Fazey And Hardy Catastrophe Theory

This piece of work will attempt to evaluate a sports psychology related theory, e.g. the catastrophe model by Fazey and Hardy (1988), which seeks to explain the relationship between sporting performance and anxiety. How this will be done will be through looking in depth firstly at what anxiety is and how it can be created. It will next endeavour to break the catastrophe theory down to its simplest form in an attempt to discover what the theories core elements and beliefs are. How this piece of work will achieve this will be by first looking at what previous theories have inspired Fazey and Hardy (1988) catastrophe model, such as the inverted-U theory by Yerkes and Dodson (1908) and the multidimensional anxiety theory developed by Martens et …show more content…
This is because the theory has a number of positive attributes that differ from the multidimensional theory such as, using different components within the catastrophe model e.g. Physiological arousal, cognitive anxiety and the directional change that occurs with the physiological arousal, meaning if the arousal levels are increasing or decreasing. This is in contrast with Marten et al,. (1990) multidimensional anxiety theory, which does not include physiological arousal and instead included somatic anxiety and self-confidence and cognitive anxiety, which a number of researchers such as (Petlichkoff and Gould, 1987) and Jones, Cale and Swain (1991) have theorised that both the two anxieties (somatic and cognitive) “correlate” with each other, which supports the catastrophe theories decision to use physiological arousal instead of somatic anxiety which bridges the gap between the two components and demonstrating that they aren’t independent and can be linked. This is a major strength of the theory as this grouping of the anxieties allowed people to see that anxiety isn’t always a negative, for example before competition it is normal for cognitive anxiety to develop, however Parfitt and hardy (1991) explain that as long as the individuals arousal is low this in fact is beneficial to the athlete as it will allow them to concentrate and motivate themselves. Suggesting that the link between these factors involved in the theory, like the Inverted-U theory is merely two dimensional and outdated, and instead support the catastrophe theories arguments that the inverted U model is correct until a certain point but there is an optimal point were the third dimension Parfitt and Hardy (1991) and Fazey and Hardy (1988), spoke of best explains the relationship between anxiety and