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The paper presents a study of the psycho-affective factor of anxiety experienced by Polish-English certified interpreters while performing certified consecutive interpreting. The first part of the article sketches the theoretical background of the study, by focusing on interpreter psychology, a subfield of interpreting studies offering the methodological scaffolding for the study of interpreting-related psychological phenomena, and on anxiety as one of the components of the interpreter’s psycho-affectivity. What follows is an overview of certified interpreting in the Polish context. The major part of the article provides an insight into the study of the certified interpreters’ experience of anxiety—its types, causes, linguistic and extra-linguistic manifestations. What emerges from the study is that anxiety is quite a potent psycho-affective factor which is likely to obstruct certified interpreting performance and lower the quality of its outcome—the oral output.

The purpose of this article is to bring to light selected Polish-English certified interpreters’ working contexts which trigger the activation of those interpreters’ psycho-affectivity. In other words, this study aims at illuminating those occupational settings in which Polish-English certified interpreters working in Poland experience psycho-affective factors which – in turn – can affect adversely interpreting quality. The first part of the article presents the concept of the interpreter’s psycho-affectivity with its constituent elements – seven psycho-affective factors (i.e., anxiety, fear, language inhibition/language ego/language boundaries, extroversion/introversion/ambiversion, self-esteem, motivation and stress). What follows is an overview of the profile of a Polish-English certified interpreter by referring to some legal and practical issues inherent in this profession practised in Poland. The final section of this article is devoted to the analysis of several occupational contexts (i.e., courtroom, notary’s office, police station, hospital) in which the studied interpreters’ psycho-affectivity comes into play by affecting the interpreters and their interpreting performance. The data for the analysis were derived from factual, attitudinal and behavioural data collected during a qualitative psycho-affectivity-related study conducted among 76 Polish-English interpreters. Keywords: psycho-affective factors, interpreter’s psycho-affectivity, certified interpreters, occupational contexts of interpreting, consecutive interpreting

This paper touches upon the theme of the certified interpreter’s psycho-affectivity, a construct studied within a branch of interpreting studies known as interpreter psychology, or more precisely, within its psycho-affective strand. What also lays the groundwork for the presentation of the outcomes of the investigation into the certified interpreters’ experience of the psycho-affective factors is an overview of certified interpreting. The major part of this paper is dedicated to the discussion of the results of a survey carried out among Polish-English certified interpreters who interpret consecutively in the courtroom. Seven factors experienced by study participants (i.e. anxiety, fear, language inhibition/language ego/language boundaries, extroversion/introversion/ambiversion, self-esteem, motivation and stress) are discussed. The discussion is supplemented with a selection of quotes taken from the certified interpreters’ responses, in which they directly or indirectly refer to the selected psycho-affective factors and their impact on the interpreting process and the output rendered. All in all, it emerges that, in quite a number of cases, in the respondents’ opinions, the psycho-affective factors under consideration are of a more negative than positive character, thereby disrupting the process of consecutive interpreting in the courtroom.

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