Chapter 12 Study Guide
How can breathing exercises help with relaxation to aid performance?
.Breathing properly is relaxing and facilitates performance by, for example, increasing the amount of oxygen in the blood and carrying more energy to the muscles. Those who experience stress during a high pressure performance situation find their breathing is usually affected in one of two ways-they either hold their breath or breathe rapidly and shallowly from the upper chest. 1a.Both of these adjustments create even more tension and impairment of performance 1b.Learning to take deep, slow, complete breaths from the belly will usually trigger relaxation response. This response is the basis for a variety of breathing exercises, but first learning to breath properly is essential. 1c.Breathing properly comes from the diaphragm, with a complete breath, the diaphragm pulls down, causing the belly to expand and a vacuum to occur in the lungs, filling the lungs up from the bottom. 1d.To facilitate learning what this feels like, individuals should forcefully empty all the air from their lungs and notice what happens on the next inhalation. When practicing a complete breath, individuals should imagine that their lungs are divided into three levels and that inhalation occurs in three steps. ~All three stages progress continuously and smoothly. Once comfortable with this sequential inhalation, they should emphasize taking a long, slow, deep inhalation through the nose, inhaling as much air as possible.
What is the Inverted U hypothesis and what does it mean? How does it relate to anxiety and arousal?
1.1.In sport psychology, researches initially referred to the arousal-based concepts of drive theory and the inverted-U hypothesis to describe the stress or arousal-performance Relationships. 2.According to drive theory, increases in drive or arousal are associated with linear increases in performance, providing that the task is well learned-that is, the dominant response of the athlete is the correct one. 3.Drive theory is no longer used because neither research nor anecdotal evidence supports its premise 4.Alternatively, the inverted-U hypothesis describes the relationship between arousal and performance through an inverted-U function. Increases in arousal from drowsiness to alertness result in progressive performance gains up to an optimal level of arousal, beyond which increases in arousal result in progressive performance decrements.
How can Progressive Muscle Relaxation help to aid in performance?
1.An anxious mind cannot exist within a relaxed body. PR consists of a series of exercises that involve contracting a specific muscle group, holding the contraction for five to seven seconds, and then realizing. 1a.the exercises progress from one muscle group to another 1b.The contraction phases teaches awareness and sensitivity to what muscular tension feels like and that it can voluntarily be induced by passively releasing the tension in a muscle. Thus, in the learning process, the athlete simply identifies a localized state of tension, relaxes it away and then contrasts the tension sensations with the ensuing relaxation that comes from the elimination of tension. 1c.By practicing this internal sensory observation, the athlete can become quite proficient at recognizing unwanted tension sensations where they may occur and can then easily release the tension rapidly in practically any stressful situation. 1d.Initial practice requires 25 to 30 mins and should be done daily. THe coach or sport psych consultant should take athletes through the initial session, then provide a handout or audio track containing instructions for progressing through the muscle groups. 1e.Once the skill is acquired, shorter practice sessions will achieve a state of complete relaxation, and variations can occur, both for achieving complete and momentary relaxation.
What does arousal refer to and what does it mean in terms of motivation and function? What happens when arousal starts?
1.Arousal refers to a generalized physiological and psychological activation of the person, with neural excitation varying on a continuum from deep sleep to extreme excitement. 1a.It serves an energizing function and thus reflect the intensity level of motivation and is nondirective. 1b.Whether the arousal starts with a thought or an external stimulus, the result is autonomic nervous responses such as increased heart and respiration rates, butterflies in the stomach, muscle tension, and sweating.
How can momentary relaxation aid in relaxation for performance?
1.Can be used just before and during warm-up. IN fact, stretching in preparation for competition is a good time to utilize the strategies of momentary relaxation and to focus on the upcoming performance, the longer the session of momentary relaxation and to focus on the upcoming performance. 1a.The more uptight the athlete is prior to performance, the longer the session of momentary relaxation should be. After the competition, this type of relaxation can be used to return to a controlled, balanced state that enables focusing on other aspects of the athlete's life. 1b.During the competition, depending on the specific sport, brief periods or lapses in play allow for momentary relaxation as needed, but athletes must first learn to become aware of excessive tension. Doing a quick momentary relaxation exercise can also facilitate concentration and imagery practice because it eliminates or reduces thoughts and stimulation that interfere with the needed single-minded focus.
What is competitive anxiety and what does it mean? What symptoms are present here and what responses are present here? What does these symptoms show? How can these symptoms lead to anxiety?
1.Competitive anxiety: The typical emotion associated with the experience of stress in sport is competitive anxiety. 1a.Competitive anxiety is a situation-specific, negative (unpleasant) emotional response to one's view of competitive stressors, and the general involvement in competition, as threats. 1b.This response may include symptoms such as worry, together with a heightened perception of one's physiological state or level of arousal. These responses represent the mental (cognitive) and perceived physical (somatic) components of anxiety. 1c.Cognitive anxiety responses present the thoughts experienced in stressful citations and include worries, negative expectations, and apprehensions about performance (mental response to stressors) 1d.Somatic responses represent an athletes perceptions of their physiological arousal state in stressful environments (perceived physical response to stressors.) ~Somatic anxiety symptoms include factors such as muscular tension, butterflies in the stomach, increased heart rate, dry mouth, cold and clammy hands, and perspiration. 1e.Differences exist in how competitive anxiety is experienced in relation to the individual (personal) and the environment in which they compete (situational). ~These factors include the athlete's gender, skill level and type of sport performed. 1f.Although competitive stressors might lead athletes to experience some type of anxiety response, the potential effect is not inherently negative. ~For example, one athlete might perceive a racing heart as a positive "psyched up" feeling, while another appraises the same anxiety symptom as negative nervousness.
What is the Processing Efficiency theory and how does it effect anxiety and performance? What does it suggest for performance anxiety?
1.Effect of cognitive anxiety on performance 1a.When anxiety is high = task irrelevant cognitive worry 1b.Reduces working memory capacity 2.The first of these approaches has been used by Hardy and associates to explain the debilitating and facilitating effects of cognitive anxiety on performance described by catastrophe models. 2a.PET suggests that when a person is anxious, a proportion of their attentional capacity for the task is filled by task-irrelevant cognitive worry, effectively reducing their working memory capacity, iparing cognitive processing efficiency and potentially performance. 2b.It is also worth noting that cognitive anxiety or worry may also signal the importance of the task to the individual and lead to an increased investment in the task. 2c.For example, many athletes suggest being "nervous" means the race or match is important and leads them to focus intently and try harder with regard to subsequent preparation for/execution of performance.
What is the Catastrophe Cusp Model? What does it say about anxiety and how does it effect performance?
1.Emotion Management 2.Some cognitive anxiety is good depending on level of somatic anxiety 2a.When cognitive anxiety is high, some somatic anxiety is good 2b.Too much somatic anxiety and down you go 3.To overcome some of the existing limitations with MAT, the cusp catastrophe model of anxiety and performance describes the interactive effects of cognitive anxiety and physiological arousal (as opposed to somatic anxiety) on performance. 3a.Specifically, cognitive anxiety determines whether the effect of physiological arousal on performance will be smooth and small, large, and catastrophic or somewhere in between the two extremes. 3b.In contrast to MAT, therefore, the catastrophe model suggests the elevations in cognitive anxiety can have positive performance consequences dependent upon the levels of physiological arousal. 3c.For example, when cognitive anxiety levels are low, variation in physiological arousal will lead to small type relationships. 3d.Under high cognitive anxiety conditions, increasing physiological arousal will, up to a threshold, lead to positive effects on performance. However, continued increases in physiological arousal beyond this threshold are purposed to result in a catastrophic drop in performance. 3e.While support for the initial cusp catastrophe model has been mixed, subsequent adaptations to include additional factors on the anxiety-performance relationship have proved more fruitful. 3f.For example, increased self-confidence allows athletes to tolerate higher levels of physiological arousal when mentally anxious before suffering a decrement in Performance. 3f.The implications for practitioners from the higher-order butterfly catastrophe model highlight the importance of having suitable strategies and skills that can enhance or maintain (protect) levels of self-confidence to enable successful stress management.
What is the Individualized Zone of Optimal Functioning, what does it mean, what does it build upon, and how can it help to further progress an athlete?
1.Emotional Management 2.In an attempt to more accurately describe the stress and performance relationship, sport psychology consultants have developed theories and models from investigations grounded within actual experiences of competing in sport. 3.Individual zones of optimal functioning: building upon the zone of optimal functioning (ZOF) hypothesis, the individual zone of optimal functioning is a practical tool for helping athletes establish the level (intensity of emotions experienced) performance anxiety, excitement, anger) within which the best performance occurs (often referred to as "being inthe zone" 3a.If, however, the intensity of these emotions is outside of the "optimal" zone or range, performance will suffer. 3b.A further postulation of IZOF is that there is interindividual and intraindividual variability in how athletes subjectively perceive their emotions in relation to their impact on performance (facilitative or debilitative). 3c.Despite support for its practical significance, as it allows athletes to develop a greater self-awareness of their psychological readiness to perform and consider how they may "get into the zone: IZOF has received criticism for its lack of explanation as to why different levels of emotions may be optimal or detrimental to performance.
How is stress from anxiety manifested in the body and what are the two categories they are under and what does each mean?
1.Mental Anxiety 1a.thoughts and concerns about the situation 1b.negative self talk, worry, lack of confidence, inability to focus 2.Physical Anxiety 2a.How the body deals with pressure 2b.increased breathing, sweat, heart rate, muscle tension
What are the risks of muscle tension? What are the dangers?
1.Muscle tension may risk neck or shoulder injury owing to excessive muscle tension and restricted range of motion. A client with excessive muscle tension in the low back risks injury during leg exercises. 2.What the Instructor Can Do. Know when your clients are experiencing life changes, assess their impact, carefully monitor and adjust training regimens and provide support as needed. Be aware of flexibility and range-of-motion changes in clients during stressful periods, and spend more time stretching and warming up. Periods of high stress are not good times to introduce new exercises or movements.
What is the Conscious Processing Hypothesis theory and what does it say about stress or anxiety? What does it suggest and what does it common refer to? What happens to the athlete in these cases.
1.Paralysis by Analysis 2.Anxiety 2a.Performer uses excessive thinking 2b.So turns focus inward 2c.Messes an automatic skill up as he turns back to cognitive vs associative and/or Autonomic 3.A final theory of attentional processes is this, CPH attempts to explain the mechanism underlying anxiety-induced performance decrements. 3a.Here, a high-anxious performer starts to use excessive thinking (reinvestment) which leads to execute the skill successfully, a process that is commonly referred to as paralysis by analysis. 3b.That is, skills that are normally undertaken with little or no thought become disrupted due to the skilled athlete trying to consciously control the movement. 3c.In doing so the athlete is adopting a mode of control based on explicit or declarative knowledge (factual knowledge) that is associated with early stages of learning of a skill. 3d.The implications for sport psychology consultants is that attempts to solely focus on encouraging athletes to exert conscious control over previously automated skills will cause performance impairments wetherby anxiety may induce regression from implicit/automatic control to explicit/verbal control. 3e.The attentional-based mechanistic explanations for the anxiety-performance relationships are most closely related to the concept of "choking" in sport. Indeed, choking is a term frequently cited in the media to label unexpected or sudden failure in athletic performance due to anxiety when performing under high-pressure situations. 3f.Choking is characterized by high arousal and anxiety symptoms and the feelings that the harder one tries, the worse one's performance. 3g.Generally researchers agree that choking is the product of misguided attention control combined with elevated arousal and anxiety, caused by concern with excessive self-consciousness and the mechanics of skill execution. 3h.The likelihood of an athlete experiencing choking in sport has been suggested to be moderated by a number of interpersonal and environmental factors (skill type, perfectionism, fear of negative evaluation, team cohesion, coping approach and self presentation)
What does Attentional Control theory state about anxiety and how can it influence performance?
1.When anxiety is high: 1a.Shifts attention to threat related stimuli as opposed to focusing on what you should be doing 2.An extension to PET is that of attentional control theory, which explains how anxiety affects attention and performance. 2a.Specifically, anxiety impairs the efficiency of attention because it causes a shift in attention to threat-related stimuli rather than toward task-and goal-relevant information, thereby negatively affecting performance. 2b.The inability to exercise attentional control may, however, be compensated for by inition and shifting functions that stop the effects of the threat-related stimuli and shift attentional resources to task demands. 2c.Therefore, while anxiety influences efficiency (the relationship between effective task performance and the use of attentional resource, it does not influence effectiveness (outcome in terms of performance accuracy) 2d.Support for both PET and ACT has been established in sport, with both theories assuming there is a fundamental distinction between performance effectiveness (quality of performance) and processing efficiency (the relationship between performance effectiveness and side of processing resources) and that anxiety impairs processing efficiency more than performance effectiveness. 2e.The implication for sport psychology consultants here is that the experience of high levels of cognitive anxiety are not inherently negative and that it can serve to motivate athletes to increase effort to prevent their anxiety from impairing performance, but at the expense of using a greater amount of their available concentration (attentional) resources.
What is anxiety and what are some characteristics of anxiety and what is this labeled as?
1.an emotional state or reaction characterized by: 1a.varying intensity 1b.variation over time 1c.unpleasant feelings of intensity, preoccupation, disturbance, uncertainty, and apprehension 2.negative (distress): anxiety
How can visualization help with relaxation and aid in performance?
1.being in a place conducive to relaxation is another technique for eliciting relaxation. Other images might be sitting in the mindset of a beautiful mountain scene or laying in a grassy valley by a gentle gurgling stream. Whatever image provides the athlete with a sense of calm and relaxation is the one he or she should use.
How can Autogenic training with visualization help with relaxation and aid in performance?
1.consists of a series of exercises designed to produce two physical sensations typically associated with relaxation: warmth and heaviness. 1a.Essentially a technique of autohypnosis or self-hypnosis, if focuses attention on the sensations one is trying to produce. 1b.As in meditation it is important to let the feeling happen passively. There are six Stages in the training and the athlete must learn each stage before progressing to the next stage. The progression can be modified to suit athletes learning rates as well as the training program and length of season of the sport. 1c.Once athletes have mastered the six stages of autogenic training they may be ready to combine autogenic exercise with visualization. 1d.The progression goes from first doing the autogenic exercise to then visualizing the desired feeling or objective. For example athletes might build confidence by imaging some peak or clutch performance when everything went just right or they might program success by imagine the proper execution and outcome of a skill or strategy for an upcoming competition.
How can meditation help with relaxation and aid in performance?
1.regular mediation helps one achieve a state of deep relaxation and facilitates concentration by discipling the mind. Four basic components are common to most forms of meditation: a quiet environment, a comfortable position, a mental device and a passive attitude. 1a.A mental device such as a mantra (meaningless rhythmic sound of one or two syllables) or fixed gazing at an object, quiets the mind by providing a non arousing and non stimulating focus of attention. 1b.It is critical that athletes do not worry about how well they are performing the technique or try hard because this disrupt effective meditation. 1c.Emphasize a let it happen attitude; this passive attitude is perhaps the most important element in learning to mediate. If distracting thoughts or mind wandering occur, the athlete should redirection attention to the mental device, focusing on this cue and letting all other thoughts move on through consciousness with a passive attitude making no attempt to attend to them. 1d.The relaxation response developed by Herbert Benson is a generalized version of Eastern transcendental meditation but without reference to mysticism and unusual postures. 1e.For a mental device, athletes use a word such as calm or word/sound of their choosing and adopt the following instructions. ~Sit in a comfortable position in a quiet place and close the eyes ~Deeply relax all muscles, beginning at the top of the head and progressing to the feet (feet to the head if preferred) and keep them relaxed. ~Concentrate on breathing whilst breathing easily and naturally through the nose. With each breath out, say the word calm or some other mantra or nonsense sound silently to oneself. ~When finished, sit quietly for several minutes, initially with eyes closed and then open. Do not stand for a few minutes.
How is activation use compared to arousal and what does it refer to? What happens under activation to the body? When does this happen and why? What is the proper form involvement down?
2.Activation is used synonymously with the term arousal, and it also refers to the overall physical and mental state that is required by an athlete to be ready to perform a respective task or activity. 2a.If increases in an athlete's levels of arousal or overall activation state come from experiencing high stress when competing in sport or preparing to compete, on some of the products of this process, physical tension, in particular can have immediate and powerful effects on an athlete. 2 .This double pull explains why a person can be scared stiff and rigid with anger or unable to move because of fright. It also explains why an athlete shoots air balls, misses a short putt, passes with too much fore, or overhits a tennis ball. 2e.The principle of the double pull, often referred to as bracing, has great significance for athletes. When excessive muscular tension occurs, it interferes with execution of the skill because it prevents appropriately coordinating movement. 2f.Proper form in a movement involves using just the right amount of tension at any given time in the relevant muscles, Athletes can learn the right amount of contraction, that is, to expend on those energies necessary to execute the skill, this is called differential relaxation.
What does it mean by stress is a process and what are they characteristics of this process?
2.Stress is a process 2a.Situation: Mistake, Foul, Late in the Game, Penalty 2b.Mental Appraisal: What just happened, Am I okay, he okay, how do I feel, Is it hot in here, What does this mean? 2c.Arousal and Anxiety leads to: Coping skills, breath get after i or choke tense-miss
What are some psychological risk factors that can contribute to injury?
3.Psychological Risk Factors: Psychological risk factors that can contribute to injury include the following, in varying combinations: 3a.high levels of negative and/or positive life changes 3b.high levels of type A or type C behavior (See "The ABCs of Personality" sidebar above.) 3c.high levels of anxiety 3d.exhibition of poor reaction and movement time, due to poor attentional focus 3e.high or low pain tolerance 3f.high levels of either extroverted or introverted behavior, which may lead a client to inaccurately perceive a situation, environmental stimuli or signs of impending injury 3g.behavior associated with insecurity, overprotection and dependency 3h.behavior reflecting that the client feels little control over the athletic situation at hand 3i.behavior reflecting a poor self-concept and low self-esteem 3j.high levels of depression
How do we have stress management intervention and how can we do this?
3.Stress Management Intervention 3a.Reduction: reduce symptoms of stress but high levels aren't always bad 3b.Restructuring: Restructure approach to stress management 3c.Energizing: Manage energy
What occurs with increased muscle tension and why may this happen?
4.Increased Muscle Tension:High stress can be accompanied by considerable muscle tension that interferes with normal coordination and increases the chance of injury (Smith et al., 2000). For example, a highly stressed pole vaulter might experience more muscle tension than is desirable and fa from an elevated height, injuring him-self. Increased stress may also lead to generalized fatigue, muscle inefficiency, reduced flexibility and motor coordination problems (Williams & Andersen, 2007). Track & field coaches who work with an athlete experiencing major life changes (e.g., a high school student whose parents are in the midst of a divorce or a college athlete going through a bad breakup) should watch the athlete's behavior closely. If she shows signs of increased muscle tension or abnormal attentional difficulties when performing, it would be wise to ease training and initiate stress management strategies.
What do the characteristics of the task and performance do to level of arousal? What does it say about level of arousal and how it relates to performance and how can anxiety play a role?
5.The characteristics of the task and the performer determine the optimal level of arousal. 5a.Tasks that are complex, that are high in decisional demands, or that require fine motor skills for precision and steadiness benefit from lower levels of arousal for optimal performance, whereas simple tasks, gross motor skills, and strength and speed tasks benefit from higher levels of arousal. 5b.In terms of individual difference factors, athletes with higher skills levels, more experience in the competitive setting, good stress-coping skills, lower trait anxiety or an extroverted personality can handle higher arousal levels without performance deficits, in contrast to those with the opposite profile. 6.With the inverted-U approach, the challenge is for the athlete to determine what level of arousal (usually a range) typically leads to the best performance on a given task and to then try to consistently reproduce this arousal state from one competition to the next-thus the need to know how to raise or reduce levels of arousal accordingly. 6a.Although the inverted-U hypothesis provides some useful information for determining arousal level and interventions it is too simplistic and has too many limitations (fails to consider cognitive anxiety and its interaction with arousal) to be used solely in explaining the stress-performance relationship or for prescribing stress management strategies.
What is arousal, what does it mean, and what are some characterisitics?
a.Arousal (excitement) 1.also referred to as activation 2.nondirectional 3.range from comatose to panic attack 4.for our purposes, it is an energizing function 5.positive stress (eustress): arousal
What is the Multidimensional Anxiety Theory (MAT), what are the symptoms of somatic and cognitive anxiety and what does this show in terms of performance and is this beneficial?
b.Multidimensional Anxiety theory (MAT) 1.Terms: 1a.Somatic anxiety: physical symptoms 1b.Cognitive anxiety: mental symptoms 2.As cognitive anxiety increases, performance decreases 3.Appropriate amount of Somatic arousal is good. 4.Makes distinctions between competitive state cognitive and somatic anxiety on the premise that they have different antecedents and relationships to performance. 4a.Somatic anxiety is predicted to display an inverted-U relationship, with performance and cognitive anxiety a negative linear relationship (as cognitive anxiety increases, performance progressively deteriorates.THus like the IZOF approach, MAT suggests thatan appropriate level of somatic anxiety can have positive performance effects, but not so for cognitive anxiety as their symptoms should always be reduced. 4b.MAT also considers self-confidence and its relationship with performance.Although self-confidence is not a component of competitive anxiety, it is pro[pose to exhibit a positive linear association with performance (parallel increase in self-confidence and performance occur) 4c.MAT has received only partial support in the sport psychology literature, potentially due to the fact that is does not consider the beneficial effects of cognitive anxiety on performance, and according to WOodman and Hardy, because it fails to consider the interactive effects of the competitive anxiety subcomponents upon performance.
How is stress in the body manifested and how does that work? What two categories do you see this in and what happens in each category?
b.Stress in the body 1.Mental Excitement 1a.thoughts and concerns about the situation 1b.positive self-talk-belief, confidence, ability to focus 2.Physical Excitement 2a.how the body deals with pressure 2b.Increased breathing, sweat, heart rate, muscle tension — managed 2c.Body feels different but it is fight not flight
How is stress different in different people, what are some characteristics of this?
g.Stress 1.Different for Different People 1a.Personality: Perhaps the most important ~High trait anxious vs.low trait anxious ~introvert vs.extrovert 1b.Skill: high skill vs low skill 1c.Coping ability ~Some athletes know how to handle increased arousal ~all can be taught