Hypnosis vs. Progressive Muscle Relaxation as Cognitive-Therapeutic Interventions: Insights into Reducing EFL Learners’ Test Anxiety

Abstract

Among the variety of intervention techniques for treating test anxiety that interferes with students' ability to demonstrate their real knowledge on examinations, cognitive-behavioral methods have been proposed to be effective. The current study aimed to investigate whether two cognitive-behavioral techniques (relaxation & hypnosis) would reduce test anxiety in female high school third year students. A randomized controlled trial was conducted through which 60 female high school third year students were randomly assigned to three groups of relaxation, hypnosis and control. A trained clinical psychologist delivered the relaxation and hypnosis sessions having assured hypnotizability. Each session lasted 40 minutes twice a week within two weeks. The relaxation and the hypnosis groups received progressive muscle relaxation and positive suggestions given to subconscious mind for managing exam anxiety, respectively; while, the control group received no treatment but the Test Anxiety Questionnaire as a pre-test. Matched t-tests run on pre-and post-test results showed that both treatments resulted in reduced test anxiety. Further ANCOVA and follow up Bonferoni test indicated a significant difference among the three groups, with hypnosis intervention as significantly the most successful one. Findings highlight the need to consider the role of psychology and cognitive-behavioral intervention techniques in reducing test anxiety.

Keywords

• Cognitive-behavioral therapy
• Test anxiety
• Hypnosis
• Progressive muscle relaxation
• EFL