ERIC Number: EJ1325219
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2022-Feb
Pages: 15
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0022-0663
EISSN: N/A
Math Anxiety, Self-Centeredness, and Dispositional Mindfulness
Journal of Educational Psychology, v114 n2 p393-407 Feb 2022
Math anxiety has received increasing focus in recent years, yet the causes for developing math-anxiety remain unclear. Whereas previous research focused on physiological/environmental causes, we examine the link between math-anxiety, dispositional mindfulness, and self-centeredness (operationalized as self-prioritization and decentering). The experiment was performed by 81 participants, and included the original perceptual shape-matching task, measuring the self-prioritization effect, and our novel perceptual number/equation-matching tasks, developed to examine self-prioritization under math-anxiety activation. We also measured math-anxiety, dispositional mindfulness, and decentering (self-reports). We showed that (a) math anxiety was significantly and negatively correlated with dispositional mindfulness and decentering (though there was no correlation between self-prioritization and dispositional mindfulness); (b) self-prioritization was reduced among high math anxiety participants under math-anxiety activation only in the number-matching task (main finding); and (c) decentering was significantly correlated with self-prioritization in the number-matching task, stemming from the low math anxiety group. Our study is the first to indicate a link between math-anxiety, dispositional mindfulness, and self-centeredness. Discussing the main findings, we suggest three interpretations: (a) Negative mood induction may reduce self-prioritization by turning attention to internal states rather than to the stimuli; (b) math-anxiety activation may reduce emotional valence, which in turn reduces the advantage of self-processing; and (c) disruption of self-prioritization by induced negative mood can be due to a breakdown of the integrated-self (previously conceptualized as a high degree of connectedness between the cognitive/affective/motivational/behavioral systems).
Descriptors: Mathematics Anxiety, Self Concept, Negative Attitudes, Metacognition, Correlation, Emotional Response, Well Being, College Students, Adults, Foreign Countries, Personality Traits, Attention
American Psychological Association. Journals Department, 750 First Street NE, Washington, DC 20002. Tel: 800-374-2721; Tel: 202-336-5510; Fax: 202-336-5502; e-mail: order@apa.org; Web site: http://www.apa.org
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Higher Education; Postsecondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Israel (Haifa)
Identifiers - Assessments and Surveys: Mathematics Anxiety Rating Scale
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A