Lecture 2 Stress and recovery

Question 1

What’s stress?

Answer 1

1. An environmental stimulus
2. An individual´s response
3. Or the result of an transaction between individual and environment

Question 2

Flight or Fight Response (Walter Cannon)

Answer 2

• physiological reaction (to perceived harmful events or threats)
• aimed at achieving homeostasis

Question 3

What responses are included - Flight or Fight response? INCREASED …

Answer 3

• emotional stress
• heart rate and blood pressure
• muscle tension
  blood sugars and fats

Question 4

General adaptation syndrome (Hans Selye) - What is important to know?

Answer 4

• stress as an adaptative response
• stress as a non-specific response
• activation of hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis (cortisol release)

Question 5

Three phases of the General adaptation syndrome

Answer 5

1. Alarm (blood pressure, heart rate, senses)
2. Resistance (Irritability, concentration, frustration)
3. Exhaustion (Anxiety, Depression, Insomnia)

Question 6

Distress (def.)

Answer 6

Negative stress that can be harmful, overwhelming, and detrimental to physical and mental health (anxiety, fear)

Question 7

Eustress (def.)

Answer 7

Positive stress that motivates and energizes, enhancing performance and well-being (excitement, enthusiasm)

Question 8

Transactional Model of Stress and Coping (Lazarus & Folkman, 1984) - What different stages are there?

Answer 8

(Environment & Person)
1. Primary appraisal
2. Secondary Appraisal
3. Coping (Problem-focused vs. emotion-focused)
3. Reappraisal

Question 9

What are stressors?

Answer 9

environmental demands (i.e., stimuli) encountered by an individual (Lazarus, 1999)

Question 10

Primary appraisal

Answer 10

• evaluations of whether a stressor is relevant to one´s beliefs, values, goals, …;

Question 11

Three different types of primary appraisal

Answer 11

• irrelevant,
• benign-positive,
• stressful (challenge, harm/loss, threat)

Question 12

Secondary appraisal

Answer 12

a complex process that considers the degree of control over the stressor; appraising the degree of control (e.g., coping resources, likelihood of effective coping)

Question 13

Coping (def.)

Answer 13

Constantly changing cognitive and behavioral efforts to manage specific external and/ or internal demands that are appraised as taxing or exceeding one´s resources

Question 14

stress is enhancing (…)

Answer 14

• enhancing consequences for stress-related outcomes
• more moderate cortisol reactivity
• more receptive to feedback

Question 15

stress is debilitating (lähmend)

Answer 15

• Debilitating consequences for stress-related outcomes
• Greater anxiety

Question 16

What kind of stressors can one find in sport?

Answer 16

• performance stressors (inadequate preparation, injury)
• organizational stressors (leadership, team issues)
• personal stressors (family issues, finances)

Question 17

What coping strategies one can find in sport?

Answer 17

• problem-focused coping (action planning)
• emotion-focused coping (positive reappraisal, emotion regulation)
• avoidance-focused coping (mental avoidance)

Question 18

Yerkes-Dodson-Law

Answer 18

the law dictates that performance increases with physiological or mental arousal, but only up to a point. When levels of arousal become too high, performance decreases.

Question 19

Recovery (def.)

Answer 19

a mutilevel process - inter-and intraindividual - encompassing psychological, physiological, and social dimensions aimed at restoring personal resources to their full functional capacity

Question 20

Passive vs. active recovery

Answer 20

• Passive: rest and sleep
• Active: active sports (can indirectly stimulate recovery processes)

Question 21

Charactersitics of recovery - RECOVERY is …

Answer 21

• a process of time
• ends with a balanced state (when physical and emntal efficiency is restored)
• dependent on type and duration of strain
• individual and dependent on the specific appraisal

Question 22

Balance model of Recovery (Kallus, 2002)

Answer 22

• stress needs to be balanced with recovery
• if stress increases, recovery needs to increase as well

Question 23

The Scissors Model (Kellmann, 1991, 1997)

Answer 23

• stress states need to met the recovery demands
• above capacity point, indvidual is not able to withstand stress -> health impairments & performance drops.

Question 24

Recovery as … contrast to fatigue/overstrain

Answer 24

• by reducing activity

Question 25

Recovery as … contrast to underchallenge

Answer 25

• by increasing activity

Question 26

Recovery as … variation of stress levels

Answer 26

• by changing activity

Question 27

Rating of Perceived Exertion (Measuring Recovery)

Answer 27

• used to measure exertion (Anstrengung, Belastung) in response to training

Question 28

Profiles of Mood States (Measuring Recovery)

Answer 28

• used to predict short term performance
• six mood dimensions

Question 29

Recovery- Stress Questionnaire for athletes (Measuring Recovery)

Answer 29

scales assesing:
- general stress
- general recovery
- sport-specific stress
- sport-specific recovery

Question 30

The acute Recovery and Stress Scale (Measuring Recovery)

Answer 30

• used to detect changes in acute recovery-stress scales in different settings

Question 31

The short Recovery and Stress Scale (Measuring Recovery)

Answer 31

• multiple measurements within short- and long-term.

Question 32

Measuring recovery - what different measurements are there?

Answer 32

a) Rating of Perceived Exertion (RPE)
b) Profiles of Mood States (POMS)
c) Recovery-Stress Questionnaire for Athletes (RESTQ-Sport)
d) The Acute Recovery and Stress Scale (ARSS)
e) The Short Recovery and Stress Scale (SRSS)