Stress and emotions (year 2)

Question 1

Stress has been noted as:

Answer 1

A demand / stimulus: “I’ve been under so
much stress!”

An outcome / response: “I am so
stressed !!”

But it is a: transactional “process”:

Question 2

What is stress and stressors?

Answer 2

Stress:- an ongoing process that involves individuals
transacting with their environment, making appraisals
of the situation they find themselves in, and
endeavouring to cope (Lazarus, 1998);

Stressors:- the environmental demands encountered
by the individual.

Question 3

What is strain and eustress?

Answer 3

Strain:- an individual’s negative psychological, physical
and behavioural responses to stressors – caused by an
imbalance between perceived demands and
capabilities (Lazarus & Folkman, 1984).

Eustress:- positive outcomes from the stress process

Question 4

THE STRESS PROCESS:
COGNITIVE-MOTIVATIONAL-RELATIONAL THEORY
(LAZARUS, 2000)

Answer 4

• The athlete will appraise stressors in relation to their
potential impact on personal & social goals.

• As a result of this appraisal, they will perceive stressors as either threatening or challenging.

• Such appraisals will determine the athlete’s emotional
response…..

• There will be further appraisals of the emotion – which will determine performance outcomes

Question 5

THE STRESS PROCESS:
COGNITIVE-MOTIVATIONAL-RELATIONAL THEORY
(LAZARUS, 2000) (pt2)

Answer 5

Stressor–>

Primary appraisal: - is this stressor relevant, does it
mean anything to me…–>

Secondary appraisal:- if so, then what can it do to me (threat or challenge)–>

Tertiary appraisal:- is my emotional reaction relevant,
does it mean anything to me…–>

Quaternary appraisal:- what can this emotion do to me (threat and challenge)–>

Emotional, Behavioural, Physiological and
Performance outcomes

Question 6

Challenge vs Threat appraisal?

Answer 6

 A challenge appraisal of stressors tends to elicits
“functional” emotions and optimal performance;

 A threat appraisal of stressors elicits dysfunctional
emotions;

 However, a challenge appraisal of dysfunctional emotions and / or coping effectively with dysfunctional emotions can also lead to optimal performance

Question 7

role:
1) PERCEIVED CONTROL

2) SELF-EFFICACY
3) APPROACH GOALS

Answer 7

 Higher levels of perceived control and self-efficacy -
coupled with approach goals elicit a challenge state;

 Lower perceived control and self-efficacy- coupled
with avoidance goals evoke a threat state.

Question 8

properties of stressors?

Answer 8

What stressor(s) do you find hard to 
manage? That is, the stressor that you tend to appraise as a threat, and then struggle to 
manage your negative emotional response. 

Compare this to a stressor which you find easier to manage….have a challenge

appraisal. …functional / manageable
emotions. ..

What is the difference between these 2
stressors (situational not personal)?

Question 9

Situational properties of stressors (which can influence appraisal):

Answer 9

Controllability: can the athlete change it

Novelty: prior knowledge

Predictability: processes stable characteristics

Event certainty: probability of event occurring

Imminence: time before occurrence

Duration: length of event persistence

temporal uncertainty: when event will occur

ambiguity: certainty of event properties

timing in relation to life cycle: when it occurs in relation to athlete

Question 10

ORGANIZATIONAL STRESS IN SPORT

Answer 10

Athletes do not live / perform in a vacuum – organizational stress are the demands which have arisen directly from the sporting organisation and not the result of the athletic performance (Wagsatff, 2016)

Jones (1992) identified the ‘stressors’ experienced by elite athletes, and discovered that the majority were organizational NOT performance related…………

 ……….despite this, only until relatively recently, has research attention been focused on organisational stress!

Question 11

Organisational stress and organisational stressors: definitions:

Answer 11

Organisational stress is: “an ongoing transaction between an individual and the environmental demands associated primarily and directly with the organisation within which he or she is operating”

Organisational stressors are: “the environmental
demands (i.e., stimuli) associated primarily and directly with the organisation within which the individual is
operating” (Fletcher et al., 2006, p. 329)

Question 12

Examples of organisational stress?

Answer 12

 Factors Intrinsic to the sport;

 Roles in the sport organisation;

 Sporting relationships and
interpersonal demands

 Athletic career and performance
development issues;

 Organisational structure and
climate of the sport

Question 13

Factors intrinsic to the sport?

Answer 13

Training and competition environment

Training and competition load

Training and competition hours

Travel and accommodation arrangements

Nutritional issues

Technical and technological changes

Exposure to hazards and risk if injury

Question 14

Roles in the sport organisation?

Answer 14

Role ambiguity

Role conflict

Role overload

Responsibility

Question 15

Sporting relationships and interpersonal demands

Answer 15

Personality type

Leadership Type

Support network

Question 16

Athletic career and performance development issues?

Answer 16

Position insecurity

Income and funding

Career goals and performance enhancement

Question 17

Organisational structure and climate of the sport?

Answer 17

Culture and political environment

Coaching / management style

Lack of input to decisions

Inadequate communication

Lack of belonging

Officials decisions

Media

Question 18

Competitive vs organisational stressors?

Answer 18

Unlike competitive stressors -
Organizational stressors are mainly appraised as threatening, with few deemed a challenge.

This tends to lead to anxiety,
disappointment, strain, resentment,
poor performance etc., etc.,

Question 19

This tends to lead to anxiety,
disappointment, strain, resentment,
poor performance etc., etc., why?

Answer 19

 LACK OF PERCEIVED CONTROL,

 LOW SELF-EFFICACY,

 AVOIDANCE GOALS;

 STRESSOR PROPERTIES

Question 20

EMOTIONS:

Answer 20

 “A reaction to a stimulus event (real or imagined). It involves change in the viscera and musculature of the person, is experiences subjectively in characteristics ways, is expressed through such means as fascial changes and action tendencies and may mediate
and energise subsequent behaviours” (Deci, 1980, p 22.)

 [unlike affect and mood]….Emotion is: i) a response to a stimulus; ii) is the result of cognitions (appraisals); iii) leads to physiological changes; iv) leads to a subjective experience; v) and leads to action tendencies

Question 21

EMOTIONS: (pt2)

Answer 21

 Traditionally, emotions have been characteristic by valence (i.e., hedonic tone) and intensity.

 So emotions were conceptualized through pleasure/displeasure and high and low activation.

 Hanin (2000, 2003) argued that emotion should be considered through five interrelated dimensions: form (subjectively perceived or observable); content, intensity, time, and context.

Question 22

EMOTIONS AND SPORT

Answer 22

 Meta-analytic studies have highlighted the link between sport performance and emotions (Beedie, Terry, & Lane, 2000; Craft, Magyar, Becker, & Feltz, 2003;Jokela & Hanin, 1999).

 And while positively balanced emotions tend to be associated with optimal sporting performance - the relationship between emotions and performance is far more complex [hence “functional”].

Question 23

EMOTIONS AND SPORT (pt2)

Answer 23

 The cognitive-motivational-relational theory suggests
that characteristics of emotions (e.g. form, content,
time, intensity etc) are dependent on the appraisals.

 Strategies to regulate emotions for the instrumental
purpose of optimal performance have become
fundamental components of applied sport psychology
interventions.

Question 24

IMPACT AND COMPLEXITY OF EMOTIONS ON

PERFORMANCE: THE CASE OF ANXIETY

Answer 24

Processing Efficiency Theory
(Eysenck & Calvo, 1992):

 Anxiety causes the inefficient processes of
task-relevant information

 Compensatory effort

Attentional Control Theory
(Eysenck et al., 2007):

 Anxiety encourages a shift
to threat-stimuli / and increases stimulus driven
attentional processes;
rather than goal-directed

 Compensatory effort