Chapter 4 Flashcards
What is Arousal?
Arousal is a blend of physiological and psychological activity in a person, and it refers to the intensity dimensions of motivation at a particular moment.
What is Anxiety
Anxiety is a negative emotional state characterized by nervousness, worry, and apprehension and associated with activation or arousal of the body.
Thus Anxiety has a thought component (e.g., worry and apprehension) called cognitive anxiety.
It also has a somatic anxiety component, which is the degree of physical activation perceived.
State Anxiety
State anxiety is a temporary, ever-changing emotional state of subjective, consciously perceived feelings of apprehension and tension, associated with activation of the autonomic nervous system,
Cognitive State Anxiety
Concerns the degree to which one worries or has negative thoughts.
Somatic State Anxiety
Concerns the moment-to-moment changes in perceived physiological activation.
Trait Anxiety
Trait anxiety is part of the personality, an acquired behavioral tendency or disposition that influences behavior. In particular, trait anxiety predisposes and individual to perceive as threatening a wide range of circumstances that objectively may not actually be dangerous physically or psychologically.
High vs. Low Trait Anxiety
Highly trait-anxious people usually have more state anxiety in highly competitive, evaluative situations than do people with lower trait anxiety.
Theories of Arousal
- Drive Theory
- Inverted-U Hypothesis
- Individualized Zones of Optimal Functioning (IZOF)
- Multidimensional Anxiety Theory
- Catastrophe Model
- Reversal Theory
- Anxiety Direction & Intensity
Drive Theory
As an individual’s arousal or state anxiety increases, so too does their performance. The more psyched up an athlete becomes, for example, the better that individual will perform.
Inverted-U Hypothesis
This view holds that at low arousal levels, performance will be below par; the exerciser or athlete is not psyched up. As arousal increases, so too does performance–up to an optimal point where best performance results. Further increases in arousal however, cause performance to decline.
Individualized Zones of Optimal Functioning (IZOF)
Hanin found that top athletes have a zone of optimal state anxiety in which their best performance occurs. Outside this zone, poor performance occurs.
IZOF differs from inverted-u in two important ways. First, the optimal level of state anxiety does not always occur at the midpoint of the continuum but rather varies from individual to individual. Second, the optimal level of state anxiety is not a single point but a bandwidth.
Multidimensional Anxiety Theory
This theory predicts that cognitive state anxiety (worry) is negatively related to performance. That is, increases in cognitive state anxiety lead to decreases in performance But the theory predicts that somatic state anxiety is related to performance in an inverted-U, with increases in the anxiety facilitating performance up to an optimal level, beyond which additional anxiety causes performance to decline
Catastrophe Model
This theory predicts that physiological arousal is related to performance in an inverted-U fashion, but only when an athlete is not worried or has low cognitive state anxiety. If cognitive anxiety is high, however, the increases in arousal at some point reach a kind of threshold, just past the point of optimal arousal level, and afterwards rapid decline in performance, the “catastrophe” occurs.
Reversal Theory
Contends that the way in which arousal affects performance depends basically on an individual’s interpretation of their arousal level.
Anxiety Direction and Intensity
State anxiety is perceived as facilitative or deblilatative depending upon how much control the person perceives Viewing Anxiety as facilitative leads to superior performance. Viewing Anxiety as debilitative than performance decreases. Developing cognitive skills and strategies helps people view anxiety as facilitative. (Goal Setting, relaxation training, visualization, mental imagery)
