The Association Between Emotion Regulation, Physiological Arousal, and Performance in Math Anxiety

Emotion regulation (ER) strategies may reduce the negative relationship between math anxiety and mathematics accuracy, but different strategies may differ in their effectiveness. We recorded electrodermal activity (EDA) to examine the effect of physiological arousal on performance during different applied ER strategies. We explored how ER strategies might affect the decreases in accuracy attributed to physiological arousal in high math anxious (HMA) individuals. Participants were instructed to use cognitive reappraisal (CR), expressive suppression (ES), or a “business as usual” strategy. During the ES condition, HMA individuals showed decreases in math accuracy associated with increased EDA, compared to low math anxious (LMA) individuals. For both HMA and LMA groups, CR reduced the association between physiological arousal and math accuracy, such that even elevated physiological arousal levels no longer had a negative association with math accuracy. These results show that CR provides a promising technique for ameliorating the negative relationship between math anxiety and math accuracy.

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KECEMASAN MATEMATIKA DAN KEMAMPUAN BERPIKIR KRITIS MATEMATIS SISWA DI SEKOLAH MENENGAH PERTAMA

ALGORITMA Journal of Mathematics Education ◽

10.15408/ajme.v2i1.16312 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 2 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Faiq Zulfikar Hadi ◽

Maman Fathurrohman ◽

Cecep Anwar Hadi

Keyword(s):

Critical Thinking ◽

Junior High School ◽

Mathematics Anxiety ◽

Math Anxiety ◽

Junior High ◽

Negative Relationship ◽

High Anxiety ◽

Critical Thinking Ability ◽

Thinking Ability ◽

And Mathematics

This research is conducted by the low mathematics critical thinking ability of students in junior high schools, especially in VII grade .Students of VII grade commonly are transitioning from elementary school to junior high school could be a reason how low students of VII grade on mathematic critical thingking ability. The low ability mathematics critical thingking one of caused by mathematics anxiety. This study aims to find a relationship between math anxiety and mathematics critical thinking ability of VII grade at SMPN 5 Serang City. The method of this research is quantitative descriptive by making 110 students from VII grade as a sample. The data were collected using questionnaire and test. The result of this study indicate that 1) the ammount of correlation between math anxiety with critical thingking ability is -0,5991> rs table 0,1695, which means there is a significant and negative relationship between anxiety and critical thingking ability 2) the average of students’s mathematics critical thingking ability is different where score between students with low anxiety have a better score than student with mid anxiety and low anxiety,and students with mid anxiety have a better score than students with high anxiety, and students with mid anxiety have a better score than students with high anxiety.

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Smiling won’t make you feel better: Response-focused emotion regulation strategies have little impact on cognitive, behavioural, physiological, and subjective outcomes

10.31234/osf.io/9a2gn ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Nancy Bahl ◽

Allison Ouimet

Keyword(s):

Emotion Regulation ◽

Negative Emotion ◽

Electrodermal Activity ◽

Adaptive Strategy ◽

Expressive Suppression ◽

Memory Accuracy ◽

Cognitive Behavioural ◽

Regulation Strategies ◽

The Common ◽

Subjective Outcomes

Background and Objectives. Response-focused emotion regulation (RF-ER) strategies may alter people’s evoked emotions, influencing psychophysiology, memory accuracy, and affect. Researchers have found that participants engaging in expressive suppression (ES; a RF-ER strategy) experience increased sympathetic nervous system arousal, affect (i.e., higher subjective anxiety and negative emotion), and lowered memory accuracy. It is unclear, however, whether all RF-ER strategies exert maladaptive effects. Expressive dissonance (ED; displaying an expression opposite from how one feels) is a RF-ER strategy, and thus likely considered “maladaptive”. As outlined by the facial feedback hypothesis, however, smiling may increase positive emotion, suggesting it may be an adaptive strategy. We compared the effects of ED and ES to a control condition on psychophysiology, memory accuracy, and affect, to assess whether ED is an adaptive RF-ER strategy, relative to ES. Methods. We randomly assigned 144 female participants to engage in ED, ES, or to naturally observe, while viewing negative and arousing images. We recorded electrodermal activity and self-reported affect throughout the experiment and participants completed memory tasks. Results. There were no differences between groups across outcomes. Conclusion. Engaging in ES or ED may not lead to negative or positive impacts, shedding doubt on the common conclusion that specific strategies are categorically adaptive or maladaptive.

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The Influence of Emotion Regulation on Arousal and Performance in Math Anxiety

10.31219/osf.io/f3d59 ◽

2018 ◽

Author(s):

Rachel Pizzie ◽

David J. M. Kraemer

Keyword(s):

Emotion Regulation ◽

Skin Conductance ◽

Math Anxiety ◽

Negative Impact ◽

Electrodermal Activity ◽

Math Performance ◽

Emotion Regulation Strategies ◽

Math Task ◽

Regulation Strategies ◽

The Impact

Interventions targeting anxious emotion may be efficacious in reducing the negative impact of stress on mathematics performance. However, different regulation strategies may have different effects on arousal, which in turn may have different effects on task performance. In the present study, we recorded skin conductance levels in order to examine the effect of arousal on performance during different applied emotion regulation strategies. In particular, we were interested in how these emotion regulation strategies might affect the negative performance deficits attributed to anxious arousal in math anxious individuals. Participants were instructed to use cognitive reappraisal (distancing oneself from the stressful math task by thinking objectively about the problem in a low-stakes scenario), expressive suppression (maintaining a neutral emotional expression), or their own problem-solving technique (control). We recorded electrodermal activity (EDA), measuring skin conductance responses during each trial. Results indicate that HMA individuals show worse performance on the math task as well as increased sympathetic arousal (EDA) during the unregulated control condition for math. Notably, this arousal was reduced by reappraisal but exacerbated by suppression. Further, for both HMA and LMA groups, reappraisal reduced the impact of arousal on task accuracy, indicating that even elevated arousal levels no longer had a negative impact on math performance. Overall, these results show that reappraisal provides a promising technique for ameliorating the negative influence of math anxiety on math performance.

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Math Anxiety Is Related to Math Difficulties and Composed of Emotion Regulation and Anxiety Predisposition: A Network Analysis Study

Brain Sciences ◽

10.3390/brainsci11121609 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 11 (12) ◽

pp. 1609

Author(s):

Lital Daches Cohen ◽

Nachshon Korem ◽

Orly Rubinsten

Keyword(s):

Emotion Regulation ◽

Network Analysis ◽

Latent Variables ◽

Math Anxiety ◽

Emotional Experience ◽

Math Performance ◽

Current Evidence ◽

Theoretical Understanding ◽

Difficulties In Emotion Regulation ◽

And Performance

Current evidence suggests emotion regulation is an important factor in both math anxiety and math performance, but the interplay between these constructs is unexamined. Given the multicomponent structure of math anxiety, emotion regulation, and math performance, here, we aimed to provide a comprehensive model of the underlying nature of the links between these latent variables. Using the innovative network analysis approach, the study visualized the underlying links between directly observable and measurable variables that might be masked by traditional statistical approaches. One hundred and seventeen adults completed a battery of tests and questionnaires on math anxiety, emotion regulation, and math performance. The results revealed: (1) state math anxiety (the emotional experience in math-related situations), rather than trait math anxiety, was linked to anxiety predisposition, subjective valence of math information, and difficulties in emotion regulation; (2) the link between state math anxiety and math performance partialed out the link between trait math anxiety and performance. The study innovatively demonstrates the need to differentiate between traits and tendencies to the actual emotional experience and emotion regulation used in math anxiety. The results have important implications for the theoretical understanding of math anxiety and future discussions and work in the field.

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Smiling won't make you feel better, but it might make people like you more: Interpersonal and interpersonal consequences of response-focused emotion regulation strategies

10.31234/osf.io/bgfwq ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Nancy Bahl ◽

Allison Ouimet

Keyword(s):

Emotion Regulation ◽

Relationship Quality ◽

Facial Expressions ◽

Electrodermal Activity ◽

Memory Performance ◽

Experimental Studies ◽

Well Being ◽

Emotion Regulation Strategies ◽

Expressive Suppression ◽

Regulation Strategies

Emotion regulation (ER) is integral to well-being and relationship quality. Experimental studies tend to explore the intrapersonal effects of ER (i.e., impacts of ER on one’s self), and leave out the interpersonal impacts (i.e., the bidirectional impact of ER on the regulator and partner). The ER strategy expressive suppression shows maladaptive interpersonal and intrapersonal consequences during distressing conversations. We aimed to explore whether other ER strategies that modify facial expressions (i.e., expressive dissonance) have similar consequences to suppressing emotions. We randomly assigned 164 women participants to use expressive dissonance, expressive suppression, or to naturally express emotions, while engaging in a conversation task with a confederate. We observed intrapersonal outcomes, including electrodermal activity and self-reported affect throughout the experiment, and memory performance after. Blinded video coders assessed the conversation on interpersonal qualities (e.g., friendliness and likeability). There were no differences between conditions on intrapersonal outcomes. Participants engaging in expressive dissonance, however, were rated more positively, and participants in the expressive suppression condition were rated more negatively on interpersonal qualities, relative to the control condition. Although neither strategy appeared to impact the participant, intrapersonally, both notably influenced the observer’s impression of the participant.

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Work Engagement and Research Output Among Female and Male Scientists

Journal of Personnel Psychology ◽

10.1027/1866-5888/a000150 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 15 (2) ◽

pp. 55-65 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Lonneke Dubbelt ◽

Sonja Rispens ◽

Evangelia Demerouti

Keyword(s):

Work Engagement ◽

Research Output ◽

Research Performance ◽

Daily Work ◽

Time Control ◽

Science Technology ◽

And Performance ◽

And Mathematics ◽

Number Of Publications ◽

The Relationship

Abstract. Women have a minority position within science, technology, engineering, and mathematics and, consequently, are likely to face more adversities at work. This diary study takes a look at a facilitating factor for women’s research performance within academia: daily work engagement. We examined the moderating effect of gender on the relationship between two behaviors (i.e., daily networking and time control) and daily work engagement, as well as its effect on the relationship between daily work engagement and performance measures (i.e., number of publications). Results suggest that daily networking and time control cultivate men’s work engagement, but daily work engagement is beneficial for the number of publications of women. The findings highlight the importance of work engagement in facilitating the performance of women in minority positions.

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