A Stress-Inoculation Treatment Procedure for Test Anxiety in Elderly Students Page: 90

                                
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treatment and the expectations the procedure generates for
improvement. It is possible that this factor is more
responsible for change than the actual "active ingredients
of the treatment procedure.
Summary
The results of this study do not support either of
the main hypotheses, that a stress-inoculation treatment
procedure would significantly reduce self-reported anxiety
and fear of negative evaluation or that such reductions
would lead to improvement on fluid and crystallized intel-
ligence abilities. There are nonsignificant trends in the
data which tentatively suggest that both a stress-inoculation
procedure and an equally credible attention-placebo group
might be effective in bringing about reductions in self-
reported anxiety.
Nonsignificant trends toward improvements in fluid
intelligence under certain conditions are noted. The data
suggest that a credible treatment procedure can be effec-
tive in alleviating dysfunctional test anxiety in older
students. Further research is needed to explore the "active"
ingredients in cognitive-behavioral treatment procedures
and to differentiate the effects of such a procedure from
potentially potent nonspecific, placebogenic effects.
Efforts should be made to investigate fully the relationship
between credibility and expectancy for improvement and
outcome in studies of this kind.