anxiety Flashcards
anxiety
a negative emotional state associated with feelings of worry or nervousness relating to activation or arousal
what threats lead to anxiety
- to self esteem
- of letting people down
- of physical harm
- of punishment
example of threat to self esteem
footballer is worried about what people will think if he misses a penalty
example of letting people down threat
basketballer is worried that if they are missing a free throw they are letting their coach down
example of a threat of physical harm
a sprinter worried about injuring themselves before a major tournament
example of a threat of punishment
netballer is worried about being dropped from the starting 7
3 types of anxiety
- trait
- competitive trait
- state
trait anxiety
- a general predisposition to be anxious
- innate in an individual
example of trait anxiety
a performer is always worried about performance in training, competitions, friendlys - every situation
competitive trait anxiety
- a tendency to perceive competition as threatening
- to respond to these situations with feelings of nervousness and worry
example of competitive trait anxiety
- footballer is worried about performing well in cup and league games
state anxiety
- refers to an individuals emotional state at a given moment
- varies from situation to situation and usually disappears when the stressor is removed
state anxiety example
- a rugby player is worried about their performance in a cup final but once the game is over they don’t worry anymore
responses to anxiety
- somatic anxiety
- cognitive anxiety
somatic anxiety
- refer to anxiety experienced physiologically or of the body
somatic anxiety example
- increased heart rate when taking a penalty in football
cognitive anxiety
- refers to anxiety experienced mentally or of the mind
example of cognitive anxiety
- increased worry before a 100m sprint final
relationship between cognitive and somatic anxiety
Weeks before - somatic anxiety is low but cognitive may be high
Closer - cognitive remains high somatic begins to increase
Hours - cognitive remains high rapid increase in somatic
Just before - both increase and prepare performer for exercise by increasing HR
at start of competition what will cognitive and somatic anxiety be
- at their optimum
- performance will peak (in the zone)
Zone of optimum function
- an emotional response that facilitates top performance
- when performers level of anxiety is at its optimum point
- performance will be at its best
- known as peak flow
peak flow
the ultimate intrinsic experience when performance is flawless
- referred to as being in the zone
- all arousal theories show that performance is related to inner drive and self motivation
Cue utilization
- as arousal levels increase their attention span narrows
- attentional narrowing
- an athlete needs to be at optimum arousal levels for them to pick up on all relevant cues in the environment and ignore irrelevant ones
- selective attention
what is cue utilization made up of
- attentional narrowing
- selective attention
attentional narrowing
- arousal levels if an athletes increase, their attention narrows
selective attention
an athlete needs to be at
optimum arousal levels for them to pick up on all the relevant cues in the environment and ignore the irrelevant cues
low arousal
- level of arousal is too low
- attentional field is too wide
- performer takes in too many cues
- causing information overload
- suboptimal performance
moderate arousal
- arousal level is at optimum
- attentional field is optimum width
- performer is fully focused
- taking in relevant cues
- ignoring irrelevant cues
- peak flow
- best performance
high arousal
- too high
- attentional field is too narrow
- missing important cues
- due to worry panic anxiety
- leads to illogical decision making
- suboptimal performance
example of cue utilization - when under aroused
- footballer is under aroused
- attention span too wide
- take in cues such as crowd, coaches
- poor performance
example of cue utilization - moderately aroused
- footballer is at moderate arousal
- attentional field is at optimum width
- picking up on relevant cues, eg player with ball where surrounding teammates are
- more likely to intercept ball
- optimum performance
example of cue utilization over aroused
- footballer arousal levels too high
- attentional field too narrow so only focus on player with ball
- miss important cues,
e.g where teammates who are close are on the pitch and don’t get into the correct spacing - poor performance
qualities of being in zone performance
- feeling calm
- confident in ability
- focused on relevant cues
- enjoying performance
- using cognitive techniques to control arousal
- using somatic techniques to control arousal
- can balance demands with ability
- is aware of their individual zone
- using methods to increase arousal for a high IZOF
- is practicing so skills become automatic
- is setting realistic goals
