Lecture 17: Arousal Regulation

Question 1

Relax vs. ‘psych-up’

Answer 1

• Too little = low motivation/lethargic
• Too much = attention, interpretation, physical responses
• Matching hypothesis: but…strategies targeting physiological arousal often impact cognitive anxiety as well.
• Inverted U hypothesis

Question 2

Awareness of arousal levels

Answer 2

• Effective regulation starts with = awareness of arousal levels
  = knowledge about how this relates to performance
  1) Think about your ‘best’ performance = how tense were you?
  2) Think about your ‘worst’ performance
• You can do this for different thoughts + feeling states that characterise your performances to arrive at your own IZOF profile
• Iceberg profile (IZOF model)

Question 3

Strategies to reduce physiological arousal

Answer 3

1. Progressive muscle relaxation = before comp
2. Breath control (centering) = as a comma to pause and then refocus
3. Biofeedback = EMG, monitoring activity of muscle, lower line on screen

Question 4

Strategies to reduce cognitive anxiety

Answer 4

1. Mindfulness
2. Cognitive restructuring (appraisal)
3. Thought stopping/replacement (self-talk) = starts with awareness, replace with productive thoughts
   - Stress arises from cognitive ‘appraisal’ of performance situation = demands vs. resources
   - Cogntive restructuring can focus on = reappraisaing demands and/or resources
   = reappraising functional/dysfunctional nature of stress response

Question 5

Arousal reappraisal

Answer 5

• Is arousal/anxiety reduction necessary to obtain performance benefits? (Moore et al., 2015)
• Stress can be beneficial and aid performance
• Reinterpret bodily signals and increase in arousal as beneficial
• Reappraisal vs. control group = increased performance and positive arousal interpretation

Question 6

Nieuwenhuys & Oudejans (2011)

Answer 6

• Pretest -> training -> posttest -> retention test (high vs. low anxiety/stress)
• Police officer shooting performance
• Experimental group = increase final fixation on target
  = increase target hits % in HS compared to control (uphold performance in LS condition)

Question 7

Psyching up

Answer 7

• Fasten your breathing
• Move!
• Make noise !
• Music