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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Jan. 31, 1978)
continued from page 17 image or cue is presented, such as: “You’re taking your exam. As you’re looking over the questions, you can feel the tension in the pit of your stomach. Your eyes are wandering around the room and your thoughts are jumping from place to place.” The group leader presents from 12 to 20 of these scenes, arranged in or der from least tension-provoking to most tension-provoking. The first scene may be hearing about someone else who must take a test. The scenes progress to announcement of a test in your class in two weeks, studying for it, walking to the test site, seeing a question you don’t know how to answer, seeing other people finish whileyou arestill working, and finally talking it over with classmates after wards. In the final step of the program, students are exposed to the entire range of images, all the time exercis ing new-found powers of relaxation. Those Nagging Doubts Desensitization basically works by controlling the physical response to anxiety—muscle tension. Anxiety has mental and emotional responses as well, and some new treatment pro grams are appearing on college cam puses which focus on the “worry” component of anxiety. (Most of these programs incorporate desensitiza tion into their sessions, too.) One example is a “cognitive modifi cation” program developed by Dr. Michael Weissberg, director of the counseling center at Grand Valley State College in Allendale, Michi gan. Weissberg combines desensiti zation with “cognitive restructuring," a therapy which confronts and dis arms irrational thoughts that feed anxiety. Weissberg’s program makes stu dents aware of the thoughts and worries they are experiencing while taking tests and studying for them. Anxious students tend to worry about everything. They are quick to blame themselves when things go wrong. They often feel a strong need for others’ approval, and link their per formance with winning or losingthat approval. They also tend to see grades and test scores as measures of their personal worth; doing badly means to them that they are worthless as persons. They fear that failure will bring dire consequences. In Weissberg’s program, students focus on their thoughts. The truth is separated from gross exaggeration, the rational from the irrational, the useful from the self-defeating. Then students are given “coping thoughts” they can use to counter irrational thoughts when they reappear. “1 think everybody has these kinds of irrational thoughts,” says Weiss berg, “but a majority of people are able to cope with them. People with out coping thoughts thoughts that build up their self-esteem continue to be anxious and get more upset and more down on themselves.” Both desensitization and cognitive restructuring have proved very effec tive in reducing anxiety. Interest ingly, though, such programs by themselves do not improve the grades and test scores of students who complete test-anxiety sessions. For unknown reasons, most test-anxious students also have poor study habits. A test-anxiety program combined with counseling to improve study habits, however, has consistently im proved student grades. For everyone facing exam week, and especially for those with a bit of test anxiety. Dr. Suinn has some suggestions on how you can help yourself to do better: 1. Learn to be comfortable with your reasonableanxiety. Ifyouhavea fearful attitude, you can precipitate harmful anxiety in yourself. 2. Do not schedule stressful situa tions just before exams. Stay away from people who irritate you. 3. Get to the examination place a few' minutes early: relax, clear your head and think calm, relaxing thoughts. 4. Talk to someone who settles you down, makes you feel good about yourself. ■ Just when everything is going well, you have that dream again. The one where someone hands you a test paper. Biology 202 Final Exam. Biology 202? You’ve never been to that class before! You pull out your dog-eared class schedule and there it is Biology 202, 12 p.m. to 1 p.m., Monday through Friday. How could you have forgotten to go to the class for a w hole term'7 But you have, and now you’re staring at 50 true-false questions. The people around you are hunched over their papers, furiously scratch ing out answers. They’ve finished the first page already. The questions swim in front of you. You check your brain’s file folder on biology. It’s empty. Boy, this is going to look great on your grade report two “A’s,” three “B’s” and an “F.” Your eyes dart about, frantically searching for the nearest exit. You’ve got to get out of this nightmare! “Don’t leave!” says psychologist and dream expert Patricia Garfield. Stay in that dream classroom and cope with the test. If you run away, the nightmare will only sneak back The Power of Positive Dreaming to haunt you again. According to Garfield, test-re lated nightmares strike many people nonstudents as well as students. Even Freud relived biology and chemistry finals in his sleep. These nightmares can leave you aching and anxious the next morn ing, she says. But with a little hit of effort, you can create a positive ending for the nightmare that will make you more confident and ca pable in waking life. Garfield, author of the book Creative Dreaming, says the most important element in controlling bad dreams is to “confront and conquer” the frightening situation presented in the dream. “Before you go to sleep,” she advises, “repeat to yourself, T will not wake up or try to get out of my bad dream. 1 will stay there and face it.’ ” Successful behavior in a dream carries over to waking life, Garfield claims. If you cope with a tough exam in your sleep, you will wake up sure you can do it with both eyes open. “Our dreams are behavior prac tice,” according to Garfield. “And when we are practicing behavior of ‘confront and conquer,’ we are prac ticing coping with a real-life situa tion.” If, in your dream, you feel guilty about skipping Biology 202, per haps you’re neglecting something equally important in waking life. If getting an “F” in a dream bothers you, ask yourself what you're wor ried about failing in real life. The next time you have an exam nightmare, don’t panic and run for the nearest exit. Face the test. Cope with it. Perhaps in your dream you can arrange wun me teacner to take the test later. Or have someone bree/e through thedoortotellyouit was all a terrible mistake, and you don't have to take the test after all. If you put your mind to it, your dream can have a happy ending. And when you wake up, think about w hat the dream was trying to tell you. The late, late show in your mind may give you an interesting perspective on your daily life. ■
