Emotional Regulation Flashcards
What is the general definition of emotion?
“short-lived feeling states that occur in response to events”.
Emotions can be positive e.g. pride, joy, excitement, or negative e.g. shame, guilt or anxiety
What is the Emotional Experience
¥ Emotions arise due to interactions between the person and the environment – P-E interactions.
¥ P-E interactions in sport refer to the relationships between task demands and a person’s resources.
¥ Emotions reflect past, present and future P-E interactions.
Beedie et al. 2000 study on the relationship between emotions and performance
Aim: Meta-analysis to investigate the relationship between mood and sport performance.
Methods: - Reviewed studies (n=16)
- used POMS (profile of mood states questionnaire)
- 65 items
- think about the last 7 days and if they thought or felt the emotions - investigate the relationship between mood and athletic performance; 6 emotions:
- Tension, depression, anger, fatigue, confusion and vigor (positive e.g. strength or enthusiasm)
Results: - Successful performance was associated with lower tension, depression, anger, fatigue and confusion scores
- higher vigor scores.
What is the definition of emotion regulation?
Emotion regulation is the automatic or deliberate use of strategies to initiate, maintain, modify or display emotions in a given situation.
What are examples of emotion regulation?
- the subjective experience (feelings)
- cognitive responses (thoughts)
- emotion-related physiological responses (for example heart rate or hormonal activity)
- emotion-related behaviour (bodily actions or expressions).
What motivates us to regulate emotion? (Tamil, 2009)
- Hedonic – motivation to turn a negative event into a relatively stable positive one.
- Instrumental – motivation to initiate temporary unpleasant emotions to up-regulate specific emotions that have previously facilitated performance e.g. anger.
What is situation selection? (Gross, 1998)
¥ Choosing to avoid or approach an emotionally relevant situation – relates to achievement goal theory (motivation lecture).
¥ Avoidance – decreases likelihood of experiencing an emotion.
¥ Approach – increases likelihood of experiencing an emotion.
What are the two emotional regulation techniques?
- Cognitive Reappraisal – thinks about a situation in order to change its emotional impact.
- Expressive Suppression – supressing feelings in order to decrease likelihood of expressing the undesired emotion.
What is the best strategy for emotional regulation?
¥ Generally expressive suppression is considered as a maladaptive emotion regulation strategy.
¥ Aldao et al., (2010) conducted a meta-analysis and found that it was positively associated with psychological disorders.
¥ Gross and John (2003) found that expressive suppression was negatively related to well-being.
What are other emotional regulation techniques?
¥ Psychological Skills Training (PST) is an individually designed combination of methods selected to attain psychological skill needs (Gill, 2000).
¥ There is no single idyllic PST package, each program must be individualised based on the psychological state of the individual and the sport.
What are the two elements of psychological skills training?
- Psychological skills – psychological skills or attributes that need to be developed e.g. self confidence.
- Psychological skills training method – the tool used to improve the psychological skill.
Mamassis and Doganis (2004)
Aim: To investigate the impact of a season-long MTP on elite junior tennis players.
Methods: Elite junior tennis players (n=9) split into an intervention (n=5) or control group.
MTP – education, goal setting, positive thinking and ST, concentration, arousal regulation and imagery.
Measures – CSAI-2 (intensity and direction) and appraisals of performance (quality of technique, timing and rhythm etc.)
Results: Intervention group showed a significant increase in the direction of somatic and cognitive anxiety, significant increase in the intensity of self-confidence and appraisal of performance.
Sheard and Goulby (2006)
Aim: To examine the effects of a seven-week psychological skills training (PST) program on competitive swimming performance and positive psychological development.
Methods: National level swimmers (n=36) underwent a 7 week PST intervention.
PST - Introductory meeting, followed by 5 sessions: goal setting, visualisation, relaxation, concentration and thought stopping.
Measures – Swimming performance and positive psychological development (hardiness, mental toughness etc.)
Results:
Performance – improvements in competitive time.
Social validation – improvement and satisfaction
Fletcher and Hanton (2001)?
Aim: To assess importance of different psychological skills in relation to anxiety.
Methods: Recruited non-elite competitive swimmers (n=114) and used CSAI-2 to determine levels of anxiety and TOPS to decipher psychological skills usage. The swimmers were then spilt into high and low groups depending on psychological skill usage.
Hatzigeorigiadis et al., (2009)?
Aim: To examine the effects of motivational self-talk on self-confidence, anxiety, and task performance in young athletes.
Methods:
- Tennis players (n=72) with at least one year of competitive experience performed a baseline test, training intervention and final assessment
- CSAI-2 to monitor changes in anxiety and confidence. Two groups: experimental group received motivational self-talk (e.g. go, I can, strong) and a control group.
Results:
motivational self-talk can enhance self-confidence and reduce anxiety.
