anxiety Flashcards
anxiety
- A state of nervousness and worry, a negative response to a threatening sporting situation.
- A level of nerves and irrational thoughts
- Often arises as a result of the players perception of the situation
trait anxiety
- A disposition to suffer from nervousness in most sporting situations.
- When a player feel nerves before most games; this could simply be apart of the players genetic makeup
- Trait anxiety is displayed before all competitions, regardless of the importance of the event
- The tendency to become anxious before all competitions
state anxiety
- A nervous response to a specific sporting situation.
- A more temporary response to a given situation in a game or performance (taking a penalty could cause increased anxiety which, if not controlled, could affect the outcome)
- The amount of state anxiety experiences can vary throughout the game; it may be high in the beginning but reduce as the game goes on
- The players mood at the time can also have an impact
trait and state anxiety
- If you have high trait anxiety you are more likely to experience high state anxiety when faced with a stressful situation
- Especially if you feel others are watching or evaluating performance
- If you have the trait, you are more likely to get the state
somatic anxiety
- A physiological response to a threat such as increased heart rate.
- The body’s response to an individual’s belief in their lack of ability to complete a task
- Symptoms include increased heart rate, sweating, muscular tension and sometimes sickness
- This experience may be felt worse at the beginning of a game but often reduces throughout
cogntive anxiety
- A psychological response such as worrying about the outcome of the game.
- Irrational thinking and worries that occur during and before performance
- Loss of concentration and nervousness could be experienced if the performer believes they do not have the ability to complete the task
- Anxiety can cause personal perception to be different; a performer may have the ability to cope with the task but worrying can lead to self doubt
look at diagram
The relationship between cognitive anxiety, somatic anxiety and performance.
- Somatic anxiety has an identical effect on performance as increased arousal does in the inverted U
- Increase somatic anxiety can improve performance to a certain point, after which further increases in somatic anxiety will cause decrease in performance
- Cognitive anxiety has a negative linear effect; the greater the cognitive anxiety, the worse the performance
somatic anxiety in approach to competition
- Tends to increase just before competition or major game
- This begins to reduce as the performance begins
cognitve anxiety in approach to competition
- Are present much earlier, even though not visible
- Coaches and players must think of strategies to control these anxieties before the performance begins
questionare
how to measure anxiety
Ask a series of questions about their emotions in different situations
advanatges of questionares
how to measure anxiety
- Quick
- Cheap
- Efficient
- Compared easily
- Good for big groups
disadvantges of questionares
how to measure anxiety
- Social desirability - change their answer to make their coach happy
- Answer may depend on what mood they are in - if they ask after a loss
- Leading questions - may be biassed and lead the player on with what to answer
- May rush the questionnaire
observation
how to measure anxiety
- Watching people - could be in training or in match play
- See how you react in different situations
advanatges of observation
how to measure anxiety
True to real life - see how they are reacting to real life situations
disadvantages of observations
how to measure anxiety
- Based on opinion - can vary between different observers
- Highly subjective
- Need to know what the player is like in a normal situations to see a comparison
- Extremely time consuming
- If the player knows they are being watched they may change their behaviour
physiological measure
how to measure anxiety
Look at things such as; increased heart rate, increased levels of sweating, increased respiration rate and hormonal
advanatges of physiological measures
how to measure anxiety
- Objective data - easy to compare data
- Can be measure during training and games - with new technology - bras - device in tops
disadvnatges of phisological measures
how to measure anxiety
- Training on how to use the device - cost and time into it
- May restrict movement during sport
- The performer being aware they are measured may add additional stress and anxiety
