Individual Differences: Anxiety
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- Created by: niamhking08
- Created on: 27-02-20 09:20
Anxiety
- Anxiety is the negative aspect of experiencing stress.
- It can be caused in sport by: worry or apprehension - maybe due to fear of failing.
- Arousal levels are high, due to emotional responses.
- Anxiety describes our feelings of being threatened:
- Threat of physical harm
- Threat to our self-esteem
- Threat of letting other people down
- Fear of being punished
- Some competitiors seem to be able to cope with anxiety and remain calm.
- Others can become extremely stressed/physically ill.
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Anxiety: Competitive Anxiety
- Competitive Anxiety: The worry or apprehension experienced during or about competitive experiences.
- 4 major factors are related to competitive anxiety:
- 1. INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES:
- The way people interact with a situation e.g. important games will generate more anxiety than 'friendlies'.
- 2. DIFFERENT TYPES OF ANXIETY:
- They're all treated in different ways. Speilberger (1996) identified trait and state anxiety.
- Trait Anxiety: A trait is enduring in an individual. A performer with a high trait anxiety has the predisposition or the potential to react to situations with apprehension.
- State Anxiety: Anxiety that is felt in a particular situation.
- 3. GENERAL OR SPECIFIC ANXIETY:
- High trait anxiety perfromers are likely to become anxious in highly stressful situations but are not equally anxious in all stressful situations.
- Some players may, for instance, be extremley anxious in training, but natural in game play.
- Competitive Trait Anxiety: A tendency to perceive competitive situations as threatening and respond to these situations with feelings of apprehension or tension.
- 1. INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES:
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Anxiety: Competitive Anxiety
- 4. THE COMPETITON PROCESS:
- Involves the interaction between personality factors, competitive trait anxiety and the situation.
- The interaction will affect behaviour and may cause state anxiety.
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The Sport Competition Anxiety Test (****)
- Give competitors a questionnaire to assess the anxiety they felt during the competetion.
- This test measures Competitive Trait Anxiety.
- Reliable because it tests tendencies to become anxious about competition.
- It should be useful in predicting how anxious a perfromer will be in future competitions.
- The results of **** are closely related to the state anxiety a performer feels before a competiton.
- **** is a personality measure, but it's not just aspects of personality that determine anxiety levels - situational variables nned to be taken into consideration.
- Using **** has found cognitive state anxiety increases as the competition approaches.
- Somatic state anxiety tends to be low leading up to the competition but increases a few hours before.
- THE EFFECTS OF BOTH OF THESE TYPES OF ANXIETY ON PERFORMANCE CAN BE CATASTROPHIC UNLESS CONTROLLED.
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Anxiety: Somatic and Cognitive Anxiety
- 2 types of anxiety have been identified:
- 1. Somatic (body)
- 2. Cognitive (mind)
- Somatic anxiety examples: sweating, shaking, nausea.
- Cognitive anxiety examples: worrying, apprehension.
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Anxiety: Zone of Optimal Functioning
- This zone is an 'emotional response' that facilitates top performance.
- It is often referred to as the 'peak flow experience'.
- How to acheive the zone:
- BE RELAXED
- As a top performer, you don't need very high levels of arousal. A balance is needed between wanting to acheive the best and being in control and relaxed.
- BE CONFIDENT
- Have an overall belief that you have good ability. A lapse in performance won't undermine this belief. You will not show fear. You expect success rather than hope for it.
- BE COMPLETELY FOCUSED
- Will be completely absorbed by your performance. You won't dwell on what has happened before or what may happen in the future.
- ACTIVITY IS EFFORTLESS
- Often accomplish complex tasks with little effort. Body and mind are working perfectly together.
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Anxiety: Zone of Optimal Functioning
- MOVEMENTS ARE AUTOMATIC
- No real thought that goes into movement. Movements are instictive and seems to be little conscious thought.
- FUN
- When experieincing flow, enjoyment is immense. Experience satisfaction. Without fun experience, unlikely to acheive peak flow experience.
- IN CONTROL
- Command over your body and emotions. You dictate your own destiny.
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Anxiety: Cue Utilisation
- Attention is more effective if the performer concentrates on cues that are relevant at a particular time.
- Keeping focus and not being distracted is a feature of a top performer.
- Danger that a player could be distracted too easily by irrelevent cues, such as crowds shouting.
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