Psych revision - Week 4 Arousal and Anxiety Flashcards
What is arousal?
A state of ACTIVATION that varies on a continuum from deep sleep to intense excitement
What is anxiety?
A negative emotional state with feelings of nervousness and worry associated with activation or arousal of the body
*In a sports setting, anxiety refers to “an unpleasant psychological state in reaction to perceived stress concerning the performance of a task under pressure.”
How are arousal and anxiety connected?
Anxiety is having negative feelings of nervousness and worry associated with arousal
What are the two types of anxiety?
Trait anxiety
Trait anxiety are general feelings of anxiety across situations; personality characteristic
State anxiety
State anxiety is situational feelings of apprehension or tension
*Someone with higher levels of trait anxiety will have higher levels of state anxiety
What two components does anxiety affect?
Anxiety affects cognitive and somatic components
Cognitive anxiety includes feelings of worry, negative thoughts, or feelings of nervousness/apprehension
Somatic anxiety is the physical state that anxiety induces such as increased breathing, perspiration, HR and physical nervousness
*People can experience both types of anxiety but often to different extents
What is the term for how someone uses their anxiety?
Anxiety direction.
One’s interpretation of anxiety can be debilitative or facilitative to performance
How does anxiety intensity and anxiety direction differ across competition levels?
Anxiety intensity is similar across
However, elite athletes were able to direct their anxiety to have a greater physical response than non-elite athletes. They were also able to better direct their cognitive response to anxiety
What is Drive Theory?
Drive theory states that AROUSAL increases the likelihood that the DOMINANT RESPONSE will occur
However, the effects of arousal depend on skill level
Ex. High levels of arousal in a skilled performer means skill execution is usually correct and performance is improved (that is their dominant response)
Opposite for an unskilled performer. High arousal = performance impaired
What is the Inverted U Theory?
An increase in arousal improves performance to a certain point, but further increases impair performance.
The optimal arousal level depends on the sport/task and the individual.
What theory distinguishes between somatic and cognitive anxiety?
The Multidimensional Anxiety Theory.
This theory predicts that cognitive and somatic anxiety will differentially and independently relate to/affect performance
Low levels of cognitive anxiety is best for performance, whereas higher levels of somatic anxiety is optimal
What is the Catastrophe Theory?
Once a disruption happens athletes have to regain control of arousal. They can either recover their performance, or it will continue to drop off and deteriorate
What does the Control Model for anxiety fail to explain?
It does not explain anxiety-performance relationship.
It only explains how one’s ability to control their anxiety/expectations of their ability to cope and their goal attainment after a stressor can be either facilitative or debilitative
What is a limitation of Drive Theory?
Drive Theory is too simplistic and doesn’t explain why elite athletes would choke under pressure or vice versa.
What is a limitation of Multidimensional Anxiety Theory?
The theory assumes that cognitive anxiety is bad, as the it’s representation is a linear negative slope
Is anxiety direction or intensity a better predictor of performance?
Anxiety direction is a better predictor of performance that anxiety intensity
