Causes Of Academic Anxiety Among Tertiary Institution Students
[A CASE STUDY OF ILORIN METROPOLIS OF KWARA STATE]

CHAPTER TWO
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
Introduction
    In today’s society stress, worry and anxiety are pretty much a party of everyday life. One may feel anxiety when one is faced with challenges at work, at home, at school or financially, but the feeling usually posses and it does not affect our day-to-day activities. (Burton, 2005).
    There is need therefore, to investigate the causes of academic related anxiety among students of tertiary institutions in Kwara State and how this could affect he general standard of education in the country. In this chapter therefore, the related literature on academic related anxiety are reviewed under the following sub-headings.
Nature and meaning of anxiety
Theories of anxiety
Types of anxiety  
Causes of anxiety
Effect of anxiety
Factors influencing students performance
Summary of the review of related literature
Nature and meaning of anxiety
    Anxiety is defined as “a painful or apprehensive uneasiness of mind usually over an impending or anticipated ill, an abnormal and overwhelming sense of apprehension and fear often marked by psychological signs (as sweating, tension, and increased pulse), by doubt concerning the reality and nature of the threat, and by self doubt about one’s capacity to cope with anxiety. Anxiety encompasses a complex set of behavioural, cognitive and physiological responses to perceived threat. (SDM – IV – TR2, 2006) Diagnostic and statistics manual of Mental Disorder IV.
    Ezenwa (2006) opined that anxiety is a normal response to a perceived danger or threat to one’s well-being or self esteem. For college students, fear of inadequacy regarding academic work, problem with roominates, family or friends, work problems and related issues can be at the cause of serious anxiety San Diego (2005). Anxiety is referred to as psycho-physiological state of arousal characterized by increased mobilization of the body to action such as accelerated heartbeat, papillary, dilation, headache, dryness of mouth and soon. In some, cases, it affects voice temper and tone. It is emotional condition in which there is fear and uncertainty about the future.
    According to Veeraraghavan and Singh (2000) “Anxiety is often a diffuse, unpleasant and uncomfortable feeling of apprehension, accomplished by one or more bodily sensations that characteristically recur in the same manner in the person (p.11).
They further defined it from essentially of discomfort due to repeated stimuli that activate the geotropic, automatic nervous system and create an excessive discharge in the visceral and motor system” (p.14) closely associated with anxiety are fear and slaves. Fear can be synonymous with anxiety in that both bring about same types of physiological and behavioural manifestations. However, fear is distinguished from anxiety in that the threatening object is known and identifiable in the case of anxiety. According to Veenraraghavan and Singh (2000) anxiety is distinguished from fear in that in fear no conflict is involved and the threat is known.
    Stress on the other hand is related to anxiety in manifestation in many ways depending on its severity and could easily precipitate illness when not properly addressed. Stress could be a cause of anxiety in that it can trigger it and could be a result of anxiety. Veeraraghavan and Singh (2000) believed that stress could refer to those “stimuli that trigger the chronic state of anxiety and inability of the individual to cope with an external event”. In mild degrees, fear anxiety and stress can mobilize an individual towards achieving a goal and to that extent have positive effect. However, when any of these state is frequent or severe in such a manner that the individual’s bodily, psychological or emotional tolerance level cannot cope, illness develops and clinical intervention become necessary. Ezenwa (206).