Our approach to the question of the determinants of children
emotional experiences confronted to a math problem solving
situation is based on appraisal theories of emotion (Frijda, 1986;
Lazarus, 1991; Scherer, 1984; Scherer et al. 2001) which
conceptualize emotion as a dynamic process, unfolding over time
and elicited by the on-going evaluations, commonly referred to
as appraisals, individuals make of the situation there are confronted
to (see Kappas, 2006 for a review on the concept of
appraisal).