Abstract:

The purpose of this study was to review the relationship between self-perceived ego states of twelfth-graders who prepare for university entrance exams (YGS (the transition to higher education examination) and LYS (undergraduate placement exam)) and exam anxiety levels. Working group consisted of 535 (Female= 307; Male= 228) high school final year students who study in 6 (six) public Anatolian High School in Çankaya District of Ankara Province in the 2014-2015 academic year. The age range of students in the working group varies between 16 and 19. Data relating to ego states that is one of the variables of research were obtained by Ego State Scale (Arı, 1989); data relating to another variable, exam anxiety were obtained by Exam Anxiety Scale (Öner, 1990). Moreover, demographic information about students was collected by using the Personal Information Form. With reference to research results, the exam anxiety level of twelfth-graders (both female and male students) is above average. Exam anxiety of female students is significantly higher in comparison with male students in terms of both fulltest scores and subdimensions (delusion and affective) of the test. It is seen when looking at ego states that students perceive themselves in Nurturing Parent Ego State most (48%); students perceive themselves in Natural Child Ego State in the second place (30%); students perceive themselves in Criticizing Parent Ego State in the third place (4%); finally, the same students perceive themselves in Adaptive Child Ego State in the fourth place (6%). About the relation between ego states and exam anxiety; there is seen a leastwise significant relationship between delusion dimension that is the subdimension of Exam Anxiety Scale and Adult Ego State. We can observe when looking at the distribution of energy density based on ego states within the scope of theory of transactional Analysis that Energy is used in Nurturing Parent Ego State at most. Findings were discussed based on literature; there were also offered suggestions toward the next studies.

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