3- Anxiety

Question 1

Define anxiety

Answer 1

-a negative aspect of stress characterised by irrational thinking, loss of concentration and fear of failure

Question 2

What are the 2 basic types of anxiety?

Answer 2

-trait and state

Trait: personality trait, consistent, stable, a player worrying before all games, anxious behaviour all the time

State: situation dependent, temporary rush of anxiety, called by threatening circumstances, e.g taking a pen

A high trait anxiety would mean a performer is more likely to have a higher state anxiety

Question 3

Competitive trait and competitive state:

Answer 3

Competitive trait:
The performer is naturally anxious in all sporting situations, they generally have trait anxiety, a skier may always believe they will fall regardless

Competitive state:
The performer is anxious in the specific sporting situations only, will have high pressure when taking a penalty, could be caused by a negative past experience

Question 4

What are the two anxiety types: somatic and cognitive

Answer 4

Somatic: physiological, muscular tension, shaking, pacing, poor co-ordination, sweating and increased heart rate

Cognitive: psychological, irrational thinking due to nerves, worrying, confusion and loss of concentration

Somatic anxiety: similar to an inverted U diagram
Cognitive anxiety: negative linear

Greater the cognitive anxiety the worse the performance!

Question 5

We become anxious before a competition starts (1 hour 30 minutes before) so methods to control anxiety could be employed before this time

Answer 5

.

Question 6

Causes of anxiety

Answer 6

• being watched
• letting the team down
• playing badly
• Injury
• increased competition
• running out of time when losing

Question 7

Measuring anxiety: questionnaire, observation and physical testing

Answer 7

Questionnaires- pros/cons
Pros: quick/easy, cheap and efficient service to run, easy comparison
Cons: inaccurate answers for it to be socially desirable, answers may depend on mood, can lead to biased answers given and answers can be influenced by time (rushing)

Examples:
SCAT: sport competition anxiety test
-a questionnaire used by sports psychologists to measure anxiety
CSAI: competitive sports anxiety inventory
-the SCAT was extended to this in 1990. A questionnaire used by sports psychologists to measure anxiety

Question 8

Observations:

Answer 8

Observations are measured by watching
Pros: true to life
Cons: subjective, must know the performer, time consuming, may need more than one observer and the players behaviour may change if they know they’re being observed

Question 9

Physiological measures:

Answer 9

Physiological measures physical responses from the body
Pros: factual and allow comparisons, measured in real game situations (GPS)
Cons: training needed to learn to the the equipment, wearing the devise may restrict performance and the performer may be affected by wearing the devise giving more stress and a false reading

Question 10

Explain how different types of anxiety can affect sports performance (3 marks)

Answer 10

• a trait is anxiety in most situations, always nervous before games
• a state anxiety is specific to the situation and can change, becoming high at specific times such as taking a pen
• if you have the trait you are more likely to experience the state