Publication Date

5-5-2024

Document Type

Student Project

First Advisor

Valentiner, David

Degree Name

B.S. (Bachelor of Science)

Department

Department of Psychology

Abstract

Mental health conditions are higher than ever worldwide, despite best efforts to increase public awareness and deliver informed solutions. To account for this rise, some suggested models argue that measures taken to ameliorate mental health problems are actually contributing to their inflation through iatrogenic effects. The current proposed study seeks to identify the possibility of iatrogenic effects on test anxiety as a product of psychoeducational material. The scope of this study includes the immediate effects of viewing a typical short-form informational video on core and adjacent symptoms of test anxiety. Participants will engage with our study entirely through an online format and be asked to answer a series of questionnaires. The experimental condition will view the psychoeducational video prior to the assessment of cognitive test anxiety and will be compared with a no-video control. The current study involves deception, as the adjacent symptoms of "Increased itching" and "More rapid blinking" are included in the video and assessment but are not, in actuality, considered to be a part of test anxiety. These sham symptoms allow us to better understand the nature of suggestion as it is related to psychoeducation efforts. The findings of this study will have the potential to incite future research into moderating factors that influence iatrogenic symptoms of test anxiety. The proposed study examines only one instance of potential iatrogenic effects to address. Researchers may seek to investigate other mental health conditions using a similar design moving forward.

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