Week 3 - Arousal, Stress & Anxiety Flashcards
1
Q
Define arousal
A
Blend of physiological + psychological activity in a person that refers to the intensity dimensions of motivation at a particular moment.
Intensity of arousal falls along a continuum ranging from not at all aroused (i.e comatose) to completely aroused (i.e frenzied).
2
Q
Describe highly aroused ind.
A
Mentally + physically activated
Experience increases in HR, resp. + sweating
3
Q
Is arousal automatically associated w/ pleasant or unpleasant events?
A
no
4
Q
Define anxiety
A
-ive emotional state characterised by nervousness, worry + apprehension + is associated w/ the activation or arousal of the body.
5
Q
What do Cheng, Hardy + Markland describe anxiety as?
A
“An unpleasant psychological state in reaction to perceived stress concerning the performance of a task under pressure.
6
Q
Define state-anxiety
A
Temporary, ever-changing mood component.
An emotional state characterised by subjective, consciously perceived feelings of apprehension + tension, accompanied by or associated w. the activation of the autonomic nervous system.
– Spielberger, 1966
7
Q
Define cognitive state anxiety
A
Degree to which one worries
8
Q
Define somatic state anxiety
A
Moment to moment changes in perceived physiological activation.
9
Q
What did research suggest about there being a perceived control or regulatory component of state anxiety?
A
That the degree to which 1 believes they have the resources + ability to meet challenges is an important comp. of state anxiety.
– Cheng et al., 2009
10
Q
Define trait anxiety
A
Behavioural disposition to perceive threatening circumstances that objectively may not be dangerous + to respond w. disproportionate state anxiety.
11
Q
What is the difference between people w/ high trait and low trait anxiety?
A
Ppl w/ high trait usually have MORE state anxiety in highly comp, evaluative situations than ppl w/ lower trait anxiety.
12
Q
Define emotion
A
Psychophysiological reaction to ongoing relationships w/ the env. but not always interpersonal or social
13
Q
What physiological signs would you look for when measuring arousal?
A
HR
Resp.
Skin conductance
Biochemistry - Used to assess changes in substances i.e catecholamines.
14
Q
How is skin conductance measured
A
Recorded on a voltage meter
15
Q
Self-report measures of arousal + anxiety
A
When psychologists look at how ppl rate their arousal levels using statements:
i.e “My heart is pumping”
+ numerical scales ranging from low to high.
16
Q
What are the ways in which psychologists can measure state anxiety?
A
By using global + multidimensional self-report measures
17
Q
Define global self-report measures
A
Ppl rate how nervous they feel from low to high.
Summing the scores of ind. items to prod. a total score.
18
Q
Define multidimensional self-report measures
A
Ppl rate how worried + how physiologically activated they feel using self-report scales ranging from low to high.
19
Q
How are sub-scale scores for cognitive + somatic anxiety obtained?
A
By summing the score for items representing each type of state anxiety.
20
Q
Give an example of a sport-specific scale that measures STATE anxiety in sport
A
Competitive State Anxiety inventory - 2 (CSAI-2)
– Martens, Vealey + Burton, 1990
21
Q
Describe the Competitive State anxiety inventory - 2 (CSAI-2)
A
Incl. statements athletes have used to describe their feelings b4 a comp.
Req. you to think of a comp in which you have participated.
Read each statement + circle appropriate no.
22
Q
What is the sport anxiety scale
A
Originally developed by Smith, Smoll + Schutz - 1990.
Later updated + extended to young athletes = Sport Anxiety Scale - 2 (SAS-2). – Smith, Cumming + Grossbard, 2006.
23
Q
Sport Anxiety Scale - 2 (SAS-2)
A
More widely used in the field + breaks anxiety into 3 components + a total score.
24
Q
What 3 components does the Sport Anxiety Scale - 2 (SAS-2) break anxiety into?
A
Somatic State Anxiety (i.e degree to which 1 exp. heightened physical symptoms).
Cognitive State Anxiety (i.e degree to which 1 typically worries)
Concentration disruption (i.e degree to which 1 exp. conc. disruption during comp.)
25
Has research shown that those who score high on trait anxiety measures also have more state anxiety in highly comp. situations?
YES
26
How might highly-trait anxious athletes avoid perceiving situations as threats?
Can learn coping skills to ⬇️ the state anxiety they exp. in evaluative situations.
27
What future measures need to be assessed in anxiety?
Changes in anxiety from playing in a game to, i.e, taking a penalty kick.
One strategy could be to retrospectively measure changes in anxiety.
28
Developing from future measures, what did Neil, Bowles, Fleming + Hanton use?
(2016)
Reflective diaries to help cricket players remember specific stressful situations, their appraisal of the situation + reactions to it for 5 diff. Games so that they would be able to respond w. Specifics during an in-depth interview.
— Results revealed that at the heart of cricketers appraisal of pot. Stressful + threatening situations were their perceived stress levels + emotional state.
29
What did Miles, Neil + Barker (2016) investigate in relation to changes in stress + comping strategies leading up to a comp?
Investigated changes over a 7-day period b4 the 1st cricket game of the season.
During this, players were evaluated to determine who would make the starting line up for the 1st comp.
30
What were Miles, Neil + Barker (2016) results after the cricket players investigation?
Major comp. stressor for players early in week = whether they would be selected to play.
As players were selected, the stress on comp. day shifted to performing well for their team.
HOWEVER, players also continued to experience stressors that emanated from outside sporting env. termed:
- Organisation (i.e team issues)
- Personal (i.e relationships)
31
What are some of the major coping strategies used to deal with stressors emanating from the outside sporting env. (organisational + personal stressors)?
Social support
Pre-comp. routines
Self-talk
Humour
32
Define stress
Imbalance between physical +/or psychological demand + responses capability, under cond. where failure to meet that demand has important consequences.
McGrath, 1970
33
What did McGrath (1970) propose that stress consisted of?
4 interrelated stages:
1. Env. Demand
2. Perception of demand
3. Stress response
4. Behavioural consequences
34
McGraths stress stages
Explain env. demand
Physical or psychological
i. e for physical = P.E student has to execute a newly learned volleyball skill in front of class.
i. e for psychological = Parents pressuring young athlete to win a race.
35
McGraths stress stages
Explain perception of demand
Persons level of trait anxiety greatly influences how that person perceives the world.
Highly trait anxious people tend to perceive more situations as threatening than people w/ lower trait anxiety.
36
McGraths stress stages
Explain Stress Response
Threatened = ⬆️ state + cog. + somatic anxiety
37
McGraths stress stages
Explain Behavioural consequences
Feeds back to env. demands
38
Identifying sources of stress + anxiety
What does the core group of stress sources incl. that McKay, Niven + others conclude ATHLETES experienced?
(2008)
Competitive concerns
Pressure to perform
Lifestyle demands
-IVE aspects of Personal relationships.
39
Identifying sources of stress + anxiety
What does the core group of stress sources incl. that McKay, Niven + others conclude COACHES experienced?
Communicating w/ athletes
Recruiting
Pressure of having many rules
Lack of control over athletes performance
40
Identifying sources of stress + anxiety
What does the core group of stress sources incl. that McKay, Niven + others conclude PHYSICAL THERAPISTS experienced?
High caseload
Staff shortages
Complexity of patient issues
41
What did Gould, Udry, Bridges + Beck find about injured athletes stress sources?
1997
They have psychological, physical, medical, financial + career stress sources.
42
What did researchers find about high pressure in a highly ego motivation climate?
⬆️perceptions of anxiety.
BUT high pressure in a highly mastery motivational climate (i.e focus on improvement) ⬇️ perceptions of anxiety.
43
What comes under situational sources of stress
Event importance + uncertainty
More important event = more stress.
Greater uncertainty = greater stress.
44
Give an example of event importance under situational sources of stress
Little league baseball players were observed each time they came to bat over an entire baseball season (Lowe, 1971).
Batters HR were recorded while they were at bat + their nervous mannerisms on deck were observed.
== More critical sit. = more stress + nervousness the young athletes exhibited.
45
How can some coaches create unnecessary uncertainty?
By not informing players of:
- Starting line ups
- How to avoid injury in learning high-risk physical skills.
46
Trait anxiety - What does research show about picking out more threat-related info
That ind. w/ a high trait anxiety have a cog. bias to pick out more threat-related info in the same situation than their peers w/ low trait anxiety.
47
Define social physique anxiety
A personality disposition.
= Degree to which ppl become anxious when others observe their physiques.
(Eklund, Kelley + Wilson, 1977).
48
Describe people w/ high social physique anxiety
Experience:
- more stress during fitness evaluations
- more -ive thoughts about their bodies
Likely to avoid fitness settings or struggle w/ motivation when they participate due to fearing how others evaluate their physiques.
49
What kind of relationship is there between social physique anxiety + exercise behaviour + perceived physical ability
-ive
+ That social physique anxiety is related to need satisfaction, physical activity motivation + behaviour.
50
Why are women susceptive to social physique anxiety
Todays culture places an emphasis on the body + female attractiveness.
51
What can reduce social physique anxiety
Physical activity interventions i.e:
having them exercise in less revealing shorts + t-shirts instead of tight-fitting clothes.
52
What are the theories connecting arousal + anxiety to performance
Drive theory
Inverted-U hypothesis
Home-Court Adv
IZOF
Multidimensional Anxiety theory
Catastrophe phenomenon
Reversal theory
53
Define drive theory
As an ind.s arousal or state anxiety ⬆️ so does perf. = Creates a direct +linear relationship.
More psyched up athlete = incr. level of performance.
(Spence + Spence, 1966).
Zajonc (1965) saw that people sometimes performed better in front of an audience + others worse.
54
What did Zajonc (1965) find?
Presence of audience had a +ive effect when tasks were simple.
-Ive when tasks were complex.
= Audience creates arousal in performer.
Used the drive theory to show that the presence of others ⬆️ arousal in perf + that this drive of arousal ⬆️ performers DOMINANT RESPONSE
55
ZAJONC
Whats the dominant response when performing a complex or unlearned skill in the presence of others?
⬆️ arousal = dominant response = INCORRECT = Poor performance
56
What errors are there to the drive theories
Predict that as arousal ⬆️ so does perf in a straight line.
IF this were true, highly skilled athletes would consistently excel in ALL high-pressure situations yet elite athletes still exp. nervousness + choking.
57
Inverted-U theory
Low levels of arousal = low level of perf.
As arousal ⬆️ so does perf.
Up to an optimal POINT.
Further ⬆️ in arousal = perf. ⬇️
58
What error is there to the inverted U theory
Optimal arousal won't always occur at the midpoint of the arousal continuum.
59
What does research show about the home-court adv?
Teams win more at home.
Adv. is fairly small in football + baseball but LARGE in basketball + hockey.
60
Home-court Adv.
Comprehensive review example
Jamieson (2010) sampled 260,000 games in a variety of sports + showed an overall home winning of 60.4%.
Hockey + basketball = indoor sites = may be proximity of fans to action + noise level that enhance players performance.
61
Home-court Disadv.
Comprehensive review example
Study of baseball World Series games played from 1924-1982.
Baumeister + Steinhilber (1984), found that in series that went at least 5 games = home team won 60% of the first 2 games but only 40% of the last 2.
In 26 series that have gone to a final + deciding 7th game, the home team won only 38% of the time.
In profesional baseball, home teams won 70% of first 4 games however home teams winning % was 46% during 5th + 6th games + dropped to 38% for deciding 7th game.
== Home-court adv. turned to a disadv. As games become more critical + pressure mounted. In both sports, visiting teams perf. Remained fairly consistent throughout the series.
62
Home court adv vs disadv.
What did researchers argue that supportive spectators could create?
Expectation for success
This can ⬆️ self-consciousness in athletes = “championship choke”.
63
Home-field adv or disadv?
Regular season, clear home-field adv. exists for professional AND amateur sports.
Home field adv. occurs for team + ind. sports + for both male + female athletes.
Researchers propose that a home-field disadv. exists during play-offs + championship games.
64
IZOF
Yuri Hanin (1997)
Found that top athletes have a zone of optimal state anxiety in which their best perf. occurs.
Outside that = poor perf.
Also contends that there’s +ive + -ive emotions that enhance perf.+ +ive + -ive emotions have a dysfunctional influence on perf. — Important development as it recognises that a given emotion (i.e anger) can be +ively associated w/ performance for 1 person but -ively associated w/ perf. For another.
65
Ways in which IZOF differs from inverted-u theory
Optimal level of state anxiety doesn’t always occur at midpoint of continuum but varies from ind. to ind.
Optimal level of state anxiety is not a single point but a bandwidth instead.
66
Errors to IZOF
Lack of explanation of why ind. levels of anxiety may be beneficial or detrimental to perf. (Woodman + Hardy).
Doesn’t address whether the somatic + cognitive components of state anxiety affect perf. In the same way.
67
Multidimensional Anxiety Theory
Predicts that cog. state anxiety is -ively related to perf.
However, also predicts that somatic state anxiety is related to perf. in an inverted U + that ⬆️ in anxiety facilitate perf. up to an opt. level, beyond which additional anxiety causes perf. to ⬇️.
68
Why is there little support for the multidimensional anxiety theory
Prediction that cog. anxiety always has a detrimental effect on perf.
Also has little support w. Respect to its perf. Predictions + is of little use in guiding practise.
69
Catastrophe phenomenon
Perf. depends on complexity of the interaction of arousal + cog. anxiety (Hardy, 1996).
Not worried + low cog. state anxiety = Phys. arousal rel. to perf. in an inverted-U fashion.
High cog. anxiety = ⬆️ in arousal reaches a threshold just past the point of opt. arousal level + after = rapid ⬇️ in perf. = CATASTROPHE.
SO = Physiological arousal can have diff. effects on perf. depending on amount of cog. anxiety 1 is experiencing.
70
Catastrophe phenomenon
What happens if performer is worried
Perf. deteriorates dramatically once overarousal + catastrophe occurs.
Recovery from this takes longer.
In cond. of great worry, high levels of self-confidence allow perf. To tolerate higher levels of arousal before they hit the point where they have a catastrophic drop in perf. (Hanton et al. 2008).
71
Reversal theory
Kerr, 1985;1997.
Contends that the way in which arousal effects perf. depends on ind. interpretation of their arousal level.
An athlete may perceive arousal as +ive 1 min + -ive the next.
Predicts that for best perf. athletes must interpret their arousal as pleasant excitement rather than unpleasant anxiety.
Emphasise that 1s interpretation of arousal is sig. + that perf. can shift or reverse their interpretation of arousal from 1 moment to the next.
72
Anxiety direction + intensity
Ppl can view anxiety symptoms as FACILITATIVE or DELIBERATIVE.
73
What must you do to fully understand the anxiety-performance relationship?
Examine the intensity + direction of a persons anxiety.
74
What did Jones develop in 1995
A model of how facilitative + deliberative anxiety come about
75
Describe Jones' model (1995)
1. Stressor in env. (i.e running in finals at the state track).
- Quant. of stress runner has depends on ind. factors i.e trait anxiety or self-esteem.
2. Perception of control - rel. to coping + goal attainment (i.e if runner feels in control = facilitative anxiety. If not = deliberative anxiety). Will athlete view situation as a challenge or threat.
— Viewing the situation as a challenge produces lower levels of cog. + somatic anxiety + prod. More focused attentional processes.
— Elite swimmers have reported cog. +somatic anxiety as more facilitative + less deliberative than non-elite swimmers. (Jones + Swain, 1992).
Hanton + Jones (1999) + Wadey + Hanton (2008) found that elite swimmers were able to consistently maintain a facilitative interpretation of anxiety, especially through using psychological skills i.e goal setting, imagery + self-talk.
76
What do Nicholls Polman + others suggest about the interpretation of anxiety as facilitating?
Nicholls Polman, Levy + Hulleman (2012) suggest that it may not be what enhances perf.
Instead argue that the +ive emotion of excitement might enhance perf.
77
Give examples of situational variables
Competitive exp.
Skill level
Goal attainment
Sport Type
78
Frequency of Anxiety
Researchers found that athletes who viewed anxiety as facilitative had lower freq. of cog. Anxiety + high freq. of self-confidence throughout the precomp. period than athletes who viewed their anxiety as debilitating (Thomas, Maynard + Hanton, 2004).
79
How does arousal influence performance?
⬆️ muscle tension, fatigue + coordination difficulties
Changes in attention, conc. + visual search patterns
80
AROUSAL INFLUENCING PERFORMANCE
Muscle Tension, Fatigue + Coordination Difficulties
Some highly trait-anxious + lower trait-anxious college students were observed as they threw tennis balls at a target:
= Higher trait-anxious students had more state anxiety than lower trait-anxious ones. (Weinberg + Hunt, 1976).
Electroencephalograms monitoring electrical activity in students muscles showed that ⬆️ state anxiety caused highly anxious ind. to use more muscular energy before, during + after their throws.
81
AROUSAL INFLUENCING PERFORMANCE
Attentional field + scanning the env.
⬆️ arousal narrows a performers attentional field, -ively influencing perf. On tasks requiring a broad external focus.
Performers also scan playing env. Less often.
82
AROUSAL INFLUENCING PERFORMANCE
Changes in attention + conc. levels
Arousal + state anxiety also cause changes in attention + conc. levels by affecting attention style.
— Athletes must learn to shift their attention to appropriate task cues.
⬆️ arousal + state anxiety also cause athletes to attend to inappropriate cues.
Excessive cog. State anxiety sometimes causes perf. To focus on inappropriate task cues by “worrying about worrying” + becoming overly self-conscious. (Beilock + Gray, 2007).
83
AROUSAL INFLUENCING PERFORMANCE
Visual search patterns
Williams + Elliot (1999) shows that incr. anxiety influences attention via changes in visual search patterns.
84
Define processing efficiency theory
Reflects the complexity in the way anxiety influences sport perf.
Contends that ⬆️ anxiety interferes w/ working memory resources.
In the short run, this doesn’t -ively influence perf. Due to athlete making up for deficits caused by the anxiety by increasing their effort.
However, as anxiety ⬆️ benefits of ⬆️ effort are often outweighed by the ⬇️. Attention capacity (processing inefficiency) that comes w/ heightened anxiety.
= Anxiety may initially result in ⬆️ perf. Due to ⬆️ in effort, but the attentional deficits will overcome any ⬆️ in effort when anxiety ⬆️ too much.
85
The inverted-U hypothesis has been criticised due to its unidimensionality. What does this mean?
Arousal, Anxiety and Stress are conceptualised as one
86
What are the general findings of the multidimensional anxiety theory approach?
Cog. anxiety has a -ive linear relationship w/ performance
Somatic anxiety has an inverted-U relationship w/ performance
Self-confidence has a +ive linear relationship w/ performance
87
Describe what hysteresis is
Perf. who exp. a catastrophe need to reduce levels of physiological arousal dramatically before effective levels of performance can be gained.
Once physiological arousal is reduced, performers can “flip back” to the upper performance curve of the model
