Effect of Guided Imagery on Self Esteem and E...

Effect of Guided Imagery on Self Esteem and Examination Anxiety among First Year College Students

Author Name : Dr. M. Arun Kumar, Mrs. B. Nithya, Ms. P. Akancha Jaiswal

ABSTRACT

The aim of this study is to evaluate the effect of Guided Imagery on self-esteem and examination anxiety among first year college students. A quasi experimental design with a convenience sample of 30 students aged between 17 to 20 yrs. who were pursuing their first-year bachelor degree in Saveetha College of Occupational therapy were included in this study. The participants were segregated into two groups as experimental and control groups with 15 participants in each which includes both male and female students. The self-esteem and examination anxiety for both the groups were assessment for pretest and posttest scores using Rosenberg's self-esteem scale and Westside Test anxiety scale respectively. The guided imagery intervention using audio clips and verbal commands were provided to the students in experimental group for 12 weeks which included 3 sessions per week for about 30 minutes. Meanwhile on the other side the control group received their mentorship program in the college which mainly focused on improving their academic, extra curriculum and personality development performance. Mentorship program was conducted twice per week during the intervention period by the staffs in the college. After the intervention, the posttest scores were assessed using the same scales for both the groups and were compared with the pretest scores.From the findings of this study, it was found that there was a significant difference seen between posttest scores of control group and experimental group for self-esteem and examination anxiety after teaching the imagery techniques over the mentorship program. Thus,  is concluded that Guided imagery techniques has proved to be effective to improve self-esteem and to reduce examination anxiety among first year college students.

Keywords:-First year college students, Examination anxiety, Self-esteem, Guided imagery.