A Comparison of Trait and Social-Cognitive Theories
             To many people taking a test, or exam is not a big deal. On the other hand, many people find that taking a test is one of the worst possible things that they have to do. Many of those people feel that they do not perform as well as they could and get very frustrated with themselves. In fact, this a problem a lot of people seem to have. Having test anxiety causes people to get very anxious before a test or exam, and generally causes them to earn a score that is below their capability.
             This phenomenon of test anxiety has been approached in different ways throughout psychology. There are many contrasting viewpoints that help to explain test anxiety and why it exists in human nature. The question of why some people seem to get anxious before a test, and tend to score worse than their ability, provides an interesting approach to two different types of personality theories.
             This paper will contrast the trait theory and the social-cognitive theory, to provide a good look at why test anxiety exists and what causes this problem. This paper will look at what each theory is and how it explains the phenomenon of test anxiety. This paper will also look at research done on test anxiety.
             The first theory to look at is the trait theory. Traits are a main part of personality. "Personality refers to consistant patterns in the way individuals behave, feel, and think." This is a broad definition of traits, but traits are what makes us differ from one person to the next. There are many different trait theorists, and all have differing views of trait theories, so with that in mind most trait theorists try to come up with a set of common traits that can be used universally. This common set of traits is refered to as the Big Five. The Big Five was designed to use the personality traits that are most important to most people. An easy way to remember t
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