Goal Orientation, Test Anxiety and Aggression in Medical and Non-Medical Students

Abstract

The focus of the current study was to determine the goal orientation, test anxiety and aggression in medical and non-medical students. In this current research it was hypothesized that i) There is likely to be a correlation in goal orientation, test anxiety, and aggression. ii) Goal orientation, test anxiety, and aggression likely to vary in medical and non-medical students. iii) Demographic characteristics likely relate to goal orientation, test anxiety, and aggression in medical and non-medical students. The current study sample consisted of 300 medicals (n=202) and non-medical (n=99) students. The participant's ages range from 18 to 25 years (M=21.09, SD=1.93). These participants were selected through a convenient random sampling technique from medical college/university and non-medical college/university equally distributed in gender (Male=140) and (Female=160). Goal orientation scale (Was, 2006): Test Anxiety Questionnaire (Nist & Diehl,1990), The Aggression Scale (Orpinas & Frankowski 2001). For hypothesis testing, SPSS was applied to calculate the Independent Sample t-test, Pearson Product Moment Correlation and regression analyses. The results suggest that goal orientation has negative significant correlation with aggression and has positive significant correlation with test anxiety. The Independent sample t-test shows that aggression is significantly high in non-medical students while, goal orientation is more in medical students. Linear regression analysis revealed that aggression, marks and educations are the predictor of goal orientation, however aggression was found to be stronger predictor of goal orientation. This study can contribute in acknowledging the comparison between medical and non-medical students using present variables and more variables.