MOTIVATION TO AVOID FAIL IN STUDENTS WITH DIFFERENT LEVEL OF ANXIETY
Anna V. Rozanova
3rd year student of the faculty of psychology
Belgorod State National Research University,
Belgorod
Scientific supervisor
ElenaА. Ogneva
Senior lecture
Foreign languages department
Annotation:the article deals with the problem of motivation to avoid failures among students with different levels of anxiety. In an empirical study on the motivation to avoid failures and anxiety, it was found that the higher the level of students' anxiety, the more pronounced their motivation to avoid failures, and vice versa, the lower the level of students' anxiety, the more they are aimed at the motivation to achieve success.
Keywords:anxiety, motivation, students, correlation.
The topic of motivation remains relevant and is actively studied in foreign and domestic science. General issues of the formation and development of motivation were studied by K. Levin, V.G. Aseev, L.I. Bozhovich and others. A.K. Markova, N.V. Afanasiev, M.V. Matyukhina, T.A. Sablina and others.
The motivational sphere of a person is very important and largely determines a person's life path, but it is quite difficult to understand how motives arise, where they come from and what they are. According to A. N. Leontiev, the motive is called “objective, which stimulates and directs activity, responding to one or another need, concretizing the need, or, naturally, satisfying the need.” Domestic psychologists argued that the motive forces, “induces”, on the one hand, a person to a certain activity, on the other hand, according to A. N. Leontiev, “the goals towards which the actions of the subject are directed, and the content of these actions, acquire special significance for a person, depending on the motives of the activity, including these actions” [5].
In other words, motives acquire an individual personal meaning for a certain person. It is worth considering that it is precisely they that become of great importance in relation to behavioral acts and encourage a person not to stand still, but to develop and improve their certain qualities. Thus, motives serve as a source of internal motivation, due to which the activity becomes purposeful and, accordingly, more effective.
What is anxiety? There are many definitions, for example, doctor of psychological sciences A. M. Parishioner understands anxiety as “an experience of emotional discomfort associated with the expectation of trouble, with a premonition of imminent danger” [11].
S. Freud understood anxiety as “a symptomatic manifestation of an internal conflict, the cause of which is the unconscious suppression of sensations, feelings, impulses that are annoying for a person” [13].
In the work “Psychology of the Unconscious”, S. Freud said that there is a certain driving force inside a person, namely instinct. In his opinion, anxiety arises from the contradiction of social norms and the biological needs of a person. From childhood, certain prohibitions are imposed on the child, they are forced to follow the rules of behavior, while forbidding them to satisfy their true desires.
In studies devoted to the study of anxiety, it was possible to distinguish two types of it, namely situational and personal. Personality is one of the properties of a person's personality. Increased anxiety can arise as a response to the cognitive and behavioral reactions of the body in the event of stressful conditions, mainly socio-psychological. Anxiety differs in the level of intensity, extent, presence of certain thoughts and activation of the autonomic nervous system.
Anxiety is directly related to the social world. Often, its manifestation causes the expectation of changes in living conditions, a change in typical activities. Also, here you can include situations related to a violation of a person’s self-esteem, his “fall” in the eyes of others. The psychological causes of anxiety include intrapersonal conflicts, negative previous experiences that traumatized the psyche, family upbringing, as well as the influence of the school and how successful the adaptation to the changed living conditions was at primary school age.
Studies of the influence of anxiety on a person, including the motivational sphere, have been repeatedly carried out by psychologists, however, these concepts are so multifaceted and complex that they are still being actively analyzed. This indirectly confirms the need for further research into the relationship between the two categories, which is what our study is aimed at.
The hypothesis of our study is that there is a relationship between achievement motivation and the level of students' anxiety, namely: the higher the level of students' anxiety, the more pronounced their motivation to avoid failures and vice versa, the lower the level of students' anxiety, the more they are aimed at the motivation to achieve success.
In our study, we used the following psychodiagnostic methods: a test questionnaire for measuring achievement motivation (a modification of the text - A. Mekhrabian's questionnaire, proposed by M.Sh. Magomed-Eminov) and the "Scale of Reactive and Personal Anxiety" method by Ch. D. Spielberger, Yu. L. Khanina.
An empirical study was conducted on the basis of the National Research University "BelGU" among students of 2-3 courses in the amount of 60 people.
At the first stage of this study, the achievement motivation of students was studied, the results are presented in Figure 1:
Analyzing the results obtained, we can say that the sample is dominated by the number of people with a pronounced motivation to avoid failure (63%), which indicates that such students show self-doubt, are afraid of criticism, and are initially aimed at avoiding tasks, because they don't believe they can achieve anything. They are often overwhelmed by negative emotions, self-blame and guilt about the tasks they have completed. Such students do not like difficult tasks, they may doubt the correctness of their choice and remain silent, not expressing active participation in resolving emerging problems.
The smallest part of the sample (37%) is aimed at achieving success. These students can be described as people who are ready to take on any tasks that are feasible and impossible for them, to look for options for solving problems. They strive to achieve success and high performance in their activities, are self-confident, love rivalry or collective forms of work, if circumstances so require. The realization of their life potential is always extremely important for them, they set realistic goals and achieve them, overcoming various difficulties.
Next, we studied the anxiety of students, the data are presented in Figure 2.
After analyzing the results, we can say that most of the subjects have an average level of anxiety, namely 47.5%. This suggests that such people sometimes need motivation from outside, while some circumstances may be regarded as a threat to their self-esteem. This is considered a normal level of anxiety. 29% of students have a low level of anxiety, which indicates that these representatives of the sample as a whole adequately relate to external circumstances and failures, they are active and easily take on new activities. The state of important anxiety, acute response to stress factors have 25.5% of the students of NRU BelSU. Thus, paying attention to the specifics of the sample, we can assume that a high level of anxiety is associated with the presence of problems in the educational sphere of the subjects.
Below are the results of the study of personal and reactive anxiety (Fig. 3)
After analyzing this figure, we can say that 64% of respondents have an average level of personal anxiety. Such persons tend to perceive a large number of different situations as dangerous, threatening their personality, self-esteem, status, etc. In this case, we can talk about the presence of a tendency to avoid a wide range of different situations. Anxiety as a personality trait is 23% of the subjects.
A low level was found in 13% of respondents. Such people tend to underestimate the danger of many situations as dangerous, as a result of which attempts to resolve these cases are not made.
Next, reactive (situational) anxiety was investigated. The results are presented in the diagram (Fig. 4).
Thus, as a result of studying the level of reactive anxiety among students, we obtained the following data: a low level was noted in 26.3%, an average level in 31.6%, and a high level in 42.1% of the subjects, which indicates that the predominant part of the respondents, when they get into a stressful situation, is characterized by a feeling of subjective discomfort, tension, anxiety, as well as vegetative arousal.
We assume that the data obtained are explained by the presence of a connection between the success of educational activities and a low level of anxiety, and, accordingly, educational failures and a high degree of personal anxiety.
At the third stage of the study, the results were analyzed, then a qualitative comparative analysis of the data obtained was carried out, and a statistical verification of the data obtained as a result of psychodiagnostic procedures was carried out using the Pearson linear correlation criterion.
It should be clarified that in the correlation analysis we used the results of the personal anxiety of the subjects, which is associated with its greater influence on the formation of the motivational sphere of the personality in comparison with situational anxiety, which is due to the influence of external stress factors, after the disappearance of which the general state of the individual returns to normal.
After analyzing the data obtained during the correlation analysis, we can state the following: there is a statistically significant (r = .393, p<0.05) positive relationship between the motivation to avoid failures and a high level of personal anxiety among students. This allows us to say that the higher the level of students' anxiety, the higher the level of failure avoidance. Anxious students are afraid to start new businesses.
A statistically significant (r = -.519, p < 0.005) negative correlation was also found between the motivation to avoid failures and a low level of personal anxiety. This suggests that students with a low level of anxiety are not afraid to start new business, they take on any task and are focused on results.
A direct relationship was also found between low levels of anxiety and motivation to achieve success (r=.376, p<0.05). Students who are confident in their abilities do not experience negative emotions regarding situations occurring in their lives. They are always focused on success and believe in themselves.
Thus, as a result of the study, it was revealed that it was revealed that the higher the level of students' anxiety, the more they expressed the motivation to avoid failures and vice versa, the lower the level of students' anxiety, the more they are aimed at the motivation to achieve success.
On the basis of the data obtained, a program was developed aimed at psycho-correction of personal anxiety among students in order to increase their achievement motivation.
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