PROCESOS DE ENERGÍA TÉRMICA

In question three, I asked: ‘In general, would you describe yourself as person who is: confident, anxious, or it depends?’. Students (M1, M2, M3, M6, M7, M9) answered, “It

depends on the situation” while M4, M5, M8, M10 and M11 said that they were confident

with no man reporting he would describe himself as anxious although later in the interview some did talk about anxiety. The difficulty of expressing emotions for some Libyan men is an example of the social and cultural functions and contexts of emotions discussed in Chapter Three, and I will return to this in Chapter Seven when I will talk about the

influence of the Libyan cultural norms and traditions on emotions. The cultural function of emotion did, I believe, affect this study, as I noted and explained in Chapter Five when I explained this was one of difficulties when collecting data and when cultural gendered norms may have resulted in very brief responses as noted at the beginning of this Chapter. Responses of four males (M1, M2, M3, M9) indicated that their anxiety depends on the situation and their responses revealed that they experienced state anxiety, anxiety which

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occurs as a result of outside factors as explained in Chapter Four. M1, for example, said, I

often feel anxious when thinking of my study and my future, but I am confident in situations where I think I am doing the right thing”. And M2 reported, “I am usually confident in everyday life but sometimes I become anxious in situations regarding my study or my mother’s sickness, something like that”. M7 said, “There are many situations which would make me anxious such as the current situation in Libya, life became difficult, and we don’t know what is coming after this war”. M9 also stated, “I feel confident, for example, when I can adapt to the most difficult circumstances, while I feel anxious when in situations where I cannot manage them.

The responses of M6 showed that he experienced situational specific anxiety, anxiety that is generated consistently over time in certain situations as I explained in Chapter Four. M6 said: “I feel anxious only when I prepare myself for an interview for a job, for example, or

when I prepare for exams”. In contrast M4, M5, M8, M10’s responses suggested that they

are relatively confident. For instance, M5 said “I always take things easy and that’s maybe

why I am confident”. M8 similarly reported, “I am confident in my work, study, and communications with people”. However, the response of M4 was unique and he stated, “I am confident in everything I do, and there is nothing makes me anxious”. His answer

revealed that he might have a very high level of self-confidence and, at the most extreme, a form of narcissism as I indicated in Chapter Four.

The women’s responses showed they say that they are generally less confident than men. W1 and W5 said that they are confident, but for W2, W3, W4, W7, W8, W10 and W11 it depends on the situation, and W6 and W9 describe themselves as anxious. W1, for

example reported, “I am a confident person when I meet new people, talk to teachers, or go

alone to shop and such things”. In order to know which type of anxiety students

experienced, I included a fourth question, “Depending on the answer above, in which situations are you confident or anxious?”. W5 said:

Generally, I’m a confident person … I think I am confident most of the time but certainly I feel anxious and frightened in dangerous situations like our current situation in the city, I feel anxious when I hear raised voices because I might think it is bombing or the sound of the aircraft.

It appears that W5 has learnt to associate raised voices with bombings so W5’s anxiety overlaps with fear or might be as a result of fear of her dangerous situation (see Chapter Four). I might suggest that W5 may experience situational anxiety. However, other

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explained in Chapter Four, with uneasiness and restlessness because of external provocations. For example, W2 said:

It depends on the situations. Sometimes I am confident but sometimes not … I feel confident when I do everything I used to do before, but I feel a little anxious when I try something new or meet new people, for example.

W8 similarly stated, “It depends on the situation. But I am often a confident person … I get

anxious, for example, when I meet people for the first time or go for a job interview”.

However, W6 and W9 seem more obviously to experience trait anxiety, as discussed in Chapter Four, as a constant characteristic of the personality as Levitt (1980) explained. They reported that they feel anxious in most of their behaviors and so anxiety may be one of their characteristics and part of their personality. W9 said:

I am a very anxious person … I am always anxious and my mother often blames me for my anxiety and tells me to feel confident, but I cannot. I feel frightened even about trivial things. And here in the school I cannot go even to the cafeteria alone. I need a companion and when I go shopping with my mother I don’t dare to talk to the shop assistants, my mother speaks with them … I often feel that I am in a dangerous situation, and I think that everything I do could put me in trouble, I frequently hesitate before I do things.

This kind of anxiety, as Richmond and McCroskey (1998) suggest, is trait like

Communication Anxiety which measures how, generally, individuals feel across situations and time periods. Individuals such as W6 and W9 may be more willing to avoid

communication, in any situation, than others and that will extend to, but might not be only be related to, classroom learning and speaking situations.

After examining students’ general levels of anxiety, the interviews focused on their experiences, if any, of FLA, the main topic of this research and discussed in the next section.