Students (n=1420) from Belgium and Quebec and students (n=614) of the Marne department were questioned to study the different defense mechanisms they employed against mathematics. Six main ways of grouping the responses were identified: (1) phobic avoidance; (2) repression; (3) projection; (4) reparation; (5) introjection; and (6) reversal into…

Stress inoculation training and systematic desensitization treatment provided to 45 college students resulted in significantly lower mathematics anxiety ratings and less subjective distress reported prior to a mathematics aptitude test, with no significant changes found in a delayed treatment control. No treatment group differences were found for…

Studies the role that math anxiety played in the poor performance of students, what promoted such feelings, and what teachers can do to lessen this anxiety. Students and adults sense the urgency to understand the mathematical material, and that urgency often leads to anxiety when they cannot arrive at a solution. (ASK)

Analyzes liberal arts students' attitudes and views towards mathematics and social responsibility as they tutored inner city at-risk youths as part of a mathematics course in which they kept journals. Indicates that students' ideas about what it means to be socially responsible tended to become less egocentric. (Author/ASK)

Explores possible individual differences effects on school mathematics performance and feelings of difficulty (FOD) of 243 subjects, ages 13 to 15 years. Considers cognitive ability, affect, age, and gender. Finds that ability directly influenced performance whereas both ability and affect influenced FOD. Discusses the results. (CMK)

Using data from the Longitudinal Study of American Youth (LSAY), we aimed to determine the causal ordering between mathematics anxiety and mathematics achievement. Results of structural equation modelling showed that, across the entire junior and senior high school, prior low mathematics achievement significantly related to later high mathematics…

This investigation traced changes in anxiety for teaching mathematics (ATM) among pre-service elementary school teachers (n=36) enrolled in a mathematics methods course by analyzing their weekly journal entries. Journal entries were coded for high level of ATM (ATM-high) or absence of ATM (ATM-absent) during the first class session, as well as…

An experience in attempting to transform research into practice is described, with questions raised about the relationship between research and practice. The author begins by describing the two research traditions which exerted the most force on the design of the program. How the philosophy and findings of those traditions were interpreted and…

The attribution patterns of 132 Japanese-American and 63 Anglo-American students at the University of Hawaii were studied in 1984. Students were administered the Mathematics Attribution Scale as well as measures of achievement motivation, anxiety, and self-esteem. Japanese-American students were found to have lower achievement motivation and…

Twenty-four computer programs were developed to supplement a course in statistics required of psychology majors. Thirteen are tutorial in nature. The rest provide the user with sample measures and demonstrate solution of a statistical problem (e.g., finding the product-moment correlation). Part of a CAUSE project to increase science literacy and…

This study addresses three questions: (1) whether sex is related to ability and interest in computers; (2) whether a relationship exists between the presence of a computer in the home and a child's ability and interest in computing; and (3) the combination of factors that account for students' perceptions of success in developing programming…

A chronology of the development of a mathematics anxiety scale is given. Included are a model describing six facets of mathematics anxiety and the eighteen items used on the anxiety scale. Stability and internal consistency measures are reported, and the scale is correlated with measures of mathematical confidence and general anxiety towards…

College students (n=491) were sampled to determine the extent to which attitudes toward mathematics can be viewed as reflections of other personality characteristics, as opposed to manifestations of a single underlying attitude toward mathematics. (Author/PN)

In the attempt to account for striking differences between learning activities of immigrant mathematics students from the former Soviet Union and of their native Israeli classmates, the authors introduce the notions of "actual" and "designated identities." These identities are subsequently presented as important factors that…

A shortened version of the Mathematics Anxiety Rating Scale (MARS) was developed. It yielded a coefficient alpha reliability estimated at .98, correlated .97 with the original MARS, and showed relationships with state, trait, and test anxiety parallel to the original MARS. It should be useful for mathematical course-related applications.…