EFFECTS OF RATIONAL-EMOTIVE THERAPY ON PSYCHOPHYSIOLOGICAL AND REPORTED MEASURES OF TEST ANXIETY AROUSAL

Audio-taped lectures, taped therapy session models and homework assignments were designed to reduce irrational beliefs associated with test anxiety within Ellis'' rational-emotive therapy (RET) approach. The initial sample consisted of 148 university students. Comparisons with an attention placebo counseling program, which was established to be equally credible by a post-experiment inquiry, and a no-treatment group found the FET subjects to show significantly lower skin conductance responses to a test anxiety visualization and lower reported anxiety on a questionnaire. Skin conductance responses to an alternative test anxiety visualization did not show treatment effects.