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Sport Psychology (PSY407)

Lesson 18

ANXIETY, AROUSAL, AND STRESS RELATIONSHIPS

In explaining the relationship between anxiety, arousal, and stress, and their relationship to athletic performance,

it is important that we understand a number of conceptual relationships. This topic is divided into six sections,

they are:

Differentiating among the terms anxiety, arousal and stress

The multidimensional nature of anxiety

Antecedents of anxiety

Measurement of anxiety

Time-to-event nature of precompetitive anxiety

The relationship between anxiety and performance

Three sections are discussed in this lecture and the remaining four in lecture nineteen.

Differentiating Among Anxiety, Arousal, and Stress

The emotion of anxiety affects athletic performance, however, the problem is that the term "anxiety" is closely

associated with the terms "arousal" and "stress". We will look how these terms are similar and how they differ.

The discussion will focus upon emotions and mood, Selye's concepts of stress, and Lazarus's concept of stress

process.

Emotion and Mood

Lazarus (2000a) identified fifteen different emotions and themes associated with each emotion. One of these

emotions is anxiety, which is defined as "facing uncertain, existential threat". An emotion, such as anxiety

occurs following appraisal and an evaluation of coping resources. A similar chain of events occurs for the

emotion of anger, which he defines as occurring in response to "a demeaning offense against me or mine"

Lazarus identifies anxiety as one of the emotions that may have substantial impact upon how an athlete

performs. Other emotions, such as anger, guilt and shame, relief, happiness, and pride, may also have a powerful

influence upon performance. He states that emotions should not be lumped into positive or negative groups

when one is assessing their effect upon athletic performance. Rather, the different emotions should be

considered as discrete emotions having discrete effects upon performance. Anger, for example, is often

considered a negative emotion, yet it may have either an inhibitory or a facilitory effect upon performance.

Anxiety, then, is an emotion that arises in response to how we in interpret and appraise an environmental

situation such as competition. Emotions are sudden reactions to situation that last only for seconds, minutes, or

perhaps hours. Moods, however, are more diffuse, and may last for weeks or even months.

Selye's Concept of Stress

Hans Selye (pronounced "sale-ye") (1983) defined stress as the "nonspecific response of the body to any

demand made upon it." In a sense what Selye is saying is that when aroused, the body is under stress regardless

of whether the cause is something negative like anger or positive like joy. Anger and anxiety are much harder on

the body than are joy and happiness.

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Sport Psychology (PSY407)

Selye allowed that there must be two different kinds of stress. The "good stress" he labeled eustress, and

the "bad stress" he labeled distress.

The Stress Process

The stress process is really the information processing model in action as illustrated in the diagram

below. The stress process begins with the stimulus (competitive situation) on the left and results in the

response (stress response) on the right. In between the stimulus and the response is cognition, or

thought processes. Cognition determines how the athlete will respond. The stress process begins with the

environment or competitive situation on the left. This is the stimulus. The competitive situation is not by

itself stressful. It is how the athlete interprets the situation that determines whether or not the situation is

stressful or not. Consider the situation in which an athlete finds himself on the foul line in a basketball

game with the outcome of the game resting upon performance. To most people this would be an

extremely stressful situation. However, to many basketball players this is exactly the kind of situation that

they seek. The situation is not intimidating because they have supreme confidence in their skill and the

thought of failure does not enter into their minds.

Response

Stimulus

Appraisal of Situation

(imbalance)

Stress response

1. Primary

Environmental

2. Secondary

Upon being confronted with a potentially stressful situation, the individual conducts an instantaneous

appraisal or evaluation of the situation. Appraisal of the situation occurs on two levels. The first is

referred to as primary appraisal; the second is as secondary appraisal. In primary appraisal, the athlete

determines if she has a personal stake in the outcome. If the athlete determines that the outcome is very

important to her, then secondary appraisal becomes important.

In the secondary appraisal, the athlete evaluates her personal coping resources to deal with the

competitive situation. The outcomes of the primary and secondary appraisals determine whether the

stress response will or will not occur.

If an athlete determines either that it makers no difference to him personally, then the stress response

does not occur. If, however, the athlete determines that he does not have the resources (skill, confidence,

experience) to cope with the situation, the stress response will occur.

The Multidimensional Nature of Anxiety

Anxiety is multidimensional in two different ways. Anxiety has both a trait component and a state

component. The trait component is like a personality disposition, whereas the state component is a

situation-specific response. State anxiety is an immediate emotional state that is characterized by

apprehension, fear, tension, and an increase in physiological arousal. Conversely, trait anxiety is a

predisposition to perceive certain environmental situations as threatening and to respond to these

situations with increased state anxiety (Spielberger, 1971). If an athlete has a high level of competitive

trait anxiety, she is likely to respond to an actual competitive situation with a high level of competitive

state anxiety.

Anxiety is also multidimensional in the sense that it is believed that there are both cognitive and somatic

components to anxiety. Cognitive anxiety is the mental component of anxiety caused by such things as

fear of negative social evaluation, fear of failure, and loss of self-esteem. Somatic anxiety is the physical

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Sport Psychology (PSY407)

component of anxiety and reflects the perception of such psychological responses as increased heart rate,

respiration, and muscular tension. Both state and trait anxiety are believed to have cognitive and somatic

components. Sport psychological literature, and the notion that anxiety has both cognitive and somatic

components is referred as multidimensional anxiety theory.

Antecedents of Precompetitive State of Anxiety

Competitive state anxiety that occurs prior to a competitive situation is referred to as precompetitive state of

anxiety. According to Endler (1978, 1983), there are five specific antecedents, or factors that lead to an increase

in anxiety in anticipation of an achievement situation. These five factors are:

Fear of performance failure. Fear of getting defeated by a weaker opponent could pose a threat to

an athlete's ego.

Fear of negative social evaluation. Fear of being evaluated negatively by thousands of spectators

could pose a threat to self-esteem.

Fear of physical harm. Fear of being hit in the hit in the head by a 90 mph fastball could pose a

serious threat.

Situation ambiguity. Not knowing if she is going to start a match is sometimes stressful to an

athlete.

Disruption of well-learned routine. Being asked to change the way he does things without practice

and warming could be threatening to an athlete.

Research has identified fear of failure and fear of negative social evaluation as the most likely causes of state

anxiety. Another antecedent of state anxiety is the perceived importance of a competition. Athletes who exhibit

high levels of competitive trait anxiety and perceive an event to be important are more likely to perceive it as

stressful. In addition to situation factors as identified, a number of personality variables have been identified as

being antecedents, or predictors, of competitive state of anxiety. These include:

Competitive trait anxiety: Those high on anxiety are also high on anxiety in competition.

Goal orientation: High on goal orientation are high on anxiety.

Perfectionism: Expecting perfection from self.

Perfectionism involves the setting of exceptionally high performance standards for one's self. Researchers have

identified two specific types of perfectionism: normal and neurotic. Normal perfectionism is typically possessed

by highly motivated and achieving athlete. Conversely, neurotic perfectionism is a destructive personal

characteristic that is associated inflexibility and a variety of other maladaptive cognitions and affective responses

such as low self-esteem, guilt and shame.

References

Cox, H. Richard. (2002). Sport Psychology: Concepts and Applications. (Fifth Edition). New York: McGraw-

Hill Companies

Lavallec. D., Kremer, J., Moran, A., & Williams. M. (2004) Sports Psychology: Contemporary Themes. New

York: Palgrave Macmillan Publishers