Anxiety/Stress

Question 1

What is the definition of Anxiety?

Answer 1

o is a negative emotional state characterised by nervousness, worry and apprehension (Weinberg and Gould, 2011)

Question 2

What are the two types of anxiety?

Answer 2

COGNITVE anxiety
o Is related to negative expectations and cognitive concerns about oneself in the situation at hand.
o Thought component e.g. worry about ability, decreases in self-confidence
SOMATIC anxiety
o is related to physiological arousal.
o Increased HR prior to competition, increase breathing rate, increase muscle attention

Question 3

Who was the multidimensional model by?

Answer 3

Martens et al. 1990

Question 4

A brief overview of what the multidimensional model shows…

Answer 4

• combination of the inverted U and drive theory
• takes cognitive and somatic anxiety into account in relation to self-confidence
• increase in anxiety leads to a decrease in performance
• somatic = inverted U, beneficial up to a point (optimum differs between individual)
• cognitive = drive theory
• as somatic and cognitive anxiety increase, self-confidence decreases

Question 5

Hanton et al. 2004 study?

Answer 5

Aims: In relation to time leading up to the competition how does the intensity, direction and frequency of cognitive and somatic anxiety change?

Methods:
- competitive athletes (n=82, age 19-25, male) from differing team sport backgrounds at differing skill levels.
- Competitive state anxiety inventory-2 (CSAI-2) to determine the intensity, direction and frequency of cognitive and somatic anxiety as well as self -confidence.
o 27 item questionnaires.
o 9 items per construct (cognitive, somatic, self-confidence).
o Intensity: Rate how much they agree with the statements ranging from 1-4.
o Direction: +3 to -3
o Frequency: same items used on a scale from 1-7
- Time frame – 1 week, 2 days, 1 day, 2 hrs, 30 mins prior to competition.

Results:
intensity = no significant main effect of skill level. increase in anxiety lead to a decrease in self confidence

direction = national skill level found cognitive and somatic anxiety effects are more facilitative than at club level

frequency = time spent thinking about cognitive and somatic increased prior to performance (not dependent on skill level)

Question 6

Who conducted a metanalysis of of 47 different studies on anxiety and performance, and what did they find?

Answer 6

Woodman and Hardy (2003)

found that cognitive anxiety leads to a decrease in performance and this is found across all sports, genders and competitions.

Question 7

What is the definition of stress?

Answer 7

“… a substantial imbalance between demand and response capability, under conditions where failure to meet that demand has important consequences” (McGrath et al., 1970).

Question 8

What are the two types of stressors?

Answer 8

situational and personal

Question 9

what is a situational stressor?

Answer 9

event importance

Question 10

What is a personal stressor?

Answer 10

have self-doubt, doubt about levels of training prior to competition, fears of injury or error.

Question 11

What was Lazarus (1999) theory called?

Answer 11

Transactional Model of stress

Question 12

what is the transactional model of stress?

Answer 12

is a framework for processes of coping with stressful events (help develop the athlete)

Question 13

What are the 4 parts of the transactional model of stress?

Answer 13

1. primary appraisal
2. relational meaning
3. secondary appraisal
4. coping efforts

Question 14

What does the primary appraisal of the transactional model mean?

Answer 14

• Evaluation of the significance of the stressor.
• circular between the individual (training leading to competition) and environmental factors (the situation, i.e. pressure of coach)
• demands on them, resources they have

Question 15

What does the relational meaning of the transactional model mean?

Answer 15

• The personal significance of this event and its consequences.
• Could it harm the athlete?
• Does it pose a threat (position on leaderboard)?
• Does it promote challenge?

Question 16

What does the secondary appraisal of the transactional model mean?

Answer 16

• Evaluation of the controllability of the stressor (coping resources).
• What can the athlete do about the harm, threat or challenge.
• Internal resources: psychological skills to deal with the stress e.g. relaxation, imagery, self-talk, positive orientation.
• External: do they have a supportive coach to deal with the demands. Peer, friends, family.

Question 17

What does the coping efforts of the transactional model mean?

Answer 17

• actual strategies used to mediate primary and secondary appraisal

Question 18

What is the definition of coping?

Answer 18

“…a process of constantly changing cognitive and behavioural efforts to manage specific external and/or internal demands or conflicts appraised as taxing or exceeding one’s resources”

Question 19

What are the two categories of coping?

Answer 19

problem focused coping and emotional focused coping

Question 20

Define problem-focused coping

Answer 20

efforts to alter or manage the problem causing the stress (planning and increasing communication)

Question 21

Define emotional-focused coping

Answer 21

regulating emotional responses to the problem that causes stress

Question 22

Nicholls et al. 2007 study on coping?

Answer 22

Aims: To examine the different types of stressors and coping as a function of gender, type of sport and skill.

Methods:

• 749 undergraduate athletes at different skill level (international to club standard)
• qualitative measure using stressor and coping concept map
• asked open ended questions about situational and personal feelings they have

Results:
Gender:
- males reported the fear of injury was greater than females (m = 69.2%, females =60.5%)
- females communication between themselves and coach/teamates was a higher stress compared to males (communication m=2%, f=4.8%; teammates m=16%, f=23.5%)

Individual/Team sport:

• individual athletes: reported that personal training regime and own weight + strength were higher stressors compared to team sports (training: I=2-.3% t=10.8%, weight/strength I=4.6% t=1.5%
• team sports: found team selection and teammate mistakes were a bigger stress than individual athletes (selection I=7.4% t=19.5%, mistake 1=0.5%, t=5.8%)

Playing standard
- national/international athletes had higher stressed of training + coaches opinion than club standard athletes (training: N/I = 25.3% C=9.9%, Coaches: N/I=12.6%, C=3.6%)

Question 23

What are the overall results/implications of Nicholls et al. 2007 study on coping?

Answer 23

• Females do more problem focus coping then males and better at planning.
• Individual level athletes use more emotion focus coping than team athletes e.g. relaxation.
• Team level athletes use communication to cope with their stresses.
• National and international athletes use more coping mechanisms than regional athletes (visualization in the emotion focus coping).

Question 24

What are the coping mechanisms a sports psychology consultant would use in an intervention?

Answer 24

• Thought control
• Task focus
• Self-Talk
• Positive orientation
• Social support
• Precompetitive preparation

Question 25

What ways could you help an athlete with anxiety?

Answer 25

• •Promote appraisals of challenge
• •Promote interpretation of symptoms as facilitative
• •Increase repertoire of coping strategies available
• •Reduce the sense of ‘demand’
• •Increase ability to manage symptoms
  o by introducing some sort of psychological skills training.

Question 26

Fletcher and Hanton (2001) study on the importance of psychological skills?

Answer 26

Aim: To assess importance of different psychological skills in relation to anxiety.

Methods:
- Recruited non-elite competitive swimmers (n=114)

• used CSAI-2 to determine levels of anxiety and TOPS to decipher psychological skills usage.
• The swimmers were then spilt into high and low groups depending on psychological skill usage.
• Measures your usage of psychological skills (self-talk strategies, emotion control etc.) and how automatic it is.

Results:
- Relaxation: those that were in the high group had lower levels of cognitive anxiety and found the symptoms more facilitate to performance. This was the same for somatic anxiety. Also higher levels of self-confidence.

• Self-talk: significant different between groups. Self-talk had better performance and more self-confidence.
• Imagery – successful but to a lesser extent.

Question 27

Who conducted the study that looked at the psychological factors that are associated with Olympic Success?

Answer 27

Gould and Maynard (2011)….other strategies

Question 28

what were the 3 categories Gould and Maynard 2011 looked at?

Answer 28

1. psychological/emotional state or attribute
2. cognitive and behavioural strategies
3. personal disposition

Question 29

which out of the 3 categories from Gould and Maynard 2011 is the most important for an athlete to work on?

Answer 29

cognitive/behavioural

Question 30

What are the other strategies a sports psychology consultant could implement?

Answer 30

• Goal setting
• Competitive stimulations
• Pre-competitive plans
• Distraction
• Manage success