Chapter 4 Arousal, Stress, Anxiety

Stress

a substantial imbalance between demand (physical and/or psychological) and response capability, under conditions where failure to meet that demand has important consequences". It is a process or a sequence

emotions

are complex phenomena, "short-lived feeling states that occur in response to events" that one has.

individualized zones of optimal functioning (IZOF)

found that top athletes have a zone of optimal state anxiety in which their best performance occurs. Outside this zone, poor performance occurs.

perceived control

regulatory component of state anxiety; that is, the degree to which one believes one has the resources and ability to meet challenges is an important component of state anxiety as well

Cognitive anxiety

Anxiety has a thought component (e.g., worry and apprehension) called cognitive anxiety

Distinguish between the terms arousal, state anxiety, trait anxiety, cognitive state anxiety, and somatic state anxiety.

Arousal - general physiological and psychological activation that varies on a continuum from deep sleep to intense excitement. Anxiety - a negative emotional state in which feelings of nervousness, worry, and apprehension are associated with activation or arousal of the body. State Anxiety - an ever-changing mood component. Trait Anxiety - part of one's personality... an acquired behavioral tendency or disposition that influences behavior. Cognitive State Anxiety - concerns the degree to which one worries or has negative thoughts. It is a specific negative anxiety which involves fear and worry. Somatic State Anxiety - concerns the moment-to-moment changes in perceived physiological activation.

What can Jason (story in the chapter) do to manage his anxiety and play well? How could you help him view his anxiety as facilitative rather than debilitative?

I would encourage Jason to look at his record - how well his team has done. How adept he is at the game. How capable he is of performing at this level. Understanding that doing his best will provide results.

How might you tailor coaching strategies to individuals who are trying to deal with stress and anxiety?

It's important to take into consideration the interplay between both situational and personal factors. Also, it'd be important to look at one's inherent trait anxiety via surveys and questionnaires. This will help tailor the coaching strategy.

Discuss three practical applications from the research and theories on the arousal-performance relationship.

1.) Being able to measure the optimal combination of arousal-related emotions needed for best performance. 2.) Allows us to tailor coaching and instructional practices to individuals. 3.) Identifies how personal and situational factors interact to influence arousal, anxiety, and performance.

Describe the major signs of increased state anxiety in athletes.

1.) Muscle tension, fatigue, and coordination difficulties that results from the first two. 2.) Attention, concentration, and visual search changes. For example, attention field becomes narrow with high arousal - too narrow to be optimal. The field is too wide if there is not enough arousal.

Discuss three implications for professional practice that you derived from the theories and scientific data in this chapter.

1.) The athlete's perception of arousal state can change from moment to moment, indicating that it can be highly subjective. 2.) The higher the trait anxiety, the higher the state anxiety will be for an athlete. This is important in understanding performance. 3.) Trait-anxiety doesn't always predict who will choke and who will do better in a given situation. If the environmental demands are somewhat stable (like the athlete knows the team will win), then the one with the higher trait-anxiety may actually do better.

Discuss the relationship between ability and an athlete's interpretation of anxiety as facilitative or debilitative.

A facilitative example would be the one given in the book, where the girl who is running track, and knows she is able to do the specific run in the certain time, because she has done it before. When she experiences the arousal, she interprets it as positive and it is therefore facilitative. She knows from prior experience that she is able to do it. A debilitative example stems from a similar story - the girl is trying to do a run in a time she has never done before, and she knows is going to be extremely difficult. Therefore, once she starts to experience arousal, she views it negatively and it becomes debilitative.

arousal

a blend of physiological and psychological activity in a person, and it refers to the intensity dimensions of motivation at a particular moment.

Drive Theory - As arousal increases, so does performance. Inverted U - Low arousal levels lead to low performance, middle arousal levels lead to highest performance, and high arousal levels again lead to low performance. Individualized Zones - Different arousal levels impact different people in different ways. Multidimensional - cognitive state anxiety (worry) is negatively related to performance, although somatic state anxiety is related to the inverted U model. Catastrophe - arousal is related to the inverted-U, but only when cognitive state anxiety is low, or the athlete has low levels of worry. For someone with high cognitive anxiety, the inverted-U is followed until a certain point, when performance then drops off drastically (the catastrophe). Reversal - Best performance comes from an individual experiencing their arousal as pleasant excitement rather than unpleasant anxiety - again, it's based on an individual, and their tendency to make quick shifts in their interpretation of arousal. This is a good theory because it incorporates one's interpretation of arousal. Anxiety Direction/Intensity - Is associated with facilitative and debilitative anxiety. This is dependent on one's thoughts about how a certain event might go - a runner who knows he can run a certain distance and time will experience arousal as facilitative, while a person who doesn't believe, or is nervous about making a certain distance in a certain time will experience debilitative arousal. Basically, it is dependent upon the individual's perception of control.

Discuss the major differences in how arousal relates to performance according to the following theories: 1.) Drive Theory 2.) Inverted-U Hypothesis 3.) Individualized Zones of Optimal Functioning 4.) Multidimensional Anxiety Theory 5.) Catastrophe Model 6.) Reversal Theory 7.) Anxiety Direction and Intensity View

What are two or three major sources of situational and personal stress?

Situational stress involves both event importance and uncertainty of a certain situation. Personal stress is derived from trait anxiety, self-esteem, and things like social physique anxiety.

Define stress and identify the four stages of the stress process. Why are these stages important? How can they guide practice?

Stress is a substantial imbalance between demand (physical and/or psychological) and response capability, under conditions where failure to meet that demand has importance consequences. It is a process or a sequence of events that will lead to a particular end. The four stages are... 1.) Environmental Demand - either physical or psychological. 2.) Perception of Demand - the amount of psychological or physical threat perceived. 3.) Stress Response - both physical and psychological. Arousal, state anxiety (both cognitive and somatic), muscle tension, attention changes. 4.) Behavioral Consequences - performance or outcome. Understanding each process, and which inputs are plugged into each process for a given example, will allow a practitioner to see at which stage intervention is most needed, and which type of intervention is needed.

Does a home-court advantage exist in sport? Discuss the research that addresses this issue.

The advantage appears to exist for basketball and hockey much more so than football or baseball. It appears that the indoor, closer-proximity environments might influence performance - the audience is much closer and louder in the indoor sports. Also, those indoor sports are much more continuous, which engages the crowd more. The home-court advantage tends to trail off and become negative, though, once there is more on the line - when the games become more important later in the seasons. This is known as the "championship choke." The jury is still out on this being conclusive, though.

What is social facilitation theory? What implications does this theory have for practice?

This theory predicts that the presence of others helps performance on well-learned or simple skills and inhibits or lessens performance on unlearned or complex tasks.