SOCIAL INTELLIGENCE IN RELATION TO TEST ANXIETY AMONG HIGHER SECONDARY LEVEL STUDENTS

Social Intelligence (SI) is the ability to get along well with others, and to get them to cooperate with others. A continued pattern of toxic behavior indicates a low level of social intelligence the inability to connect with people and influence them effectively. Test anxiety is a combination of physiological over-arousal, tension and somatic symptoms, along with worry, dread and fear of failure that occurs before or during test situations. The study aimed to examine the social intelligence in relation to test anxiety among higher secondary level students. The investigator adopted survey method to study the social intelligence in relation to test anxiety among higher secondary level students. For this study a sample of 300 higher secondary level students from six Govt and Private schools which are situated in and around Tirupur district in Tamil Nadu were selected by the investigator using simple random sampling technique. The findings reveal that there is a significant relationship between social intelligence and test anxiety among higher secondary level students.


Introduction
Social intelligence is one of the thrust areas in the educational researches. Social intelligence is the ability to understand the society, and its heartbeats for fruitful and effective involvement in the circulatory process of society like oxygen in human body. The other side of social intelligence is not empty. It is comprised of confusions, chaos, problems, aggressions, and agitations. Aggression is one of the opposites of social intelligence and is any form of behaviour directed towards the goal of harming or injuring another living one who is motivated to avoid  such treatments. Intelligence is generally defined as an aggregate global capacity of an individual to act purposefully, think rationally and deal effectively to a given situation. When it is connected socially it becomes Social Intelligence.
Other than the conventional forms of measurement of intelligence there are other forms or types of intelligence those we can use in the assessment and evaluation of people. The innate capabilities of human beings have various facets and should not only be limited to one or two measurements. In fact, there are multiple types of intelligence that may appear in various intensities and combinations for people. Some may be lacking with one and some may have a good mixture of most intelligence. That variety of combinations stems from the development of the person and is largely determined by the type of environment and the biological factors relating to the development of such intelligence.
Test anxiety is a physiological condition in which people experience extreme stress, anxiety, and discomfort during and/or before taking a test. This anxiety creates significant barriers to learning and performance. Research suggests that high levels of emotional distress have a direct correlation to reduced academic performance and higher overall student drop-out rates. Test anxiety can have broader consequences, negatively affecting a student's social, emotional and behavioural development, as well as their feelings about themselves and school.
Test anxiety can also be labeled as anticipatory anxiety, situational anxiety or evaluation anxiety. Some anxiety is normal and often helpful to stay mentally and physically alert. When one experiences too much anxiety, however, it can result in emotional or physical distress, difficulty concentrating, and emotional worry. Inferior performance arises not because of intellectual problems or poor academic preparation, but because testing situations create a sense of threat for those experiencing test anxiety; anxiety resulting from the sense of threat then disrupts attention and memory function. Researchers suggest that between 25 and 40 percent of students experience test anxiety. Students with disabilities and students in gifted educations classes tend to experience high rates of test anxiety. Students who experience test anxiety tend to be easily distracted during a test, experience difficulty with comprehending relatively simple instructions, and have trouble organizing or recalling relevant information.

HYPOTHESIS 1:
There will be a difference in Social Intelligence and test anxiety among higher secondary level students.   Table 1 exhibits the result of the difference in social intelligence among higher secondary level students. According to the table totally 29 % of higher secondary level students belong to low level of social intelligence, 45% of the higher secondary level students belong to moderate level of social intelligence, and 26% of higher secondary level students belong to high level of social intelligence.
Also the table reveals that totally 28% of higher secondary level students belong to low level of test anxiety, 43.6% of the higher secondary level students belong to moderate level of test anxiety, and 28.33% of higher secondary level students belong to high level of test anxiety. So the hypothesis No: 1 is accepted and it is inferred that there is a difference in Social Intelligence and test anxiety among higher secondary level students.

HYPOTHESIS 2:
There will be a significant mean score difference in test anxiety between the groups based on type of school among Higher Secondary level students. TOTAL 300 The Table 2 shows that mean score difference in test anxiety between the groups based on type of school among Higher Secondary level students. The calculated t-value is statistically not significant at 0.05 levels and hence, the hypothesis 7 is rejected. It can be concluded that there is no significant difference in test anxiety between the groups based on type of school among Higher Secondary level students.

HYPOTHESIS 3:
There will be a relationship between social intelligence and test anxiety among higher secondary level students. The table 3 shows the relation between social intelligence and test anxiety among higher secondary level students. According to this table the correlation coefficient value (.000) between social intelligence and test anxiety is statistically not significant at the 0.01 level and it shows zero correlation. Hence this hypothesis 8 is rejected and it can be concluded that there is no correlation between social intelligence and test anxiety among higher secondary level students.

Conclusion
The findings reveal that 45% of higher secondary students belong to moderate level of social intelligence and 43.6% of higher secondary students belong to moderate level of test anxiety. But type of school has no significant difference in test anxiety among Higher Secondary level. Govt school have better mean value than private school. Finally the present study it is found that there is no relationship between social intelligence and test anxiety among higher secondary level students.