Arousal, stress and anxiety – short answers and essay – Flashcards
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What is stress?
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Imbalance between the environmental demand and response capability. In an environment where failure to meet demand has important consequences
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What is the relationship of stress and anxiety?
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Anxiety is an outcome of stress response
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What is the stress response
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Lazarus & Folkman, 1984 Process of stress - perceives situation, makes cognitive appraisal, individual differences and then response.
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What 8 situations are more likely to be stressful? (Thatcher & Day, 2008).
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Novelty of event Event predictability versus ambiguity Event outcome uncertain Imminence and duration of event Event timing uncertain Inadequate preparation Comparison to others Other events in life
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What is coping?
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Lazarus and Folkman, 1984 Cognitive and behavioural efforts to manage demands that are exceeding resources of the person.
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What are the two coping strategies?
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Problem focussed and emotion focussed
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What is problem focussed coping strategies and where is it more effective?
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Prevent the situation making you more stressed More effective in controllable situations
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What is emotion focussed coping strategies and where is it most effective?
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Change the interpretation and reaction to stressful situations More effective in uncontrollable situations
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What are the problems with researching stress?
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Can't directly observe stress Sport specific Qualitative is most appropriate - e.g. interviewing
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What are the two major categories of sport stress and which has the highest stress levels?
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Competitive and organisational Organisational has more stress associated with it
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What is the Hanton et al (2005) study that backs up organisational stress?
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Says that athletes face four times more organisational stressors than competitive. Performance issues Environmental issues Personal issues Leadership issues Team issues
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What are the five causes of anxiety?
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Ego threat Perceived uncertainty of outcome Perceived importance of outcome Performance expectations Presence of others
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What is arousal?
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Blend of physiological and psychological activity that varies on a continuum from deep sleep to intense excitement.
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What is activation?
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Readiness to respond
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What are the five measurements of arousal?
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Cardiorespiratory Electrophysical Biomechanical Galvanic skin response Psychological
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What is anxiety?
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Nervousness and tension associated with activation or arousal
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What are the two types of anxiety, what are they are what is the relationship between the two?
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State = mood Trait = genetic predisposition If you have high trait anxiety you are more likely to perceive a situation as stressful and have high state anxiety.
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What are the two dimensions of anxiety and what do they mean?
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Cognitive - concerns, worries Somatic - physiological response e.g. heart rate
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What are the three ways we can measure anxiety?
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State trait anxiety inventory Competitive state anxiety inventory Sport competitive anxiety test
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What are the problems with measuring anxiety?
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Social desirability bias Athlete self deception Timing Retrospective recall
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What is the multidimensional anxiety theory?
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Burton, 1988 and Martens et al., 1990 1. Linear relationship between somatic anxiety and performance until a certain point where individual becomes too anxious and performance will start to decrease (supported) 2. Linear relationship between self confidence and performance (supported) 3. As cognitive anxiety increases, performance decreases (mixed support).
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What are the criticisms of multidimensional anxiety theory?
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Cognitive anxiety isn't always bad Performance doesn't decrease gradually Doesn't consider interactive events
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What is the cusp catastrophe model?
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Looks at interactive relationship between cognitive anxiety, physiological arousal and performance.
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Why was physiological arousal used instead of somatic anxiety in the cusp catastrophe model?
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There is a direct influence by increase in activation and an indirect influence through the interpretation of symptoms.
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What does cusp catastrophe model predict the anxiety/performance relationship will be if cognitive anxiety is low and physiological arousal increases?
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Positive effect on performance up to a certain point.
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What does the cusp catastrophe model predict the anxiety/performance relationship will be if cognitive anxiety is high and physiological arousal increases?
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Will improve performance up to a certain point, but if it exceeds that point performance will drastically decrease.
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What is ideal performance state?
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Somewhere in the middle
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What is a catastrophe?
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Sudden decline in performance
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What are the three main points of cusp catastrophe model?
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Interaction of cognitive anxiety and physiological arousal determines performance. Cognitive anxiety doesn't always impair performance. High cognitive anxiety can result in significantly better or significantly worse performances.
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What is the Edwards and Hardy (1996) experiment that goes against catastrophe model?
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Results show that low cognitive anxiety resulted in better performance with high physiological arousal. High cognitive anxiety resulted in better performance with low physiological arousal.
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What is the hysteresis effect?
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When cognitive anxiety is high, the relationship between physiological arousal and performance depends on whether physiological arousal is increasing or decreasing. After a catastrophe, a large decrease is needed in physiological arousal to reach pre-catastrophe performance levels.
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What study shows the hysteresis effect?
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Hardy and Parfitt, 1991 High cognitive anxiety: When HR is increasing, the best performance is at HR max - 10 and when heart rate is decreasing, the best performance is at HR max - 30. Low cognitive anxiety: Performance not as good, not much differences.
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What are the criticisms of the cusp catastrophe model?
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Doesn't explain why cognitive anxiety and physiological arousal interact to cause performance. Doesn't say how high 'high' is for cognitive anxiety and physiological arousal. Doesn't explain 'level' but is probably different for individual and sport.
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How can the cusp catastrophe model be applied in a sport context?
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Track anxiety over time and compare good and bad performances Determine conditions where a catastrophe will occur Control cognitive anxiety and physiological arousal for an optimum level. If you want to decrease physiological arousal = relaxation, breathing if you want to decrease cognitive arousal = imagery, self talk
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What is directional anxiety?
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How athletes interpret anxiety (cognitive and physiological) May be a better predictor than intensity of anxiety
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What is debilitative anxiety?
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Hinders performance
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What is facilitative anxiety?
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Helps performance
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What are the two studies done by Jones et al (1994) about debilitative/facilitative anxiety?
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1. Elite view anxiety as more facilitative (confidence in their ability and previous success), non elite view anxiety as more debilitative, even though intensity of anxiety is the same for both. 2. Good performances are associated with facilitative anxiety and bad performances are associated with debilitative anxiety.
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What is the relationship between self confidence and anxiety?
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Individuals with high confidence are less likely to view anxiety as debilitative.
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According the the Neil et al (2012) study, what happens as a situation becomes more critical?
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Symptoms are viewed as more debilitative.
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What are the Hanton & Connaughton (2002) 6 causes of anxiety?
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Concerns about competition Self doubts Worried about performing badly Worried about not reaching goal Concerned about losing Concerned about disappointing others
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What does the study on the importance of control say (Jones, 1995; Hanton & Connaughteon, 2002)?
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Facilitative stress = positive ability to cope (motivates me), positive goal attainment (felt like this last time). Debilitative stress = negative ability to cope (can't stop thinking about losing) and negative goal attainment (not confident).
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How do you use psych skills to view anxiety as facilitative?
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Imagery - changes responses, seen as a challenge Goal Setting - control, creates performance goals Self Talk - control, positive thoughts
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What does Hanton & Jones (1999) study say?
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Intervention (pre comp routine, pre race routine designed around goal setting, imagery and self talk) resulted in a increase in facilitative anxiety, self confidence and performance, intensity didn't change.
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What does Swain & Jones, 1993 say about the frequency of anxiety?
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Frequency of anxious thoughts remembered more than intensity An increase in frequency of anxious thoughts as competition gets nearer means increase in anxiety intensity.
