Typological Scale of Learning Anxiety: Eliminating Obstacles in Higher Education

Abstract

During life, people are exposed to situations that can trigger different anxiogenic responses, this research focuses particularly on the experiences of university students. Anxiety in learning points to cognitive imbalance when faced with new data. Although it can be evaluated according to the level: mild to severe, in this work we aim at categorization as a type of psychopedagogical basis in dialogue with M. Klein. Anxiety can be signaling, confusional, paranoid and depressive. The signaling reveals the internal imbalance, and the person who learns can rebalance, accommodating and assimilating the information and transforming it into knowledge. The other three types of learning anxiety require awareness aimed at rebalancing learning. When it converts into maladaptive, one position is confusional, characterized by the inability and/or difficulty in distinguishing aspects to be assimilated and accommodated between the new and the already established data. The other is paranoid, which is manifested by the feeling of destruction that accompanies new data. The third is depressive marked by the feeling of loss and insecurity in the face of what is unknown. When the typology of learning anxiety is identified, the ability to develop and cope with learning difficulties increases, promoting mental health.