Understanding Math Anxiety

There appear to be three major domains which are involved with the development of mathematics anxiety. There is naturally some overlap between and among them and their boundaries are not well defined. In order to facilitate the development of this model of mathematics anxiety, the domains will be treated as though they are distinct and well defined.

            Associated with each domain is a continuum on which it is assumed that any student at any particular time may be found. The extremes of the continua are given and discussed below. The colour codes associate each continuum with its appropriate domain.

            The Social / Motivational Domain include those forces that act upon a person through the agencies of family, friends, and society as a whole. The continuum associated with this domain is Behaviour because although choices are influenced by others, they are ultimately made by the individual. The Behaviour Continuum has Pursuit and Avoidance as its opposites. These behaviours are logical consequences of the value place on mathematics, which is influenced by the attitudes of significant others and by society in general.

            The Intellectual / Educational Domain are comprised of those influences that are cognitive in nature. Specifically, they include but are not limited to, the knowledge and skills an individual has and or is expected to acquire and his or her perception of success or failure in them. Although others may “grade” an individual’s performance in this domain, people form their own evaluations of their performance in this area. The continuum associated with this domain is Achievement, where individual perception is paramount. Success and Failure are the extremes of the Achievement Continuum, and are the subjective evaluations regarding one’s acquisition or use of mathematics skill and concepts.

The Psychological / Emotional Domain are formed by the faculties that are affective in nature. It is largely comprised of the individual’s emotional history, reactions to stimuli and arousal states. Hence, the continuum associated with this domain is Feelings. At either end of the Feelings Continuum lie Anxiety and Confidence, although it could be argued that enjoyment in even further removed from anxiety that confidence. The assumption is that most students would find it puzzling to think of mathematics as enjoyable. Confidence can be equated with comfortableness, rather than pleasure.

 Research indicates that the more confidence a person has in mathematics, the more likely he or she is to be successful in such tasks (Betz, 1977, p22) and the more confidence the individual has toward learning and using mathematics, the more likely he or she is to pursue its study.

Anxiety reactions to mathematical situations may contribute to failure in mathematics (Tobias & Weissbrod, 1980, p63). In fact, a person who has high mathematics anxiety may actually be unable to perform well on test, and may be unable to learn in a mathematics classroom. Mathematics anxiety also directly contributes to avoiding mathematics (Tobias & Weissbrod, 1980, p63).