Emotional factors affecting mathematical performance

Abstract

Numbers are present in almost every aspect of our lives. During our studies, most of the time we deal with them in mathematics lessons. It is important how we approach them. Either we are interested in them or we may not want to use them and we are afraid of them. This fear can overwhelm us, generate stress and can lead to anxiety. Stress can also cause psychosomatic symptoms. Anxiety also manifests itself in mathematical performance as an inhibitory factor irrespective of whether the student possesses the necessary abilities for learning mathematics or not. The fear of mathematics consumes the reserves of work memory, inhibits the process of abstraction and makes learning difficult. In this study, we aimed at exploring the sources of mathematical anxiety that interact with each other and maintain anxiety, thereby affecting performance.