Week 2 - Stress, arousal and anxiety Flashcards
Stress
what is it - Person-situation interaction
what are the types
what are stressors
- Physiological, cognitive, emotional, or behavioural reactions when faced with
demands - stress response occurs when situation is appraised to be beyond our resources - Cognitive, negative thoughts, loss of focus
- Emotional - anxiety, anger
- Physiological - arousal, HR increase
- Behavioural - short temper
- Personal
- Sport (competitive, non-competitive)
- Organizational
- Situational
Cognitive Motivational Relational Theory (CMRT) - Lazarus
Stress response:
- environmental demand
- Appraisal of demand
a) primary and secondary - Stress response
- Impact on performance
- Something you are asked to do, ex: free throw
- A) primary: whats at stake. Secondary: what are my resources, how prepped
B) Challenge or threat, how do we perceive the challenge - How does our body react?
- Does it help or is it debilitative
Arousal
Key terms
Physiological and psychological activation that varies on a continuum
- how active we are
KEY: Arousal on its own is not positive or negative - we interpret it
Anxiety - just in sport (comp anxiety)
what is it
key
A negative emotion in reaction to perceived stress concerning performance under pressure - situation specific
* Can be a) cognitive, and b) somatic
- mental vs physical
* Trait vs. state anxiety
- state is one off, trait is more predisposed to being anxious
- While anxiety is perceived as a negative emotion, it doesn’t necessarily
have a negative impact on performance
Individualized Zones of optimal functioning (IZOF) - Hanin
- individual variance
- positive and negative emotions…
- other points
Individual variance in how athletes interpret anxiety in relation to their
performance (facilitative vs. debilitative)
- Both positive and negative emotions can facilitate or debilitate
performance
-Not a single point, but a range
-Link to self-awareness
Emotion
what
emotion, stress and anxiety
- Lazarus defines emotion as an “organized psychophysiological
reaction to ongoing relationships with the environment, most often, but not
always interpersonal or social”
-Stress and emotion should be considered together - however, Lazarus more interested in emotion
- Anxiety is ONE emotion in response to stress, but others as well (e.g., fear, anger, guilt - next slide)
* Learning about the specific emotion someone is experiencing can tell us more than simply knowing that they are stressed
emotion continued
reminder
other emotions that impact performance
- Just because something is considered a ‘negative’ emotion, does not mean it
will negatively impact performance - Lazarus outlines a number of emotions and how each specifically
impacts sport performance… for example:
⚬ Anger, fear, anxiety, relief, happiness
Negative impact on performance
- physical
- cognitive
- mental
-Muscle tension, fatigue,
coordination
-Attention & concentration
disruptions
-Negative self statements
-Decreased motivation
Positive impact on performance - ex: fear of alpine skiing
- direct effort and attention
- decisions around risk taking
- increased effort and preparation
- Fear can ensure respect for the situation and ensure a safe course
of action is taken - Sometimes, risk is not taken to prevent injury - Erik Guay
￭ When a risk is taken - depends on the situation (e.g., Olympics vs. training)
￭ If going to take risk - calculated and lots has been done prior to the competition to manage - increased effort and preparation
Instrumental emotion regulation - Michael Jordan video
- use of emotions
- Lane et al study
- Use of emotions (incl. negative
emotions) to support goal attainment - study showed instrumental emotion regulation with a survey of 360 runners, finding that 15% of participants felt experiencing anger or anxiety enhanced their performance
Interperson emotion regulation
- understanding
- reasons
- impact on performance
- Understanding how individuals
deliberately attempt regulate one
another’s emotions
Reasons - instrumental, or for social
emotional
- Impact of performance
Coping
-Definition
types of coping
- problem focused
- emotion focused
- avoidance coping
‘efforts’ to manage specific external or internal demands that are appraised as taxing or exceeding the resources of the person
Efforts aimed at changing the situation
￭ Example: Penalty kick - prep for shot
⚬ Efforts aimed at changing one’s response to the situation
￭ Example: Penalty kick - getting support from coach
⚬ Removing self from situation
￭ Example: Penalty kick - don’t watch opponent’s shots
Emotion regulation
- use of strategies..
- Motives for emotion regulation
- Psychological skills..
- the use of strategies to initiate, maintain, modify (intensity, duration) emotions
- Hedonic = to feel good
⚬ Instrumental = to serve a purpose,
such as performance - Psychological skills are used to regulate emotions
Coping vs. emotion regulation
- Coping is primarily aimed at managing negative states (e.g., threat, harm), while emotion regulation may also include augmenting positive emotions
- Can use coping as part of emotion
Psychological skills
Proactive - before response,
managing prior the competition
Reactive - during response
Long term preparation
during performance
NOTE - not an exhasutive list, more skills out there
Before response in performance
-Pre performance routines
- Planning - i.e., identify potential stressors and strategies for management head of time
- Directing attention - goal setting
- Visualization
- Pre performance music
- using your routine for comfortability, how you put on equipment, warm up. Feel more prepped, more comfortable, more confidence
- what time and I leaving, where do I meet my team…etc. Removing pre game stressors
- what are my specific goals. Know purpose/ reasoning
- visualizing game/race prior to the game (successfully)
- Two types of played lists. One that increases arousal not anxiety (hype). Calming/relaxing out of anxiety state
During response in performance
- Breathing
- Self talk
- Increasing arousal
- Relaxation techniques - breathing,
progressive muscle relaxation
⚬ PRACTICE TIME! - Self talk & reframe
⚬ A note re Reframe
Longer term
- Practitioner
Biofeedback
- Simulating stress
- Physical training
- Athlete and sport psych practitioner (and ideally coach) work together to understand athlete needs
Simulate stress in training and practice stress management techniques
- For confidence
Other tech: wearables
Tools such as biofeedback and other
wearables can help us create
individualized plans
* New field
Patrick Mahomes & WHOOP
* App - heart rate coherence
