Anxiety and motivation in achievement settings: towards a systems-theoretical approach

Abstract

This paper presents a literature review and a theoretical model on the interrelations of anxiety and motivation in achievement settings. The results of a review of definitions and a computer-based search for evidence demonstrate that there is no clarity on such relationships either on a conceptual or on an empirical level. As a contribution to an alleviation of this state of affairs, the conceptual overlaps and boundaries between general and education-specific concepts of emotion and anxiety, on the one hand, and motivation, on the other hand, are analyzed. On this basis a theoretical model of the interconnections between anxiety and motivation is developed. Starting with simple and mostly empirically founded one-way functional assumptions, this model uses a systems-theoretical framework to represent the complexity of feedforward and feedback loops between anxiety, motivation and achievement.