Ch. 12 Reading
True or false: Activation is used synonymously with the term arousal.
True
True or false: Arousal serves an energizing function and thus reflects the intensity level of motivation and is nondirective.
True
True or false: By practicing the technique of progressive relaxation, an athlete can become quite proficient at recognizing unwanted tension sensations wherever they may occur and can then easily release the tension rapidly in practically any stressful situation.
True
True or false: In the information gathering method of stress management, athletes actively seek information regarding a stressor they are faced with in order to empower themselves with the knowledge to determine how best to cope.
True
An accurate feature of autogenic training is that _____.
it is essentially a technique of autohypnosis or self-hypnosis
A true statement about the method of passive progressive relaxation (PR) is that _____.
an athlete slowly relaxes one part of the body before moving on to another part
The relaxation response method developed by Herbert Benson should be practiced _____.
1-2 times in a day
Replacing
An athlete changes any irrational appraisal, that they had initially, with a rationalized or restructured thought.
Secondary appraisal
An athlete determines if he or she has the necessary physical and mental resources to deal with the stressful situation.
Identifying
An athlete discovers the symptoms that are irrational and will have a negative effect upon performance.
Primary appraisal
An athlete evaluates a situation to determine if the situation is stressful.
Disputing
An athlete is asked to challenge his or her initial appraisal of the situation.
Which of the following athletes is most likely to be unable to handle higher arousal levels without deficits in performance?
An athlete who has weak stress-coping skills
Energizing imagery
Annie visualizes a sprinting cheetah in the final seconds of her 400m sprint.
_____ is a situation-specific negative emotional response to one's view of competitive stressors, and the general involvement in competition, as threats.
Competitive anxiety
Identify a true statement about the progressive stages that are used to deal with negative interpretations of anxiety symptoms.
Athletes are educated to consider that the symptoms experienced actually indicate preparedness for the task.
Gianni is a basketball player who is having problems with distracting thoughts. His coach suggests a breathing exercise that involves focusing attention on breathing rhythm. If the mind wanders to some other thought between inhaling and exhaling, he has to redirect his attention back to the next breath, letting the intruding thought disappear. Which breathing exercise is Gianni practicing?
Concentration breathing
Rhythmic breathing
David inhales to a specific count and holds his breath and exhales to the same specific count that he inhaled.
1:2 ratio
Marco takes a deep breath and exhales completely. After this, he inhales to a specific count, and he exhales to double the count that he inhaled.
Payne is a competitive long distance runner who views his bouts of anxiety before a performance as being beneficial toward his performance. Identify a characteristic that is likely to be true of Payne.
He is likely to demonstrate better overall performance standards.
Hugo is a professional baseball player who gets extremely anxious at the prospect of facing a rival team on their home ground due to the hostile environment. Hugo's coach encourages him to do his homework on the opponents, to figure out their strengths and weaknesses, to understand what unsettles the crowd, and to view clips of previous performances. Which problem-solving technique is Hugo's coach asking him to use?
Information gathering
Identify a problem-focused strategy to manage competition stress.
Information gathering
Passive PR
It consists of the athlete merely letting go whatever level of muscular tension is in the muscle group without tensing the muscles.
In the context of stress management skills and strategies, identify the characteristics of the zero-activation level. (Check all that apply.)
It facilitates recovery from fatigue.; It enables athletes to develop a high level of sensitivity to their bodily feelings and responses.
Differential PR
It helps individuals better accomplish the differential relaxation required during practice and competition.
Abbreviated active PR
It is a shorter procedure, and it consists of tensing muscle groups for 5-10 seconds and then relaxing for 30-40 seconds.
Cognitive anxiety
It is predicted to display a negative linear relationship with performance.
Somatic anxiety
It is predicted to display an inverted-U relationship with performance.
Which of the following are characteristics of proactive behavior? (Check all that apply).
It mutes the influence of events that are potential future stressors.; It comprises of the building up of a reserve of personal coping resources.
Action-taking behavior
It refers to taking action in the present to cope with a problem.
Proactive behavior
It refers to taking action to prevent future negative outcome.
Concentration breathing
Jenny attempts to focus solely on her breathing rhythm. If she gets distracted, she has to redirect her attention to her next breath and make sure that the distraction disappears.
Identify the accurate steps that athletes can take to facilitate the process of problem-solving. (Check all that apply.)
List all the possible solutions; Explore the consequences of each solution; Set the course of the solution; Identify the problem
Dissociation from fatigue
Lorenzo thinks about taking a walk on the beach in his hometown in the middle of his grueling marathon.
David, a professional basketball player, is prone to bouts of anxiety in a competitive scenario. He regularly finds his physiological state to be in a state of heavy turmoil in a competitive setting. What somatic anxiety symptoms is he most likely to observe as a result of this? (Check all that apply.)
Muscular tension; Perspiration; Dry mouth
Identify the momentary muscle relaxation exercises that seek to reduce physiological arousal and the intensity of competition anxiety symptoms. (Check all that apply.)
Neck and shoulder check; Quick body scan; Sport muscle check
When do problem-focused strategies of stress management work?
Only when the athlete is able to exert some control over eradicating the stressor
Identify the symptoms of competitive anxiety response. (Check all that apply.)
Perspiration; Negative expectations; Worry
Somatic anxiety responses
Represent an athlete's perceptions of their physiological arousal state in stressful environments
Cognitive anxiety responses
Represent the thoughts experienced in stressful situations and include worries and negative expectations
Stress management training
Robert, a coach, combines the skills of imagery, self-talk, and relaxation to focus on the coping of emotional and affective responses to the stressors faced by athletes.
Energizing verbal cues
Rupert's coach tells him to "charge up" and "power up" just minutes before the end of a basketball match.
Stress inoculation training
Sara, a coach, combines the skills of imagery, self-talk, and relaxation to focus on dealing with the most stressful situation that her athletes can possibly experience.
Which of the following are techniques of restructuring approaches? (Check all that apply.)
Self-talk to rationalize and restructure symptoms; Imagery to re-create anxious thoughts and feelings; Imagery to emphasize control over emotions and depict successful performance
Lower levels of arousal for optimal performance
Simple tasks, gross motor skills, and strength and speed tasks
Identify the accurate instructions that one should follow while using Herbert Benson's technique of relaxation response. (Check all that apply.)
Sit in a comfortable position in a quiet place and close your eyes.; Concentrate on breathing, while breathing naturally and easily through the nose.; Deeply relax all your muscles, beginning at the top of your head (or from your feet).
Jacob is a rugby player who struggles to cope with the demands of the game. His coach creates a personalized program for him, a program in which Jacob is exposed to a series of encounters that increase in their levels of stress. In the initial stages, Jacob is asked to "picture" stressful encounters, before progressing to more real life encounters. The training ends with one of the most stressful scenarios that Jacob can imagine, which is supposed to enable him to cope well with a real-life stressful scenario. Which method was used by Jacob's coach here?
Stress inoculation training
Higher levels of arousal for optimal performance
Tasks that are complex, that are high in decisional demands, or that require fine motor skills for precision and steadiness
Competitive stressors
The level of physical preparation attained and the standard of the opponent
Organization stressors
The performer's role in the sport organization and sport relationships and interpersonal demands
Personal stressors
The relationships with family and lifestyle issues
Which of the following are true about momentary relaxation skills? (Check all that apply.)
They can be used to reduce overactivation at any point during practices and competition.; They lower arousal and remove excessive muscular tension.
Identify the features of momentary relaxation skills. (Check all that apply.)
They can facilitate concentration and imagery practice.; They can be used by athletes to return to a controlled, balanced state.
Mind-to-muscle approaches
They focus on efferent nerve control and include meditation, visualization, and autogenic training.
Muscle-to-mind approaches
They focus on the bodily aspects and include breathing exercises and progressive relaxation (PR).
When is an energizing approach to stress management normally required for an athlete?
When an athlete is fatigued, discouraged, or approaching burnout
According to the cusp catastrophe model, when is a "catastrophic" drop in performance likely to occur?
When there is an increase in physiological arousal levels beyond a threshold, under high cognitive anxiety conditions
The term _____ refers to the overall physical and mental state that is required by an athlete to be ready to perform a respective task or activity.
activation
An athlete's view of a potentially stressful situation is known as a stress _____.
appraisal
A generalized physiological and psychological activation of a person with neutral excitation varying from deep sleep to extreme excitement is referred to as _____.
arousal
An accurate statement about pre-competition planning is that _____.
athletes are advised to perform a retrospective analysis before forming a plan
An extension to PET is the _____, which explains how anxiety affects attention and performance.
attentional control theory
When developing a pre-competition plan, it is important to remember that the plan should _____.
be sensitive to the athlete's idiosyncrasies
The principle of the double pull, which explains why a person can be scared stiff and rigid with anger or unable to move because of fright, is often referred to as _____.
bracing
In contrast to multidimensional anxiety theory, the cusp catastrophe model suggests that elevations in cognitive anxiety _____.
can have positive performance consequences dependent upon the levels of physiological arousal
In the context of the attentional control theory, anxiety impairs the efficiency of attention because it _____.
causes a shift in attention to threat-related stimuli
Jackson is a competitive swimmer who regularly faces bouts of competitive anxiety just before or during the competitive scenario. In order to deal with this type of stressful situation, Jackson should _____.
channel his anxiety such that it would be beneficial toward his performance
The _____ theory describes the experience of stress as an ongoing transaction involving an individual evaluating or appraising the demands they face in relation to themselves and their surrounding environment.
cognitive motivational relational
The most popular cognitive approach used in sport psychology is Lazarus's (1999) _____.
cognitive motivational relational theory
In order to help his athletes perform well at the competitive level, Carlos, an athletics coach, tasks each of them with developing a series of images that include the key skills required for the sport, their recent successful executions of the skill, and any other necessary information. This imagery technique is primarily employed as a _____ strategy.
confidence management
The _____ of anxiety and performance (Hardy, 1990) describes the interactive effects of cognitive anxiety and physiological arousal (as opposed to somatic anxiety) on performance.
cusp catastrophe model
Lana is a professional tennis player who gets really stressed out when she has to play in her home country. Whenever she plays abroad, she does not face any major debilitating problems, but in her home country, she struggles heavily. In order to attempt to remove this particular stressor, Lana should _____.
determine a way to cope with the stress by gathering information
In the context of bracing, athletes can learn the right amount of contraction, that is, to expend only those energies necessary to execute a skill. This is known as _____.
differential relaxation
In the final of a major football tournament, Adrian's team is losing 2-0 to their biggest rivals with just under ten minutes to go. The game is moving at a fast pace, Adrian's team is playing in a volatile environment, with an equal amount of vocal support for both the teams, but their opponents seem to have the momentum on their side. In order to stand a chance of winning, they need to _____.
draw on the energy of their opponents and volatility of their atmosphere
According to _____, increases in 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.
drive theory
A(n) ____ function is used by sports psychologists to enhance athletes' performance when they possess an insufficient activation state in relation to their sporting task or activity due to stress.
energizing
Marco is a professional lacrosse player who suffers from a lack of arousal, something that has negatively affected his performance. He finds it hard to be motivated to play the game. His coach needs to increase Marco's arousal levels in order to enhance his sporting performance. The coach should use the _____ to stress management.
energizing approach
Jennifer, a basketball player who is yet to turn pro, struggles to manage the negative emotions and anxiety associated with competition. Her coach asks Jennifer to develop a set of images that involve the skills she requires to perform well at the competitive level, her recent displays of this skill, and any other crucial detail required for performance. In the context of restructuring approach to stress management, the main aim of the coach is to ensure that Jennifer _____.
first gains competence in facing a threatening situation in a non-competitive performance
The key difference between restructuring approaches and reducing approaches to stress management is that, in restructuring approaches, athletes _____.
gain control over their anxiety and interpret their symptoms as beneficial for performance
An accurate statement about the zone of optimal functioning (ZOF) hypothesis is that _____.
if anxiety levels are outside the optimal zone, performance will not occur at maximum levels
In the restructuring approach to stress management, anxiety _____.
is viewed as a signal that indicates the presence of threat and stimulates action
A limitation of the inverted-U hypothesis is _____.
it fails to consider cognitive anxiety and its interaction with arousal
With the inverted-U hypothesis, the challenge for the athlete is to _____.
know how to raise or reduce levels of arousal accordingly
A crucial aspect of an energizing approach to stress management is that athletes need to _____.
learn how to recognize signs and symptoms of low energy and activation
The _____ makes distinctions between competitive state cognitive and somatic anxiety on the premise that they have different antecedents and relationships to performance.
multidimensional anxiety theory
The cusp catastrophe model overcomes some of the existing limitations of the _____.
multidimensional anxiety theory
Eysenck and Calvo's (1992) _____ has been used to explain the debilitating and facilitating effects of cognitive anxiety on performance described by catastrophe models.
processing efficiency theory
The stress reduction method that consists of a series of exercises that involve contracting a specific muscle group, holding the contraction for 5-7 seconds, and then relaxing is known as _____.
progressive relaxation
Interventions that seek to _____ physiological arousal can be broadly classified into muscle-to-mind and mind-to-muscle approaches.
reduce
The processing efficiency theory 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
When elevated arousal and competitive anxiety has a detrimental effect on athletes' performance, a(n) ____ approach is required to reduce the symptoms associated with stress.
reduction
Jacob is a competitive swimmer who has high levels of competitive anxiety. He also has the problem of elevated arousal in a competitive scenario, and both these factors have proven to be highly detrimental to his performance. The _____ to stress management would help Jacob decrease the symptoms associated with his high stress levels.
reduction approach
The aim of the problem-focused strategies of managing competitive stress is to _____.
remove or try to reduce the stressor
Drive theory is no longer used to describe the stress or arousal-performance relationship because _____.
research does not support its premise
The essence of the problem-solving method of stress management is _____.
the thought process involved in arriving at the solution
In the ____ approach to stress management, athletes are taught to restructure interpretations of symptoms from a negative to a positive viewpoint i.e., debilitative viewpoint to facilitative viewpoint.
restructuring
It is important to release excessive tension from the neck and the shoulders because releasing excessive tension in these two areas tends to _____.
spread relaxation to the rest of the body
A specific predisposition that varies from moment-to-moment and fluctuates proportionately to the perceived threat of a situation is referred to as _____.
state anxiety
The intense physical and psychological demands athletes face when competing in sport that come from a range of sources relating to competition, organization, and personal factors that exist within their environment are known as _____.
stressors
A general predisposition to respond across many situations with high levels of anxiety because of typically appraising situations as threatening is referred to as _____.
trait anxiety
Autogenic training consists of a series of exercises designed to produce two physical sensations typically associated with relaxation—_____.
warmth and heaviness
In the context of stress management skills and strategies, an athlete is said to be completely relaxed when he or she is at the ____-____ level.
zero activation
The _____ is seen as a practical tool for helping an athlete establish his or her individual optimal levels of pre-performance anxiety, within which performance levels are proposed to be greatest.
zone of optimal functioning hypothesis
