Kin 150 midterm 2 Anxiety in sport and exercise

Question 1

What’s the difference between arousal and anxiety?

Answer 1

Arousal:
- Activation from a state a deep sleep to extreme excitement

Anxiety:
- Emotional state that’s perceived as negative
2 types:
- Cognitive anxiety: Mental: Nervousness, worry
- Somatic anxiety: Physical: Sweaty, high heart rate

Question 2

What are arousal and anxiety both types of

Answer 2

A emotional state

Question 3

Explain the difference between state anxiety and trait anxiety

Answer 3

1. Trait anxiety: Anxiety only in certain times/situation. Not stable across them
2. State anxiety: Stable across time and situations

two types of state anxiety:
1. Social anxiety: anxiety in social situations

• Competitive social anxiety: Social anxiety in competitive sport situation
• Social physique anxiety: Social anxiety about other judging your body

Question 4

What are the two sources of state anxiety and the types of each

Answer 4

Person:

1. Gender: No research for increased state anxiety in sport, but research shows increased state anxiety for woman in exercise
2. Traits:
   - Trait anxiety, Neuroticisme, and ego orientation all have a positive relationship with state anxiety
3. Skill level:
   - Intensity of anxiety does not change with skill level, but the perception of anxiety does.
   - Higher skill level = more positive appraisal of the anxiety
4. Competitive experience:
   - Experienced athletes experience lower anxiety intensity and tend to see it as more facilitative
5. Confidence and self presentation:
   - More confident = lower intensity anxiety
   - Self presentation (overly concerned what others think of you) = higher intensity of anxiety

Situation:

1. Situational importance:
   - Chocking: significant decrease in performance when under high pressure
2. Sport type:
   - Individual sports have higher levels of anxiety than team sports
3. Physical environment:
   - In exersize: Eg. gym mirrors can increase anxiety
   - In sport: eg. intimidating crowd can increase anxiety
4. Role perception:
   - unclear role on the team leads to anxiety
   - Some role on a team are more anxiety inducing

Question 5

Why does cognitive and somatic anxiety affect performance?

Answer 5

Cognitive:
- Narrowed attentional focus (good or bad)
- Shifts to conscious processing

Somatic:
- Increase muscle tension (beneficial for simple tasks such a a grip strength test, but bad for more intricate movements)
- increase aerobic power power (beneficial for basic tasks but bad for more complex because too exited)

Question 6

Explain the 4 theories of how anxiety affects performance

Answer 6

Drive theory:
- As arousal increases performance increases linearly
- Largely disproven

Inverted U model
- A bit of arousal is beneficial, but too much and performance starts to drop off
- Largely disproven

Cusp catastrophe model:
4 different types:

Somatic arousal is high:
- Cognitive anxiety increases = performance decreases

Somatic arousal is low:
- cognitive anxiety increases = performance increases

Cognitive anxiety is high:
- Somatic arousal increases = performance increases slightly then falls off the cliff

Cognitive anxiety is low:
- Somatic arousal increase = performance followed inverted U curve

4. Individual zone of optimal functioning
   - Everyone has a different ideal level of cognitive and somatic anxiety and arousal
   - Most probable model

Question 7

According to the cusp catastrophe model when do you have optimal performance and when do you have a dramatic decrease in performance?

Answer 7

Optimal performance:
- Cognitive anxiety is high and and somatic arousal is moderate

Decrease in performance:
- Cognitive anxiety is high and somatic arousal is high

Question 8

Is anxiety always a bad thing?

Answer 8

No optimal anxiety is different for everyone

Question 9

Explain the process of how to change arousal

Answer 9

1. Is the arousal deliberative? If so proceed to next step
2. Determine what type of arousal needs to be altered (Cognitive or somatic)
3. Do arousal levels need to be increased or decreased?
   - Can be done with music, self talk, breathing, meditation…

Question 10

Explain the cusp catastrophe model

Answer 10

Somatic arousal is high:
- Cognitive anxiety increases = performance decreases
Somatic arousal is low:
- cognitive anxiety increases = performance increases
Cognitive anxiety is high:
- Somatic arousal increases = performance increases slightly then falls off the cliff
Cognitive anxiety is low:
- Somatic arousal increase = performance followed inverted U curve