Hypnosis vs. Progressive Muscle Relaxation as Cognitive-Therapeutic Interventions: Insights into Reducing EFL Learners’ Test Anxiety

Among the variety of intervention techniques for treating test anxiety that interferes with students' ability to demonstrate their real knowledge on examinations, cognitive-behavioral methods have been proposed to be effective. The current study aimed to investigate whether two cognitive-behavioral techniques (relaxation & hypnosis) would reduce test anxiety in female high school third year students. A randomized controlled trial was conducted through which 60 female high school third year students were randomly assigned to three groups of relaxation, hypnosis and control. A trained clinical psychologist delivered the relaxation and hypnosis sessions having assured hypnotizability. Each session lasted 40 minutes twice a week within two weeks. The relaxation and the hypnosis groups received progressive muscle relaxation and positive suggestions given to subconscious mind for managing exam anxiety, respectively; while, the control group received no treatment but the Test Anxiety Questionnaire as a pre-test. Matched t-tests run on pre-and post-test results showed that both treatments resulted in reduced test anxiety. Further ANCOVA and follow up Bonferoni test indicated a significant difference among the three groups, with hypnosis intervention as significantly the most successful one. Findings highlight the need to consider the role of psychology and cognitive-behavioral intervention techniques in reducing test anxiety