Arousal/Anxiety Flashcards
What is Arousal?
A state of activation that varies on a continuum from deep sleep to intense excitement
What is Anxiety?
Negative emotional state with feelings of nervousness and worry associated with the activation/arousal of the body
What is anxiety in sport?
Unpleasant psychological state in reaction to perceived stress concerning the performance of a task under pressure
What are the 2 forms of Anxiety? Describe them?
Trait anxiety - general anxiety across all situations
State anxiety - Situational feelings of apprehension
What is the association with trait and state anxiety?
High trait is associated with high state
What are the 2 components to anxiety?
Cognitive
Somatic
What is cognitive anxiety ? 3 Examples ?
The mental components of anxiety such as:
Worry
Negative thoughts
Nervousness and apprehension
What is somatic anxiety? Examples?
The physical components such as:
Increased (^) respiration
^ sweating
^ HR
Physical nerves eg shaking, tense, nauseous.
Is anxiety always bad?
Anxiety can be perceived and interpreted differently, top athletes tend to use high anxiety levels to facilitate performance
What are 2 factors to anxiety? Describe them?
Intensity - The amount of anxiety one feels
Direction - One’s interaction to said anxiety, is it facilitative or debilitative?
What is more important, intensity or direction? Dependant on?
Direction as it can be used positively,
It is dependant on the type of anxiety and personal and situational factors
What are the theories of Arousal? (4)
Drive
Inverted U
Catastrophe
Multidimensional anxiety theory
Describe the drive theory?
Arousal increases the chance of dominant response, high arousal = dominant response = Improved performance
Drive theory limitations?
Too simple
Can’t explain elites choking/ novice shining
Describe the inverted U theory?
As arousal increases so does performance to a certain level, once optimal has surpassed then performance decreases. Optimal arousal differs
Inverted U limitations?
Unlikely performances decreases smoothly
Over arousal more likely to be a plummet
What is the Individual Zone of Optimal functioning ?
Optimal anxiety level (bandwidth) for an athlete where they perform the best.
ZOF limitations?
Doesn’t explain why some perform better in certain states and others don’t.
Doesn’t explain aviation of the same athlete in the same conditions
Describe the multidimensional theory?
distinguishes between somatic and cognitive, assuming cognitive is bad leading to a smooth decline
Describe catastrophe theory?
Once disruption occurs, performance plummets, if athlete can control anxiety they can regain performance.
Catastrophe theory limitations?
Difficult to test
How can you recreate intense arousal level setting?
Arousal influences on performance ?(5)
Muscle tension
Coordination difficulties
Narrows attention
Attend inappropriate cues
Shift to dominant style
Describe the Competitive state anxiety inventory questionnaire ?
27 items
3 sub scales — cognitive anxiety, somatic anxiety, self confidence
Describe Competitive State Anxiety
Inventory Questionnaire 2 ?
27 items
3 sub scales - cognitive anxiety, somatic anxiety, self confidence
2 dimensions - intensity and direction
Physiological measurements of anxiety ?
Change in HR
Respiration
Skin conductance
Cortisol
Physiological measure +?
Direct comparisons
Quantifiable values
Physiological measures - ?
Expensive
Requires training
May not reflect anxiety
Self report +?
Cheap
Easy
No training
Self report -?(4)
Response Bias/Socially desirable responding
Difficult to compare to other scores
Not always able to explain how we feel
Response scale can be limiting
