Arousal And Anxiety Flashcards
Inverted U Theory
Performance improves as arousal increases until a threshold point where any further increase in arousal will worsen the performance
Under arousal
Boredom
May not be focusing on relevant cues
Optimum arousal
Attending to only the relevant information - zone of optimal performance
Over arousal
Performance declined due to hypervigilance and perceptual and attentional narrowing
Advantages
Takes into account the effect of task type, personality and skill level - complex or fine lower than simple and gross
Easy to follow
Disadvantage
Only considers the effect of somatic arousal on performance- not the influence of cognitive anxiety
Arousal
The level of activation/excitation or drive
RAS
Reticular activating system
What does the RAS control
Direction and Intensity of arousal
Hull’s drive theory
As arousal increases performance level increases proportionately
Spence and Spence theory
Performance (level) = habit strength x drive (arousal)
Catastrophe Theory
Hull’s drive theory until optimal arousal where there is an extreme decline to then worsening performance gradually unless u recover
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Anxiety
A state of nervousness or worry
Somatic anxiety
Physiological anxiety
Cognitive anxiety
Psychological anxiety
