Stress, Arousal, Anxiety and Pressure Flashcards
Stress or Stressor?
- McGrath (1970): “A substantial imbalance between the physical and psychological demands placed on an individual and that person’s perceived response capability”
Usually occurs when:
- Failure has important consequences
- The outcome is uncertain
Psychological Stress
Psychological stress is defined as:
“A particular relationship between the person and the environment that is appraised by the person as taxing or exceeding his or her resources and endangering his or her well-being” (Lazarus & Folkman, 1984, p. 19)
Psychological Stress as a ‘Transaction’
- Psychological stress is an ongoing dynamic transactional process between an individual and their environment (e.g., competitions, training).
- Individuals appraise demands in relation to their potential impact on their goals, beliefs, and values and perceive a situation as either harmful, threatening, challenging, or beneficial (i.e., primary appraisals)
- In addition, individuals consider their coping options and what can be done to manage the demand(s) (i.e., secondary appraisals)
- The evaluation of demands and coping options will generate emotions and influence attempted actions (i.e., coping) to change the situation and/or regulate emotional responses
Cognitive-Motivational-Relational Theory [CMRT]
Stressors:
Environmental demands
Appraisal:
Perception of the demands in relation to your goals, beliefs or values…
Responses:
Doubt, worry, anxiety, arousal, tension, sickness, fidgety, pacing
Coping:
Problem-focused, Emotion-focused, Avoidance
Personal Sources of Stress/Anxiety:
- Trait Anxiety
- Self-Esteem
- Confidence
Situational Sources of Stress/Anxiety:
- Event Importance
- Uncertainty
Does stress occur in sport?
Fletcher et al. (2006): “The highly complex social and organizational environment (associated with international and professional sport) imposes numerous demands on sport performers and other personnel that function within it. … Failure to manage and/or cope with these demands evokes negative emotional and behavioural responses that can, potentially, affect performance.”
Stressors in Sport
- Stressors are “the environmental
demands (i.e., stimuli) encountered by an
individual” (Fletcher et al., 2006, p. 359) - Competitive sport, by its very nature,
imposes numerous demands on coaches,
athletes and their parents (Crocker et al.,
2017). - Although stressors can range in terms of
severity, they are typically considered within
the sport psychology literature as ‘relatively
mild’ environmental demands or events
(Howells et al., 2017).
Athlete Stressors / Environmental Demands
Competitive (Mellalieu et al., 2009):
Media (e.g., competing on live television) and opponents (e.g., competing against the best performers in the world)
Organisational (Hanton & Fletcher, 2005):
Athletic career and performance development issues (e.g., income) and organisational structure and climate of sport (e.g., political environment)
Personal (Petrie, 1992):
Marriage, death of a close family member, being fired from job, breaking up with partner
Coach Stressors / Environmental Demands
Performance Stressors:
- Athletes failing to perform, injury, coachability, professionalism, attitude, and commitment.
- Coaches own performance, interpersonal
relationships, external scrutiny, media, demands and expectations.
Organisational Stressors:
- Administration, extended working hours, finances, overload, organisation, leadership
Contextual Stressors:
- Schedule, lack of resources, job security, age and years of coaching experience, level of competition, success of programme
Sport Parent Stressors / Environmental Demands
Competitive Stressors:
Other parents, match outcomes, child’s
performance, opponents behaviors and
attitudes
Organizational Stressors:
Time & financial demands, clubs/organizational, training & coaches, injuries
Developmental Stressors:
Education, child’s sporting future, child’s
overall development
Appraisals
According to Lazarus (1999), encounters can be
appraised as being:
- Irrelevant = and therefore having no implication for well-being
- Benign-positive = and therefore enhancing well-being
- Stressful = which refers to when a situation might cause harm
- If a situation has been appraised as being stressful the individual will appraise either a harm/loss, threat, challenge, or benefit
Primary Appraisals
- Challenge (i.e., anticipatory gains)
- Benefits (i.e., gains that have already occurred)
- Threat (i.e., future damage)
- Harm / Loss (i.e., damage to goal commitment, values, or beliefs that has already occurred)
Secondary (Re)Appraisals
- Individuals will also evaluate what they can do to manage stressful encounters and the possible outcome of different coping options, which is known as secondary appraisals (Lazarus, 1999)
Secondary appraisal is not coping per se, but an evaluation of the coping options available:
- Perceptions of controllable-by-self
- Controllable-by-others
- Uncontrollable-by-anyone
Arousal
- Weinberg and Gould (2019, p.78): “ A blend of
physiological and psychological activity in a person varying on a continuum from deep sleep to intense excitement” - Intensity dimension of motivation at a particular moment
- Not automatically associated with positive or negative experiences
Anxiety
- Weinberg and Gould (2019, p.78): A negative emotional state characterised by nervousness, worry, and apprehension associated with activation or arousal of the body (Weinberg & Gould, 2019)
- “An unpleasant psychological state in reaction to perceived stress concerning the performance of a task under pressure” (Cheng, Hardy, & Markland, 2009, p. 271).
- Perceived as negative but does not necessarily affect performance negatively!!
- Trait Anxiety
- State Anxiety
- Cognitive State Anxiety
- Somatic State Anxiety
- Perceived control State Anxiety
Drive Theory
Hull (1943); Spence & Spence (1966)
- Relationship between arousal and performance
Critique of Drive Theory:
- Is there really a linear relationship between arousal & performance?
- Is there ever a situation in sport where you can be TOO aroused?
- Motor Skill Differences?
- Stage of learning?
Inverted U Theory
Yerkes & Dodson (1908)
- Increased arousal improves performance gradually…
- …up to an ‘optimal point’ where best
performance results - Too little or too much arousal results in lesser performance
- There is an inverted U relationship between arousal & performance…
Critique of Inverted U Theory:
- Does optimal arousal always occur at the midpoint of the arousal continuum for all sports?
- Is arousal-performance relationship individualised for each participant?
Zones of Optimal Functioning
Hanin (1980)
- Based on the idea that the optimal state of arousal varies from individual to individual
- Not a single point but a bandwidth or zone
Critique of Zones of Optimal Functioning:
- Like all of the preceding models, it is uni-
dimensional:
1) Does not explain the interaction between anxiety x arousal x performance…
2) Does not consider that levels may vary for types of state anxiety and arousal
Multidimensional Anxiety Theory
Martens et al. (1990)
- Anxiety/confidence levels and how it impacts sporting performance
Catastrophe Theory (Hardy, 1990)
- Low Cognitive Anxiety (gradual increase in performance then gradual decrease)
- High Cognitive Anxiety (gradual increase in performance then sudden drop)
Reversal Theory (Kerr, 1997)
- The way that arousal effects performance depends on an individuals interpretation of her/his arousal level
Anxiety Direction
- Facilitative Anxiety, Debilitative Anxiety
- Advantageous to some… Detrimental for others!
Pressure
- Any factor or combination of factors that increases the importance of performing well’ (Baumeister, 1984, p. 610)
- Can effect physiological functioning, including a systemic stress response influencing endocrine, cardiovascular and muscular systems (Wilson, 2012)
- But the major effect of pressure seems to be on cognitive functioning…Pressure leads to anxiety
Jones’ (1995) model of facilitative and debilitative anxiety
Focuses on how athletes interpret anxiety as either helpful or harmful:
- Facilitative anxiety = boosts performance
- Debilitative anxiety = harms performance
- Interpretation depends on confidence, control, and coping ability
- It’s not just the amount of anxiety, but how it’s perceived
Defining “Choking Under Pressure”
- The occurrence of an impairment in performance under pressure despite possessing the skills, motivation and ability to
perform optimally is choking (Baumeister &
Showers, 1986) - Pressure occurs when a factor or a combination of factors increases the importance of performing well (Baumeister, 1984)
- Choking in sport is a process whereby the
individual perceives that their resources are
insufficient to meet the demands of the
situation, and concludes with a significant
drop in performance (Hill et al., 2009) - A critical deterioration in skill execution leading to substandard performance that is caused by an elevation in anxiety levels under perceived pressure at a time when successful outcome is normally attainable by the athlete (Mesagno & Mullane-Grant, 2010)
- An acute and considerable decrease in skill execution and performance when self-expected standards are normally achievable, which is the result of increased anxiety under perceived pressure (Mesagno & Hill, 2013)
