Subject Matter Anxieties (continued)

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Stodolsky (1985) also suggests that mathematics is an area in which ability, in the sense of a stable trait, is believed to play a dominant role in performance-either one has the ability or one does not. And if one lacks ability in mathematics, nothing can be done about it. By contrast, people generally believe that performance in other subjects, like reading or social studies, can be improved with practice and effort; they hold an "incremental" theory of ability.

There is consistent evidence that females suffer more from mathematics anxiety than do males (Hembree, 1990; Pajares & Urdan, 1996; Randhawa, 1994; Wigfield & Meece, 1988). Some researchers have proposed that mathematics anxiety contributes to observed gender differences in mathematics achievement and course enrollment, but the one study that actually assessed anxiety and enrollment plans found no relationship (Meece, Wigfield, & Eccles, 1990).

There is little agreement on the reasons for such gender differences. Ability differences, socialization differences, differences in the level of self-confidence, and the number of mathematics courses taken have all been proposed as explanations. Whatever the reasons for the frequency and intensity of mathematics anxiety, particularly among females, it is a problem that warrants special attention by educational researchers and practitioners.

The good news is that interventions to reduce math anxiety have been successful. Sgoutas-Emch and Johnson (1998) found that writing in a journal about frustrations and feelings reduced college students' anxiety in a statistics course.

Writing

Perhaps everyone, at one time in their lives, experiences a certain amount of panic facing a blank piece of paper or computer screen, especially if the due date for a written product—a paper for a class or a report for work—is close at hand. "Writer's block" is so debilitating for some that they avoid courses and professions that require writing. (See Daly & Miller, 1975b; Daly, Vangelisti, & Witte, 1988; Rose, 1985; Selfe, 1985.)

Although psychoanalytic explanations have been suggested (Barwick, 1995; Grundy, 1993), the few studies that have been done suggest that writing anxiety reflects some of the same dynamics that explain general achievement anxiety. Writing anxiety, like general achievement anxiety, is associated with relatively low expectations for success as well as lower writing quality (Daly, 1985; Pajares & Valiante, 1997). Rose's (1985) research on writer's block makes it very clear that the causes are usually multifaceted, and that although they may have their roots in early familial experiences, later and current experiences in writing contexts are also important.

Researchers have developed a measure of writing anxiety (Daly & Miller, 1975a), which has been shown to be more strongly associated with writing performance than a more general measure of achievement anxiety (Richmond & Dickson-Markman, 1985). Studies using the measure have found some gender differences, with females showing somewhat less writing anxiety than males. People high in writing anxiety were also high on reading anxiety and anxiety about public speaking and interpersonal communication, but relatively low on math anxiety (Daly, 1985).