The Effect of Strengthening Memory Representations on Self-Esteem in People with Test Anxiety: A Pilot Study

Low self-esteem is one of the key factors underlying psychopathology, such as test anxiety. It seems that the activation of positive self-representations in memory plays an important role in self-perception. The aim of this article was to determine the effect of strengthening memory representations on self-esteem in people with test anxiety. This study was based on a quasi-experimental design with pretest and post-test. According to retrieval competition approach, a training package was designed to promote self-esteem and after verifying its content validity by 5 expert psychologist, the intervention was administered in 10 sessions (a one-hour session per week). Participants were 10 high school students with test anxiety diagnosis which were selected by purposive and available sampling; and completed Spielberger Test Anxiety Inventory (TAI) and Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (RSES) before and after the intervention and also one month follow up. Data analysis was performed using one-way trend analysis (one-way ANOVA with repeated measures). The results indicated that this intervention could lead to improve self-esteem and decrease test anxiety in participants (p˂0.01) and this trend continued until one month follow-up. As a result, it seems that interventions on the factors underlying psychopathology, such as low self-esteem, can have beneficial as well as proactive effects in this area and We may be able to make changes in self-concept even with no deliberate challenge to the thoughts.