Statistics anxiety or statistics fear? A reinforcement sensitivity theory perspective on psychology students’ statistics anxiety, attitudes, and self-efficacy

This research investigates the role of reinforcement sensitivity theory (RST) in statistics education among two distinct samples of undergraduate psychology students. In Study 1, 318 students in a third-year statistics course completed self-report measures of RST, anxiety, attitudes, and self-efficacy concerning the study of statistics. In Study 2, 577 students from first-, second-, and third-year statistics courses participated. Controlling for age and gender, both studies found students who were high in goal-drive persistence reported lower statistics anxiety, higher statistics self-efficacy and more favourable attitudes toward learning statistics, while students who were high in the tendency to avoid threat reported higher statistics anxiety. Those with a more sensitive behavioural inhibition system reported greater statistics anxiety and less favourable attitudes, in Study 2 but not Study 1. Results indicate that RST dimensions account for as much as 23% of additional variance in statistics anxiety, 18% in statistics self-efficacy, and 11% in attitudes, after controlling for age and gender. These studies highlight the utility of RST dimensions, notably goal-drive persistence, threat sensitivity, and behavioural inhibition, in providing critical information as to personality differences among students that need to be considered when developing programs targeting statistics anxiety, attitudes, and self-efficacy.