Stress

Question 1

What is autocratic leadership and what situations would it be used in?

Answer 1

• Task orientated
• Dictator style
• Direct approach

Situations where there is
- limited time available
- complex/dangerous task
- large number of people
- clear/specific goals
- decisions need to be made quickly

Question 2

What is democratic leadership and what situations would it be used in?

Answer 2

• Person orientated
• sympathetic to the group - decisions made after seeking opinions of the group

Situations where there is
- lots of time available
- easy task
- small number of people/performers
- unclear/challenging goals

Question 3

What is laissez-faire leadership and what situations would it be used in?

Answer 3

• Provides little input or support to decisions/tasks
• Lets team members do as they wish

Situations where there is
- time available
- experienced performers
- autonomous learners
- high levels of motivation
- no danger

Question 4

Explain Fiedler’s contingency model?

Answer 4

• Leaders should decide whether to be task or person orientated in their leadership style
• That decision should depend on the favourableness of the siutation
• Task orientated when the situation is most or least favourable, person orientated when moderately favourable

Question 5

What conditions make a situation favourable?

Answer 5

• Clear discipline from leader
• Highly respected
• High ability group
• High motivation of group
• Clear/specific group

Question 6

What is Chelladurai’s model?

Answer 6

• Looks into other factors that affect choice of leadership style, not just situation
• Idea that leader must use an interactive approach

Question 7

What are the 3 parts to Chelladurai’s model?

Answer 7

Part 1 - Antecedents
Leadership style must first consider 3 interacting factors -
1. Task
2. Leader
3. Team members

Part 2 - Leader behaviour
1. Task has a required behaviour
2. Leader has an actual behaviour
3. Team members have their preferred behaviour

Part 3 - Consequences

Question 8

What are the two types of stress?

Answer 8

Cognitive stress - negative thoughts and feelings and potentially irrational thinking of the inability to cope with the demands of the situation
Somatic stress - Physical response to stress. eg increase in heart rate, sweating, feeling sick, muscular tension

Question 9

Explain the 5 cognitive stress management techniques

Answer 9

Thought stopping - use of cue to redirect attention to positive thoughts
Positive self talk - remove negative thoughts with positive statement about performance
Imagery - Creating mental images to escape the immediate effect of stress
4. Attention control - Changing focus of attention to detect only relevant cues, improving selective attention
5. Psychological skills training - training of cognitive skills to enhance performance and lower anxiety

Question 10

What are the 3 steps to imagery/mental rehearsal?

Answer 10

1. Form mental pictures of a good performance and imagine a calm place
2. Internal - create the feeling of the movement within yourself
3. External - See yourself complete the movement from outside your body

Question 11

Explain the 3 somatic stress management techniques

Answer 11

Biofeedback - measuring device to help athletes recognise physical changes, use techniques to prevent
Centring - form of breathing control, performer can learn to relax
Progressive muscle relaxation - physical technique, use of recorded instruction, alternate between a state of tension and relaxation in same muscles