Conclusion

From looking at both the primary and secondary research I can conclude that there are gender differences in the main causes of anxiety as well as personality differences. The gender differences are such that my hypothesis is supported by females in the fact that failure to achieve goals is the greatest cause of stress. However the results found for males do not support my hypothesis because it shows that the main cause of anxiety for males is exams even though they feel very little increase in pressure around exams. I believe this is because they are less bothered by the expectations of others and they are not that concerned with the goals they set for themselves. What causes the anxiety is actually having to complete the exam and not the end result of that exam. Personality traits can also predict the likelihood of a student experiencing high levels of anxiety and not dealing with it well. As the secondary research showed students who are more conscientious are better able to deal with anxiety than those who are not. Secondary research also supports my hypothesis in the fact that increased levels in anxiety can lead to students missing school and college, which then negatively affects their achievement These changing factors demonstrate the fact that although some of the evidence does support my initial hypothesis there are actually many different factors which influence anxiety experienced and the effect it has on the student. What has really been highlighted though is the fact that many students feel they are not reaching their potential and that they do not feel they are receiving adequate help. In order for the results of this project to be have been more accurate there would have needed to be a bigger sample in order to show a good representation of the population. A different sampling method would have also worked better as opportunity sampling will not get you a wide spread of participants as they only come from one area and may be quite similar. A better sampling method would have been a systematic sample as this would give you more of a variation of participants as it looks a the whole population, however this involves having a list of the full target audience and it can make it difficult to ask all of the chosen participants. The findings may not be generalisable because the participants are all form a similar social and geographical background so does not represent the experiences of all A-level students. The research method used was a questionnaire this can have made the results less accurate because the participants may not necessarily give the correct answer for whatever reason. It also only gives a limited amount of information and is very specific.