Mathematics Education Research Journal 1994, Vol. 6, No.2, 131-143 What Makes a Person Mathsphobic?A Case Study . Investigating Affective, Cognitive and Social Aspects of a Trainee Teacher's Mathematical Understanding and Thinking Jean Carroll Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology The negative attitudes of some student teachers towards mathematics and the inadequacy of their mathematical backgrounds have been a concern of mathematics educators for many years. In an attempt to understand the interaction of cognitive and affective factors in mathematics learning, this paper presents a case study of one preservice early childhood/primary teacher education student's experiences of learning mathematics. The study identifies issues which are of concern both to teachers and to teacher educators. Introduction This research has arisen in response to observations and empirical research conducted during ten years of working with primary school teachers and student teachers who are learning mathematics. A significant aspect of this work is dealing with the negative aspects of affective factors, such as attitudes, appreciations, emotigns, feelings, beliefs and values, on classroom participation and performance when learning mathematics. Many people seem to be constrained by negative attitudes, beliefs and feelings about mathematics and mathematics learning. A number of teachers and student teachers exhibit and report a high level of anxiety in relation to their own mathematics learning. This is often associated with poor performance on tests of mathematical competency relating to a number of mathematical concepts. The author's experiences of and concerns about the interaction of mathematics learning and affective factors have been corroborated by researchers in Australia and internationally. McLeod (1992}, in a wide-ranging review of research into affective factors and mathematics learning, identified problems in defining the terms used in discussing affective factors. He noted that a lack of consistency in the definitions used resulted in a range of meanings for affective factors which often overlap each other, and also that the same terminology can be used to describe phenomena which are essentially different. Further definition of affective terms can be found in Corsini (1984) and Hart (1989). This study will not attempt to define components of affect. The meaning of the terms, as they arise, can be constructed from the context. Investigations of the interaction of affect and mathematics learning have been conducted by many researchers (see, for example, Bar-Tal, 1978; Buxton, 1981; Fennema, 1989; Hembree, 1990; Mandler, 1989; and McLeod, 1992). Research reported by Hart (1993) on this topic focused on teachers and student teachers. The effects of affective factors on mathematics learning are now clearly acknowledged and there is a growing body of research on the topic (see for example, Leder, 1993).