teachers may help boost

a students self-efficacy. The first and most basic one is called mastery experience. This is when a

students successful experience can boost their self-efficacy. The next method is called vicarious

experience is where a student who observes a peers succeed at a task can strengthen their own

beliefs . The third one is verbal persuasion where a teacher verbally helps or guides a student

through a task. The last one is emotional state. Using emotional state may be risky. A positive

mood can boost ones belief in self-efficacy but anxiety or other negative mood can undermine

them. In a an article written by Peter Salmon titled, “Effects of Physical Exercise on Anxiety,

Depression, and Sensitivity to Stress: a Unifying Theory” he seeks to show how physical
exercise can have an effect on anxiety and other stressors. In short exercise may help relieves

some symptoms of stress, anxiety and other issues.

Overall I do not believe that Katya needs to seek professionals help at the moment. For

all new students going into college it can be a lot of stress. There are a lot of ways to deal with

stress but the most important thing is for Katya to understand what she's going through and that

its a normal thing among college students. From there she must find her own way to help calm

her nerves. One major thing she can do so help is change how she sees the situation. Instead of

looking at the exam as a threat see it as just another simple test she took on a normal basis. Most

cases what goes through someone's head is way worse than the actual situation presents itself to

be. Instead looking at all the negative things that may happen if she does poorly she should look

at the positives. Just by changing how one sees a situation can boost their self-efficacy

drastically. For most people, myself included, I would say something like that I am going to get

100% on all my test and exam, while trying to balance a social life and full time job. That is

basically me saying that I am going to become an astrophysicists in the span of one semester.

That goal is basically impossible. Now I just tell myself to try to the best of my abilities and just

be able to tell myself at the end of the day I did whatever was possible no matter the outcome.

That mindset actually improved my grades and other stuff in my life because I was less forced on

the “what if I fail” and I just went with it and did it as best as I could.
 References

Karin K, Self-Efficacy. (2018, May 02). Retrieved from

https://serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/affective/efficacy.html

Salmon, P (2001), 'Effects of Physical Exercise on Anxiety, Depression and Sensitivity to

Stress - A Unifying Theory.', In Clinical Psychology Review, Vol.21, 1, , , pp.33-61. ISSN:

0272-7358

Zajacova, A, Lynch S, Espenshade T, “Self-Efficacy, Stress, and Academic Success in

College” Research in Higher Education, Vol. 46, No. 6, September 2005 ( 2005) DOI:

10.1007/s11162-004-4139-z