anxiety Flashcards
what is the difference between arousal and anxiety
- anxiety is an unpleasant state of high arousal, and an unpleasant feeling of worry and stress
- arousal is not experienced as pleasant or unpleasant
what is anxiety
a negative emotional state, associated with feelings of worry and nervousness relating to arousal –> high levels of arousal leading to stress
what is somatic anxiety and what are examples
anxiety experienced physiologically or of the body
e.g. increased HR + BP, butterflies, sweaty palms, shaking
what is cognitive anxiety and what are examples
anxiety experienced by the mind
e.g. negative thoughts, fear of worry, fear of failure, negative evaluations of performance, overthinking
how does cognitive and somatic anxiety interact with each other
- cognitive anxiety is the most crucial in determining the performers reaction to high levels of stress/anxiety
- somatic anxiety is triggered by cognitive anxiety
what is the catastrophe theory for anxiety
- cognitive anxiety is the most crucial in determining the performers reaction to high levels of stress/anxiety
- increases in cognitive anxiety will help performance if somatic anxiety is low –> if the body is relaxed, but the performer is feeling anxious, then this anxiety can help improve performance
- cognitive anxiety is high and somatic anxiety is increasing continuously
- leads to a rapid and steep decline in performance
- high arousal leads to cognitive anxiety and can cause the sudden drop of performance
what are examples of the catastrophe theory for anxiety
red card in football
yellow card in hockey
what is trait anxiety
- a personality characteristic, stable, innate
- general disposition to see certain situations as threatening
- trait anxiety determines the degree of state anxiety
what is state anxiety and what are examples
- a person’s condition of anxiety in one situation
- temporary emotional responses to a threatening situation
e.g. cup final in football, penalty shuffles in hockey, penalties in football - trait anxiety determines the degree of state anxiety
what is competitive anxiety
the worry or apprehension experienced during or about competitive experiences
what is The Sport Competitive Anxiety Test (SCAT)
- involves giving all competitors a self report questionnaire to assess the anxiety they felt during competition
- SCAT questionnaire
- measures competitive anxiety
- reliable and useful in predicting how anxious a performer will be in future competitions (state anxiety)
what is the zone of optimal functioning
- important state of wellbeing
- an emotional response that facilitates top performance
- will occur at optimal arousal
- often referred to as peak flow experience
- activity is effortless - complex and difficult tasks accomplished with very little effort
- movements are automatic - no thought in the movement
how do you achieve the ‘in zone’ for top performers
- be relaxed - arousal shouldn’t be high, but optimal
- be confident - belief that you have great ability, pride and confidence. you expect success rather than hope for it
- be completely focused - absorbed by performance
- have fun - enjoyment is immense in the zone
- be in control - command of body and emotions
what is the cue utilisation theory (answer also covers how it’s linked to the inverted U theory)
- predicts that as an athletes arousal increases, their attention focus narrows
- the narrowing process tends to cut out irrelevant environmental cues first
- if arousal is too low, all cues are attended too so performer will not be fully focused and will not perform at their best/performance is low –> distracted by irrelevant cues so may also miss relevant cues
- if arousal is optimal, only relevant cues are attended, irrelevant cues are blocked out. performance is high/optimal
- if arousal is too high/past optimum, all cues are ignored, including relevant ones, performance is low
what is a practical example when arousal is too low, with reference to the cue utilisation theory
a football player has low arousal levels and therefore attends to all cues such as calls from teammates and also chants from the crowd. performance is low due to getting distracted by irrelevant cues
