arousal, stress and anxiety Flashcards
what is arousal?
a blend of physiological and psychological activation, varying in intensity along a continuum
the 2 sides of the arousal continuum?
from deep sleep to frenzy (high level of mind and body energy)
what is anxiety?
negative emotional state with feelings of worry, nervousness and apprehension associated with activation or arousal of the body
cognitive component of anxiety?
changes in worries and negative thoughts
somatic component of anxiety?
changes in perceived physiological arousal
physical symtpoms of worry (cognitive anxiety)
what is trait anxiety?
disposition that predisposes one to view nondangerous circumstaces as threatening and to respond with disproportionate state anxiety levels
stable over time
what is state anxiety?
moment-to-moment changes in feelings of nervousness, worry and apprehension associated with arousal of the body
“right now” feelings
what is cognitive state anxiety?
moment-to-moment changes in worries and negative thoughts
what is somatic state anxiety?
moment-to-moment changes in perceived physiological arousal
who is more likely to have more state anxiety in a situation?
high not low trait anxious people
the 2 ways to measure anxiety and arousal?
physiological signs
CSAI-2- competitive state anxiety inventory
which physiological signs to measure and issues with this way of measurement?
heart rate, respiration etc
could increase due to awareness of being measured
may be altered due to a different factor so lack of direct causality
what are the 3 scales of CSAI-2 and what does it stand for?
cognitive anxiety
somatic anxiety
self-confidence
competitive state anxiety inventory
what is stress?
how hard a task is compared to our perceived capability of doing it (doesn’t matter if we are able if don’t think we are)
in what situation would there be a low amount of stress?
low task demand and high perceived capability
what are the 4 stages of the stress process?
environmental demand
individual’s perception of the environmental demand
stress response
behavioural consequences
when does stress occur?
when there’s a substantial imbalance between physical and psychological demands and the perceived capability to complete them
what is environemtnal demand?
could be a physical demand e.g batting in baseball
could be a psychological demand e.g pressure from parents
what is perception of demand?
amount of “threat” perceived in a situation (imbalance between demand and capability) which is hihgly influenced by individuals level of trait anxiety
what is the stress response?
physical and psychological response to perception of situation
stress repsonse would involve increased state anxiety, inrceased worries, heightened pyhsiological arousal and increased muscle tension
IF perceive imbalance between demands and ability
what are the behaviural consequences?
actual behaviour of individual under stress: if state anxiety increases, will the indivdual deteriorate or will performance improve?
why does the final stage in the stress process feed back to the first?
if indivdual performs poorly, other people may laugh and so additional psycholigcal demand on child and continues
what are some sources of stress for coaches?
inability to control athletes performance, communication
pressure of so many roles
what are some stress sources for officials?
making controversial call, confrontatins with coaches and players and physical abuse
will parental pressure increase perception of anxiety more in an ego motivational climtae (focus on outcome) or a mastery motiational climate (focus on imporvemtn)?
ego motivational climate
what are the two situational sources of stress?
event importance
uncertainty surrounding outcome
what is event importance?
more important the event, more stress provoking it is
event importance is subjective as may seem much more important to one person than the others e.g being watched by scouts
what is uncertainty?
greater the uncertainty, the greater the stress
causes stress both in and outside of sport
what does the drive theory state?
as an indivdual’s arousal or state anxiety increases, so too does performance
relationship direct and linear
what does the inverted U-hypothesis state?
that physiological arousal leads to increased performance up to a point and then it decreases if arousal continues to increase
what is the izof hypothesis?
indivudalised zones of optimal functioning
what does the izof hypothesis state?
those with a low izof perform best / ‘in the zone’when state anxiety level is low
those with high izof perform best / ‘in the zone’ when state anxiety level high
positive nd negative eotions that both enhance and hinder performance and differs for individuals
what does the catastrophe model state about those with low cognitive anxiety?
physiological arousal increases with performance up to a point and then when it continues, the performance decreases
what does the catastrophe model state about those with high cognitive anxiety?
physiological arousal increases with performance up to a point, then steadily decreases then plumets
states it is possible to then improve performance again if arousal levels reduce
what is the main issue with the inverted u, catasrophe model, izof and drive theory?
don’t include an individual’s interpretation of anxiety symtpoms
what is essential to consider when understanding the anxiety-performance relationship?
intensity : how much anxiety someone feels
direction : whether the individual interprets the anxiety as facilitating or debilitating to performance
what does Jones model of facilitative and debilitative anxiety state?
/anxiety direction and instensity
how an individual interprets the ‘stressor’ of anxiety (dependent on trait anxiety and self-esteem)
whether the individual believes themselves to be in control and has positive / negative expectancies of ability to cope and goal attainment
(facilitative or debilitative to performance)
what does viewing anxiety as facilitative lead to?
superior performance to someone seeing anxiety as debilitative
what leads to someone viewing anxiety as facilitative?
if state anxiety is viewed as controllable and person has self-confidence
what are the 3 personal sources of stress?
trait anxiety
self-esteem
social physique anxiety
how does self esteem relate to stress?
lower self esteem = lower confidence and higher state anxiety
what is social physique anxiety?
the degree to which people become anxious when others observe their physiques
experience more stress during fitness evaluation
negative correlation between social physique anxiety and perceived physical ability
how to prevent / reduce social physique anxiety?
physical actvity intervetions e.g allowing baggy tops instead of tight ones can increase participation in physical activity
criticisms of the drive theory?
no start or end points
criticims of the inverted u theory?
whether optimal performance always occurs at the mid arousal point
crticisms of the izof model?
doesn’t explain why indivduals zones of optimal performance
what does multidimensional anxiety theory predict?
that cognitive state anxiety is negatively related to performance
somatic state anxiety is related to performance in an inverted U
criticism of multidimensional anxiety theory?
cogntive state anxiety not always detrimental to performance, depends on individuals perception of anxiety
what does reversal theory state?
one has to perceive high arousal as good to perform well
can reverse interpretations of arousal moment-to-moment
what does frequency of anxiety state?
those who view anxiety as facilitative have lower frequencies of cognitive anxiety and higher frequencies of self-confidence in precomptetition
knowing how frequentl and when people have anxiety is helpful
term for when arousal seen as positive?
psyching up
term for when arousal seen as negative?
psyching out
2 ways arousal influeces performance?
muscle tension, fatigue and co-ordination difficulties
attention, concentration and visual search changes
what is the link between arousal and an indivdual’s visual field?
increased arousal narrows performers attentional field so may only focus on one thing not all important aspects of a situation e.g the goalkeeper not the ball
under arousal leads to a broad attentional focus taking in task-relevant and irrelevant information
link between arousal and scanning?
high arousal = less scanning so less likely to pick up more than one thing at a time
link between arousal and attention and concentration?
high arousal may lead one to shift to dominant attention style which isn’t appropriate for task at hand
high arousal and state anxiety may lead to one focusing on inappropriate cues such as cognitive anxiety (worrying about worrying) so not concentrating
link between anxiety visual attention?
higher anxiety disrupts visual attention reducing quiet eye period
5 guidelines to applying arousal, stress and anxiety knowledge to professional practice?
- identify optimal combination of arousal related emotions for best performance
- recognise how personal and situational factors influence arousal, axniety and performance
- recognise signs of increased arousal and anxiety in ppts
- tailr coaching practices to individuals (arousal and tate anxiety may need to be reduced, maintained or increased)
- develop confidence of individuals to help cope with stress and anxiety (e.g positive practice environment and to view mistakes as building blocks to progress)
some signs and symtpoms of increased stress and anxiety?
cold, clammy hands
constant need to pee
sweating
inability to sleep or concentrate
how to establish a sense of control in an athlete?
practice the event in a similar situation
practice trivial tasks to instill confidence in athlete
how to prevent choking?
hype up the importance of the event in training in orer to make them train harder
when it comes to the event, play down the importance and don’t allow them to think about consequences
what is choking?
the result of attentional disturbances cause by self-focus or distraction (e.g thinking about the negative consequences of the action)
examples of how to intervene at each stage of stress process?
environmental demand : practice
perception of demand : positive self-talk
stress response : deep breathing
behavioural consequences : attribute behaviour to something else (e.g it was raining so performance worse)
what does unidimensionality mean in terms of the inverted U hypothesis?
it puts anxiety, stress and arousal as one
