Anxiety Flashcards
What is anxiety?
A state of nervousness and worry, a negative response to a threatening sporting situation
What is competitive trait anxiety?
Feeling nervous before a game/race, can be genetic/innate
It is displayed before all competitions, regardless of the importance
What is competitive state anxiety?
It is a temporary response to a particular moment or situation in a game
What is an example of when competitive state anxiety can happen?
When taking a penalty in football
What can happen to state anxiety during the game?
State anxiety can vary during the game. It might be high at the start, but reduces during the action
What does state anxiety depend on?
The mood of the performer
How can state anxiety be controlled?
Using a practice situation
What is the link between trait and state anxiety?
An individual with high trait anxiety is more likely to experience high state anxiety when faced with a stressful situation, especially if they feel like others are watching/evaluating performance
What are the characteristics of cognitive anxiety?
- Is psychological
- Irrational thinking (self doubt)
- Worrying
- Can occur before or during performance
- Experience nervousness
- Loss of concentration
- Not being able to cope
- Believe they do not have the ability to complete the task
What is cognitive anxiety viewed as?
Viewed as bad - should be eliminated to ensure high levels of performance
What is somatic anxiety?
The body’s response to the individual believing in their lack of ability
What does somatic anxiety lead to?
- Increased heart rate
- Sweating
- Muscular tension
- Nausea
When is somatic anxiety generally worse?
At the start of a game and then reduce as the game gets underway
What is somatic anxiety viewed as?
Good, up to the right level
What are the causes of anxiety?
- Task importance
- Fear (of losing/injury/embarrassment)
- Perceived inaccuracy of official’s decisions
- Being fouled
- Lack of self confidence
- Audience effects e.g. abusive crowd
- Evaluation apprehension
What effect does somatic anxiety have on performance?
Somatic anxiety has an identical effect on performance as increased arousal does in the Inverted-U theory
Increases in somatic anxiety can improve performance up to a point, after which further increases will impair performance
What effect does cognitive anxiety have on performance?
Cognitive anxiety has a negative linear effect
Therefore, the greater the cognitive anxiety, the worse the performance
What are questionnaires?
Questionnaires are a series of questions used to assess the levels of anxiety experienced by a performer
What are examples of sporting anxiety questionnaires?
Sport Competition Anxiety Test (SCAT) and Competitive Sate Anxiety Inventory (CSAI)
What are the advantages of questionnaires?
- Quick, cheap and efficient
- Large numbers can be assessed
- Large amounts of information can be gathered in a short period of time
- Results can be compared easily
- Identifies weaknesses in dealing with stress and anxiety in participants
What are the disadvantages of questionnaires?
- Participants may not understand the question being asked
- They may not answer truthfully as they put down what they think they ought to (socially desirable answer given)
- Answers could depend on the mood of the participant
- Responses can be influenced by the time it takes to answer all the questions
What is the Sports Competition Anxiety Test (SCAT)?
Consists of a series of 15 statements designed to measure how a player responds to competitive sporting situations
- the test can distinguish between somatic and cognitive anxieties
- Should be completed an hour prior to the event
- Test also includes a measure of confidence levels, so test is split into three parts
The higher the score, the higher your competitive anxiety
What are observations?
Observations involve watching a performer during competition to assess signs of anxiety evident in their performance
What are the advantages of observations?
- Offers a real-life method - observing the performer whilst training/competing allowing the coach to assess anxiety in the most relevant environment
- Better validity of results - if the coach knows the players and their behaviours
What are the disadvantages of observations?
- Very subjective - each observer will perceive situations differently
- Time consuming
- May need more than one observer to complete
- Observers will need to be aware of the performer’s ‘normal’ anxiety levels so that they can see any changes, if any
- Performers can change their behaviour if they know they are being observed
- Performers could feel more uneasy/anxious knowing they are being watched - leading to invalid resultx
