In chapter 8, which is titled Alternatives to Inverted-U Theory, the author comes to talk about Fazey and Hardy’s catastrophe theory that considers both the effects of anxiety, or specifically cognitive anxiety, and the effects of physiological arousal within the same model. By now, we now that cognitive anxiety is tied to a person’s mental state and linked to a person’s fear of failure and loss of self-esteem. We also know that physiological arousal is linked to increases in blood pressure and rate of respiration and a decreased activity in the digestive system.
