Anxiety Flashcards
Arousal definition
A blend of physiological and psychological activity in a person
Measuring arousal
Self-report questionnaires
Anxiety definition
“A negative emotional state characterised by nervousness, worry and apprehension and associated with activation or arousal of the body” (Weinberg and Gould, 2015).
Cognitive anxiety
Worry, apprehensive thoughts
Somatic anxiety
Racing heart, butterflies, clamminess
Trait anxiety
- part of your personality
- therefore stable
State anxiety
- something you feel in that moment
- therefore unstable
Measuring anxiety
- State (CSAI-2) questionnaires
2. Trait (SAS-2) questionnaires
Stress definition
“A substantial imbalance between demand (physical/psychological) and response capability, under conditions where failure to meet that demand has important consequences” (McGrath, 1970).
Sources of stress
- Competitive stressors
- Organisational stressors
- Personal stressors
Examples of competitice stressors
- preparation
- injury
- pressure to perform
- underperformance
- performance expectations
- rivalry
Examples of organisational stressors
- leadership and/or team issues
Examples of personal stressors
- work-life balance
- personal relationships
- family issues
Explain the Four-stage Stress Process
- Environmental demand
- physical
- psychological
- Individual’s perception of the environmental demand
- amount of ‘threat’ perceived by the individual
- Stress Response
- arousal
- state anxiety (cognitive & somatic)
- muscle tension
- attention changes
- Behavioural consequences
- performance or outcome
Effect of anxiety/arousal on performance
- muscle tension
- fatigue
- coordination difficulties
- attention
- concentration
- visual search changes
Examples of visual search changes
- less visual scanning
- over-thinking mechanics of movement
- distraction
- changes on gaze
Multi-dimensional Anxiety Theory
- Low cognitive anxiety = higher performance
- High cognitive anxiety = lower performance
- Low somatic anxiety = low performance
- As somatic anxiety increases, performance quality increases to an optimum point and then begins to decrease after.
Inverted-U Theory
- low arousal levels = low performance quality
- As arousal increases, performance increases to an optimum point
- Further increases in arousal = performance declines
Catastrophe Theory
- Low cognitive anxiety = relationship between arousal and performance is inverted-u
- Increases in arousal improves performance to an optimum point
- Further increases in arousal leads to ‘catastrophic’ drop in performance
Individual Zones of Optimal Functioning
- Outside the athlete’s zone of optimal state anxiety, poor performance occurs
- The zones vary in width depending on the individual
