Chapter 4: Arousal, Stress and Anxeity Flashcards
definintion of arousal
- blend of psyological and physological activations
- the intensity of of any particular motivation at a particular time
- activation or excitation ranging on a continuum from sleep to hyper intensity caused by inspiration of an event, threat or worry
Stress: Selye (1956) “fight or flight”
-the result of substaintial imbalance between between physical and psycological demandsof a task and one’s response capabilities under conditions where failure has an important consequence
the four stages of stress according to Stlye
- enviromental demand
- preception of demand (threat)
- stress response (anxiety)
- behavioral consequences (outcomes/ performance)
Anxiety is a negative emotional state characterised by:
- nervousness
- worry
- apprehension
- a cognative component (mental)
- somatic component- (increased heart and breathing rate, sweating, nausea, butterflies, faint)
Explain the Drive Theory (Spense, 1966)
- performance = habit and drive
- there is a linear relationship between arousal and performance (as arousal increases so does performance)
- impact is dependant on how well the task is learned (social facilitaion theory)
- there is no longer much support for this theory
Explain the Inverted U Hypothesis
- there are two optimal levels of arousal
- once the optimal level of arousal is reached, performance deterorates if you become more aroused or activated
- it is a zone, not a point, it is hard to measure the exact arousal level
- varies from person to person
- different task have different optimal levels (even within the same event)
Explain the Catastrophe Theory (Hardy, 1996)
- somatic anxiety can have different effects on performance depending on congnative anxiety (worry) being experienced
- if worry is low, the inverted U relationship
- if worry is high, activation reaches optimal threshold after which there is a dramatic or “catastrophic” decline in performance
- it is as if they fall off a cliff and can no longer perform
- it’s no longer an inverted U, once the optimal level is reached, there is a vertical drop in perfomance level
- it is difficult to recover once it is experienced- when you get the same oppertunit, own the line, worrying will mess you up again, not concentrating on the present momentor what you should be focusing on
Explain the reversal theory (Apter and Kerr 1984/85)
- cognative interpretation of one’s arousal level that impacts performance
- high arousal = excitment or anxiety
- low arousal = relaxation or boardom
- best performance is when interpretation is pleasent exitment… like having a challenge
Explaing Anxiety according to Spilberger (1966)
- the need for achievement vs. fear of failure
- these are personality traits, independant of one another and stable over a long period of time
- the basic traits that will influence how arousal will affect a person in a specific situation (competitive sport)
Trait Anxiety
- stable personality tendancy to perceive situations as threatening when they are not
- embracing a situation vs. avoid the situation
- glass half empty
State Anxiety
-changing emotional statecharaterised by tension and apprehension and by autonomic nervous system reactions
SCAT
Sport Competion Anxiety Test
SCAT assess
- degree of trait anxiety
- degree of stress before, during, and after an event
- overall effect of anxiety during competion
SCAT Findings
- there is no difference between trait and state anxiety between:
- partisipants and non partisipants
- more skilled vs. less skilled competition
- state anxiety gradually decreases with age and experience
- high trait anxiety indviduals experince high feelings anxiety prior, during and after competition
- trait anxiety levels have no effect on ulimentent ability levels (as long as you learn to deal with it, coping tecniques)
the individual sources of stress (situational)
- importances of event or segments of it
2. uncertainty of outcome or life evetns
