Week 2: Personality and Anxiety Flashcards
What is personality
-a systematic variation in the way people think, feel, and behave
-emphasis on individual differences, every person is unique
-also depends on the context of the situation
Trait vs. states
-trait: relatively stable characteristic used when describing yourself, used to explain an individuals behaviour across time and situations
-states: momentary feelings and thoughts that change depending on situation and time (calm person will be anxious during championship game)
Big 5 model of personality traits
-openness to experience
-conscientiousness
-agreeableness
-extraversion
-neuroticism
How does personality develop (humanistic psychology)
-approach that focuses on personal responsibility, human growth, personal striving and individual dignity
-we all have a need to be recognized (grow up with many siblings so you had to learn to speak loud)
How does personality develop (cognitive-behavioural approach)
-behaviour is learned through experience
-influenced by rewards and punishment
-if you grew up where every time you speak up someone will yell at you, you probably became more introverted
Cognitive behavioural approach (social learning theory)
-focuses how situations and individuals reciprocally influence eachother
How does personality develop (biological/evolutionary psychology)
-personality can be moderately heritable
-reflects biological differences
-not very accepted
How does personality develop (interactionist approach)
-personal/situational factors impact behaviour predictively
-interplay between person and environment determines behaviours
Personality in sport (risk taking, sensation seeking and alexithymia)
-risk taking (such as cave diving), involves narrowing physical and psychological safety margins
-sensation seeking: people look for novel, complex, and intense sensations and experiences
-alexithymia: inability to feel emotion, could do more dangerous activities/sports because they dont feel anything
Personality in sport (competitiveness)
-desire to enter and strive for success in sport competition
-win orientation: doesn’t matter how you personally do, only focused on winning (bad mental health outcomes)
-goal orientation: want to get better personally
Personality in sport (passion)
-harmonious passion: engaging in an activity as part of ones personal identity and for the pleasure of the activity
-obsessive passion: uncontrolled urge to engage in activities because of external feelings or guilt (training too much even though youre not improving)
Personality in sport (mental toughness)
-strong self-confidence and motivation
-ability to manage the stress of competition and training
-ability to maintain or regain focus in the face of distraction
Personality in sport (perfectionism)
-perfectionistic striving: high personal performance standards, high self-oriented achievement striving
-perfectionistic concerns: negative social evaluation, expressive self-criticism, concerns over mistakes, and doubts about actions
Meta-analysis
-looking at all studies and drawing conclusions on a bigger scale (more valid because it includes more studies)
Anxiety
-emotional state characterized by feelings of apprehension and tension associated with arousal
-linked with negative affect
Arousal
-the state of a person, varies from a deep sleep to intense excitement
-can be positive or negative
Trait anxiety
-persons general predisposition to perceive a situation as threatening or non-threatening
-if u are a more anxious person than others than some situations may make you more or less anxious
State anxiety
-induced by a situation
-cognitive anxiety: mental component of anxiety, referring to worries and concerns and a reduced ability to focus
-somatic anxiety: physical component of anxiety, referring to perceptions of body states (physical symptoms)
STAI
-state-trait anxiety inventory: used to measure trait and state anxiety
Social anxiety
-when people believe that they will receive a negative evaluation from others
Social physique anxiety
-when people are worried about receiving a negative evaluation about their bodies from others (what theyre wearing etc)
Competitive anxiety
-occurs in competitive sport situations and is related to athletes worries that they may be evaluated negatively by others (coaches, teammates, spectators)
State anxiety reaction
-level of self esteem and trait anxiety both play into how you react to a situation
-the objective situation is what happens and the perception of threat then leads to the state anxiety reaction
Drive theory
-graph on slide
Inverted-U hypothesis
-anxiety can only be so high until there is a decrease in performance
-high anxiety=catastrophe=rapid decline
-there is an optimal level of arousal which leads to peak performance (always at the midpoint of the scale)
Catastrophe model
-relationship between anxiety, arousal and performance
Too much arousal
-narrowing of attention
-shift to dominant style
-attend to inappropriate cues
(paralysis by analysis)
Choking in sport
-an acute, significant decrement in performance that occurs in situations of high pressure or anxiety, when typical levels of performance are expected
