ANXIETY AWARENESS AMONG IIUM STUDENTS

Anxiety Awareness among IIUM Students

Arina Diyanah Azwa1119004Nurul Natasha Md Noor1119306Kulliyah of Economics and Management SciencesInternational Islamic University Malaysia

English for Academic WritingLE 4000 Section 37Tutor: Miss Hasni Mustapha

Date: 5th December 2014AbstractAnxiety refers to the unnecessary unpleasant feeling of dread over current or future events that might or might not happen. People with anxiety usually have a sense of worry, fear or muscle tension. The purpose of this study aims to investigate the level of awareness of anxiety among IIUM students. The objectives were to indicate whether the students are aware of social anxiety that might be suffered by them and the most common factor that contributes to feeling anxious. Questionnaires were distributed to thirty randomly selected individuals in IIUM. Paper-based questionnaire was used and the results were interpreted in visual graphs form. The results indicated that the most common factor that leads to anxiety is due to fear of negative evaluation from others. Meanwhile, easily tired and having problem in concentrating and remembering things were the main symptoms that a student might have anxiety. It can be concluded that, most students are afraid about being judged and evaluated negatively by others. They also feel easily tired resulting in them having problem in concentrating and remembering things especially during presentation. This study may have the implication that students, especially the lower level students need to be aware of their level of anxiety by knowing the factors and being able to avoid the symptoms that bring anxiety found in this study. This is because their life can be negatively affected due to anxiety. Furthermore, few limitations were experienced while conducting this study. The result obtained may be limited as they were very much generalised. Future researchers are advised to revise their questionnaires and increase the number of respondents for the academic purpose.

Keywords: unnecessary worry, uncomfortable feeling

Understanding Anxiety Awareness among IIUM StudentsIntroductionOne of the symptoms of anxiety is when people have unnecessary worry over certain things and not being able to control them. According to UK statistics, the age group that shows the highest level of anxiety is between 35 to 59 years old, the middle age group. It is also estimated that about 3.3% of children and young adults in UK suffer from anxiety. There are many different types of anxiety that people can suffer from. They are social anxiety, test anxiety, stranger anxiety and also stage fright. If the anxiety feeling in a person prolongs, one might suffer from anxiety disorder. Some might say that anxiety disorder can be genetic.People with anxiety usually tend to feel negative and constantly worry about unforeseeable events and this can affect their social life in general. Some might confuse anxiety with shyness but actually, anxiety is more serious than what people perceive. When the feeling of anxiety is too much too handle, it can take over someones thinking and this affect not only their social life, but also their work productivity as it is hard to focus and concentrate and also their relationships with friends and family.According to Greca and Lopez (1998), some of the factors that can lead to anxiety are fear of negative evaluation, social avoidance and distress in general and lastly, avoidance specific to new situations or unfamiliar peers. Fear of negative evaluation is when a person worries about what others think of them. The person constantly thinks that people are going to say negative things about him that whenever he engages in any social behaviour thus can cause a person to feel anxious. The second factor as mentioned by Greca and Lopez (1998) was social avoidance and distress in general whereby a person is naturally quiet whenever he is with a group of people, even when the group of people are people who he knows very well. The third and last factor is avoidance specific to new situations and unfamiliar peers (Greca and Lopez, 1998). One of the situations where a person might feel this way is when he gets nervous when meeting new people.As mentioned by Barlow (2002), anxiety is viewed as a complex construct that consists of three components: cognitive, behavioural, and physiological. The first component is when a person is affected by the negative perception from others and fears that he might be judged. Behavioural component on the other hand refers to the degree to which an individual avoids or escapes from an anxiety-provoking situation (Claire et al., 2009). Physiological components include the symptoms of anxiety that can be felt by the person, for example, sweating, heart palpitation and blushing. Woodruff et al. (2014) describes the people with anxiety to be negatively affected when being percept by people especially when the person fails to deliver up to the expected standards of the audience. Peoples anxiety increases as individuals perceive greater discrepancy between the audiences expectations and their own self-representation (Woodruff et al., 2014).According to a study made by Mishra and Suar (2011), the feeling of anxiety can be combined together with the feeling of guilt, anger, hopelessness and denial. In this study, we are also determined to find out if students feel unmotivated in life, guilty, hopeless and also depressed. As Ree et al. (2008) assert in their study, the cognitive cluster aims to capture features of anxiety that are directly related to thoughts (e.g., worry, intrusive thoughts, difficulty concentrating) (as cited in Van Dam et al., 2013, p.71)

The objectives of this study are:1. To evaluate the main factors that lead to anxiety among IIUM students2. To identify the symptoms that contribute to anxiety among IIUM studentsThe two research questions that are needed to be answered are:1. What are the most common factors that lead to anxiety among IIUM students?2. What symptoms indicate anxiety among IIUM students?

MethodologyRespondents of the StudyIn this research, 30 undergraduate students from International Islamic University Malaysia have been randomly chosen to participate in this study. They consisted of 5 male students and 17 female students from various kulliyahs which are Kulliyah of Economics and Management Sciences, Kulliyah of Law, Kulliyah of Engineering, Kulliyah of Architecture and Environmental Design, Kulliyah of Human Science and also Kulliyah of Information and Communication Technology. Random sampling was used in this study because all IIUM students were having at least low level of anxiety and we assumed there is no difficulty in answering the questionnaire.Materials/Research InstrumentsThe material used to carry out this research is paper-based questionnaire that was designed based on reviews from relevant literature. We prepared a set of 10 questions, some of them adapted from an online questionnaire regarding anxiety. The questions were separated into two sections. The first section consists of the information of respondents profiles and five questions about the factors lead to anxiety. The second section consists of five questions, assessing respondents responses that were rated according to a Likert-Scale ranging from Totally Agree to Totally Disagree. A note was written on top of the questionnaire to inform the respondents of the purpose of this study and to ensure that the data collected will be used solely for academic purposes.ProcedureWe used paper-based questionnaire for this research and chose random students at the university library to answer the questionnaires. The questionnaires were distributed there because it is the place where all the students from various kulliyah could be found. We did not distribute all 22 questionnaires in a day. Instead, we took about one week to fully distribute all 22 questionnaires. The questionnaires were collected after they completed all the answers and the data was analysed using the frequency counts to evaluate the response of the subjects. The result will be presented in the form of graphs and pie charts.Data AnalysisData obtained from questionnaires was then tallied and recorded into Microsoft Excel spreadsheet. Later, the data inputted in Microsoft Excel were translated into bar graphs and pie charts. The data was analysed after assessing all the visual representations that was drawn up using data obtained.

ResultsOne purpose of this questionnaire was to investigate the factors that may lead the students to feel anxious. Therefore, we asked the students to choose the factor that may lead them to have anxiety. The three factors are fear of negative evaluation, avoidance of new situations or peers and general social avoidance. The results obtained can be seen in Figure 1.1 below.

Figure 1.1: Factors that lead to feeling anxious among IIUM studentsFigure 1.1 illustrates the percentage of the respondents about the factors lead to feeling anxious among IIUM students. The three factors that were identified in this study are fear of negative evaluation, avoidance of new situations or peers and lastly, general social avoidance which means that it is hard for the students to ask others to do things with them.Based on figure 1.1, it shows that 73% of the respondents chose fear of negative evaluation or fear of what others say about them to be the major factor that may lead them to feel anxious. This shows that the students have low self confidence and feel less optimistic when it comes to other peoples perception of them. The second factor that yields about 18% was avoidance of new situation or peers. This shows that, students tend to avoid being in new situations such as university programs that involve a lot of students that come from different races, ethnics and countries. They fear to be in this situation and feels only comfortable to mingle around with their friends.Meanwhile, the general social avoidance was a factor chose by 9% of the respondents. This small percentage indicates that general social avoidance such as asking others to do things with them was the least likely factor to lead them to fell nervous or tensed. This is because as students, we are always working in groups for most of the subjects to enhance the communication skills, exchanging idea and also for soft skills.The second purpose of this study is to investigate the symptoms of anxiety among IIUM students. Different symptoms of anxiety can be found. We asked the students to choose the three things that they are most bothered by where the choices are all symptoms of anxiety. Therefore, the results can be seen in figure 1.2.

Figure 1.2: Symptoms of anxiety among IIUM studentsFigure 1.2 discuss about the symptoms of anxiety that were experienced by the IIUM students. Eight symptoms that were identified in this study were chest pain, difficulty breathing, easily tired, insomnia, cold or sweaty hands, problem concentrating, racing heart, muscle tension and lastly, choking. What is life?Based on Figure 1.2, it is proven that most of the students felt easily tired which yield about 73% and lead them to feel anxious or tensed. This shows that most students dont have enough rest or sleep due to the abundant of assignment or projects and some of them hold positions in the club of society which require them to involve in meeting or program.The second highest symptom was a problem in concentrating. Some of the respondents felt that they have difficulty in concentrating in class. This is due to tense, or easily tired which brings the problem of concentrating or focusing in class that later will affect their academic performance.However, choking symptoms was totally not experienced by the students when they feel anxious, tensed or worried. It shows that choking not agreed by the respondents as the symptoms of anxiety.The next chart shows the level of agreeableness to the difficulty in concentrating and remembering things. We have chosen to investigate this because one of the most common symptoms of anxiety is difficulty in concentrating and remembering things. University students have a lot to deal with including examinations, presentations and assignments. Therefore, we asked them the level of agreeableness to the difficulty in concentrating and remembering things and the result is shown in figure 1.3 below.

Figure 1.3: The level of Likert-scale on difficulty concentrating and remembering thingsThe second section based on Likert-scale which shows the result for the factors lead to anxiety among IIUM students. 23% of respondents Agreed having difficulty concentrating and remembering things especially for the presentation and examination while, 9% of respondents totally agreed with the question. However, about 45% of respondents were answered it neutral which is they likely agreed or disagreed to the question. It shows that, half of the student experienced difficulty in concentrating and remembering things such as in presentation or examination that later lead them to feel anxious, tensed, worried and less confidents.DiscussionThis study was conducted to evaluate the viewpoint of the International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM) students on level of anxiety. The objectives of this study were to discuss the main factors that lead to anxiety as well as symptoms of anxiety that experienced by the IIUM students. This study used a quantitative methodological approach with questionnaire as an instrument to collect the data. The questionnaires were distributed to thirty randomly selected IIUM students that came from several of kulliyahs in IIUM. The result of the questionnaire were analysed and illustrated in form of graphs and pie charts. The finding of this study that the most common factor that lead the students to feel anxious or tensed was fear of negative evaluation by the others. Besides that the main symptoms of anxiety were easily tired and difficulty in concentrating and remembering things.Based on research question 1, it was found that the fear of negative evaluation was the main factor of anxiety. The results showed that 73% of the respondents fear of what others say about them. According to studies done by Greca and Lopez (1998), one of the highest contributing factors for social anxiety is indeed fear of negative evaluation. As mentioned by Barlow (2002), the cognitive component of anxiety is when a person fears to be judged by others. This can negatively impact a persons life. This is because that person will constantly over think things even in small situations. If the condition prolongs, a person might be suffering from a much serious condition which is anxiety disorder. This happens when a person can hardly control their anxiety. The result obtained also support Woodruff et al. (2014) who mentioned that a person anxiety increases with whenever there is a high difference between self-representation and audiences expectations.According to research question 2, we found that most symptoms of anxiety on the respondents are that they feel easily tired and have problem concentrating and remembering things. The study made by Barlow (2002) did not mention these two symptoms but they found that the symptoms of anxiety that can be felt are sweating, heart palpitations and blushing. The signs of anxiety on people are shown differently based on their level of anxiety. However, based on a study made by Ree et al., (2008), some of the features of anxiety include worry and problem concentrating which supports the result obtained.

Conclusion and RecommendationBased on this study, we can conclude that most of the students have low level of confidence and fear to be negatively evaluated by others or what other people thought about them. This is because most of the students fear to communicate in English as medium language used in IIUM was English language. Some of them are afraid to speak in English with other students that come from other kulliyahs or other countries. Hence, they end up fear of being evaluated by others. Besides, it was also found that main symptoms experienced by the IIUM students was easily feel tired and problem in concentrating and remembering things. It shows that due to the abundant of workload or assignments or projects lead them to feel tired and problem in concentrating especially in class. Hence, they will feel tensed and worried due to incomplete or unfinished assignment and difficulty to concentrate and focus in class that later will affect their academic performance. This study has several implications for future academic purpose. The academic of student affair or consultancy department may refer to this study to revise and advise the students by knowing the main factor that contribute to anxiety level from the viewpoint of the IIUM students. When they experienced the symptoms of anxiety, they will try to manage their time and take steps to overcome the issues such as mingle around with other students or attend program or seminars provide by the club or society in IIUM. Besides that, the students may refer to this study to improve their level of anxiety and be able to avoid later on and this be useful when they are employed because later in workforce they will be experience with greater tense and workload. Meanwhile, the lecturers will know the level of anxiety of students and come out with and effective and creative idea to help the students to improve their level of anxiety through participation in class or so on. However, several limitations were experienced in this study. Some respondents are not answered completely all the questions because they dont experienced the symptoms before and most of the respondents was a female students. This result will be biased due to imbalance between the number of female and male respondents and mostly female respondents they tend to be emotional in answering the questionnaire. In future, the researchers who are interested to conduct this study are recommended to improve the number of respondents and questions in questionnaire so that the result will be unbiased and they are advised to look a respondents that have experience on anxiety to make the research become reliable for a future academic purposes. ReferencesMishra, S., & Suar, D., (2011). Effects of Anxiety, Disaster Education, and Resources on Disaster Preparedness Behaviour. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 42(5), 1069-1087. doi:10.1111/j.1559-1816.2011.00853.xGreca, A. M. L., & Lopez, N., (1998). Social Anxiety Among Adolescents: Linkages with Peer Relations and Friendships. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 26(2), 83-94. Retrieved from Springer Link database.Seel, R. (2001). Anxiety and incompetence in the large group: A psychodynamic perspective. Journal of Organisational Change Management, 14(5), 493-503. Retrieved from Emerald Insight database.Clare, T. S., Menzies, R. G., Onslow, A. P., Thompson, R., & Block, S. (2009). Unhelpful thoughts and beliefs linked to social anxiety in stuttering: development of a measure. International Journal of Language & Communication Disorders, 44(3), 338-351. doi:10.1080/13682820802067529Van Dam, N. T., Gros, D. F., Earleywine, M., & Antony, M. M., (2013). Establishing a trait anxiety that signals likelihood of anxiety disorders. Anxiety, Stress & Coping: An International Journal, 26(1), 70-86. doi:10.1080/10615806.2011.631525Appendix

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