Searched for datasets that contained information about social media posts and anxiety. The dataset would need to have, at a minimum, text from social media posts and an identifier for whether or not the poster had anxiety. Two suitable datasets were ultimately identified. Additionally, preprocessing techniques such as data cleaning were researched in order to prepare for data analysis.

Investigated the causes of anxiety among international graduate students at Florida Tech and analyzed the results of a survey on that topic. The number of students who reported experiencing each cause of anxiety was reported, and causes of anxiety were identified as trait based (eg. bad study habits) or circumstantial (eg. being in a foreign country). Addditionally, students’ responses were analyzed for words with significant positive/negative connotations that may be associated with particular emotional states.

Conducted a review of existing literature regarding anxiety. The purpose of this review was to understand trait and academic anxiety and to understand the differences between the two. Other important concepts, such as the difference between anxiety and fear, were also explored in this review. The sources found during this review were recorded for potential use in future publications.