Sports Midterm Chapter 4: Arousal, Stress, And Anxiety

Front 1

• Arousal

Back 1

o A blend of physiological and psychological activity in a person
o Refers to the intensity dimensions of motivation at a particular moment
 Varies from deep sleep to intense excitement

Front 2

• Anxiety

Back 2

o Negative emotional state characterized by worry, nervousness, and apprehension

Front 3

• State anxiety

Back 3

o an ever-changing emotional state that is characterized by moment-to-moment changes in the athlete’s subjectively perceived feelings of apprehension and tension activated by/associated with activation of autonomic nervous system

Front 4

• Cognitive state anxiety

Back 4

o (CoG A-State): Moment-to-moment changes in the degree to which the athlete worries or manifests negative thoughts

Front 5

• Somatic state anxiety

Back 5

o (Som A-State): Moment-to-moment changes in the athlete’s perceived physiological arousal (such as increased respiration, accelerated heart rate, increased muscular tension, trembling, sweating)

Front 6

• Trait anxiety

Back 6

o an acquired behavioral tendency or disposition that predisposes a person to perceive as threatening circumstances that are objectively not dangerous and then to respond with a disproportionate level of state anxiety
o not moment-to-moment
o In general, if an athlete has higher levels of trait anxiety, they almost always have higher levels of competitive state anxiety because they were born that way

Front 7

• Stress

Back 7

o A substantial imbalance between the physical and/or psychological demands placed on the athlete and the athlete’s response capability under conditions where failure to meet that demand has important consequences

Front 8

• 4 stages of stress

Back 8

o An environmental demand (usually competitive), which leads to
o Subjective perception of the demand
o Athlete’s response, which leads to
 Hyperventilation, etc
o A particular outcome
o Fainting, etc.

Front 9

o Sources of stress

Back 9

 Situational sources
• Event importance
• Uncertainty
 Personal sources
• Trait anxiety
• Self esteem
• Social physique anxiety

Front 10

• Social physique anxiety

Back 10

o Personality disposition defined as “the degree to which people become anxious when others observe their physiques”

Front 11

• Inventories

Back 11

o SCAT-A ( sport competition anxiety test for adults)
 measures trait anxiety
 Sport-specific psychological inventory
 Consists of 15 items completed in less than 5 minutes
o CSAI-2R
 Competitive state anxiety inventory 2nd version revised
 Measures state anxiety
 Can measure cognitive/state anxiety, levels of distress immediately before competitive event
• Knowing can help to reduce anxiety
o How to use the tests
 Suggestions can manage anxiety and improve competitive performance
 Use tests to find out where/when they seem to have highest state anxiety
 In real life, sports psych hardly ever focus on trait anxiety
• Can’t change the trait
 Improve self-confidence

Front 12

• Drive theory

Back 12

o As an individual’s arousal or state anxiety increases, so too does performance
o Zajonc’s social facilitation theory explained with drive theory
 When people performed easy tasks, performed better with evaluative others, performed worse on difficult tasks

Front 13

• Inverted-U hypothesis

Back 13

o Intermediate level of anxiety is ideal for performance

Front 14

• Individualized zones of optimal functioning (IZOF)

Back 14

o Each athlete has their zone of ideal functioning, outside of which they perform more poorly

Front 15

• Multidimensional anxiety theory

Back 15

o Predicts that cognitive state anxiety (worry) is negatively related to performance, somatic state anxiety is related to performance in an inverted U
o Little scientific support

Front 16

• Catastrophe model

Back 16

o Physiological arousal is related to performance in an inverted-U fashion, but only when an athlete is not worried or has low cognitive state anxiety
o If Cog A-State is high, the increases in arousal at some point reach a kind of threshold, just past the point of optimal arousal level, and afterward a rapid decline in performance (the catastrophe occurs)

Front 17

• Reversal theory

Back 17

o The way in which arousal affects performance depends basically on an individual’s interpretation of his arousal level
 For best performance, athletes must interpret their arousal as pleasant excitement rather than unpleasant anxiety
o Performers can shift or reverse their positive or negative interpretations of arousal from moment to moment

Front 18

• Perception of control

Back 18

o Affects whether state anxiety will be viewed as facilitative or debilitative