Stress and emotions (year 2) Flashcards
Stress has been noted as:
A demand / stimulus: “I’ve been under so
much stress!”
An outcome / response: “I am so
stressed !!”
But it is a: transactional “process”:
What is stress and stressors?
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.
What is strain and eustress?
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
THE STRESS PROCESS:
COGNITIVE-MOTIVATIONAL-RELATIONAL THEORY
(LAZARUS, 2000)
• 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
THE STRESS PROCESS:
COGNITIVE-MOTIVATIONAL-RELATIONAL THEORY
(LAZARUS, 2000) (pt2)
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
Challenge vs Threat appraisal?
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
role:
1) PERCEIVED CONTROL
2) SELF-EFFICACY
3) APPROACH GOALS
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.
properties of stressors?
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)?
Situational properties of stressors (which can influence appraisal):
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
ORGANIZATIONAL STRESS IN SPORT
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!
Organisational stress and organisational stressors: definitions:
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)
Examples of organisational stress?
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
Factors intrinsic to the sport?
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
Roles in the sport organisation?
Role ambiguity
Role conflict
Role overload
Responsibility
Sporting relationships and interpersonal demands
Personality type
Leadership Type
Support network
Athletic career and performance development issues?
Position insecurity
Income and funding
Career goals and performance enhancement
Organisational structure and climate of the sport?
Culture and political environment
Coaching / management style
Lack of input to decisions
Inadequate communication
Lack of belonging
Officials decisions
Media
Competitive vs organisational stressors?
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.,
This tends to lead to anxiety,
disappointment, strain, resentment,
poor performance etc., etc., why?
LACK OF PERCEIVED CONTROL,
LOW SELF-EFFICACY,
AVOIDANCE GOALS;
STRESSOR PROPERTIES
EMOTIONS:
“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
EMOTIONS: (pt2)
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.
EMOTIONS AND SPORT
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”].
EMOTIONS AND SPORT (pt2)
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.
IMPACT AND COMPLEXITY OF EMOTIONS ON
PERFORMANCE: THE CASE OF ANXIETY
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
