pe a level sport psychology paper 2

What is anxiety

A feeling of worry nervousness or unease about something with an uncertain outcome. A negative symptom of stress.

What is somatic anxiety

Physiological response such as sweaty palms and increased heart rate or muscle tension.

What is cognitive anxiety

Psychological responses such as negative thoughts.

When does competitive trait anxiety happen

In all competitive situations.

When does competitive state anxiety occur

Only in certain competitive situations

What are possible causes of anxiety

Important task

Fear of failure

Fear of injury

Lack of self confidence

Audience

What are the ways of measuring anxiety

Questionnaires

Observations

Physiological measures

What is a questionnaire

A self report response about anxiety

Advantages of questionnaires

Easy to administer

Cheap to administer

Ease of data analysis

Can do multiple at once

Disadvantages of questionnaires

Subject may lie or give socially acceptable response

Inappropriate questions lead to biased results

May misunderstand question

Closed questions limit responses

What are observations

Watching a performer in their actual sporting environment

Advantage of observations

It is in the sporting environment so reflects accurately of competitive situation

Can give more in depth of performers behaviour

Disadvantages of observations

Need several observers

Observer needs to be skilled

Performer should be known by observer

Time consuming

Subjective

Evaluation apprehension

What are physiological measures

Measuring physical reactions such as heart rate, blood pressure, hornone secretion, muscle tension and sweat

What are advantages of physiological measures

Performers body cannot lie

Objective data

Disadvantages of physiological measures

Athlete must be wired up

Difficult to recreate competitive situation

People have natural reaction because tested

What is arousal

Smarties state that drives a person to learn or perform

Effects of over arousal

Attentional narrowing - performer misses important stimuli in the environment

Attentional wastage - performers attention directed to irrelevant stimuli

Characteristic of low arousal

Calm

focused

Low adrenaline

Relaxed

Characteristic of high arousal

Pumped

High adrenaline

Explosive

Alert

What is peak flow

Feeling of well being occurred when all psychological and physiological factors allign to give best performance

Characteristic of peak flow

Timing of movement and action appear perfect

Seems unable to do anything wrong

Clear goal

Totally focused

Effortless movement

How to achieve peak flow

Ensure arousal is optimal

Ensure targets are achievable but challenging

Use stress management techniques

Mental and physical warm up

Ignore distraction

What stops peak flow

Injury

Fatigue

Crowd hostility

Negative thoughts

Unoptimal arousal

Poor preparation

Theories of arousal

Drive theory

Inverted U theory

Catastrophe theory

Zone of optimal functioning

Original drive theory

As arousal increased the level of performance increased

Issues with original drive theory

Doesn’t consider:

type of skill

Stage of learning

Personality type

What changed with drive theory

Adapted to say higher arousal increase chance of dominant response occurring

What is inverted U theory

As arousal increased so does peformance until moderate arousal and then performance decreases

What changed to inverted U theory

Was adapted to take into account skill level personality and also type of skill

Disadvantage of inverted U theory

Doesn’t consider can recover performance when over aroused

What is catastrophe theory

States that as arousal increased so does performance but only to moderate arousal. When arousal increased beyond optimum poin cognitive and somatic anxiety. This leads to catastrophe and can’t even complete simple task.

Performer then can use stress management techniques to lower arousal and regain optimal performance or arousal or continue to get worse.

What is zone of optimal functioning

This suggests optimal arousal is at specific point that applies to each individual performer.

The bigger the zone of optimal functioning the more likely performance is good.

Disadvantage of ZOF

Some studies show no significant difference between in zone or not

What is social facilitation

The impact of the presence of others on performers. Either interactive others (social reinforcers of competitive coactors) or passive others (co actors and audience)

What are social reinforcers

Those interacting with performer such as coach or teammate

Who are competitive coactors

Director competition (coaches)

Who are coactors

Those performing same skill but not competition. (People on other court)

Who are the audience

Those who are watching

what is it called when audience has positive effect

Social facilitation

What is it called when audience has negative effect on performance

Social inhibition

What affects social facilitation

Trait anxiety levels

Personality

Stage of learning

Status of crowd

Nature of audience

Size of audience

Zajonc model

Presence of audience and coactors raises arousal

Leads to increased chance of dominant response

Beginner would have social inhibition due to dominant response is to make mistakes

Autonomous performer would have social facilitation due to dominant response being to perform activity accurately

gross skills in front of audience = social facilitation whereas fine skills = social inhibition

Evaluation apprehension Cottrell

States that arousal and anxiety only increased when performer perceives judgement from others.

How to eliminate social inhibition

Improve selective attention

Train with distractions

Start with small audience

Use stress management techniques

Over learn skill

Reduce importance of event

Rig it to guarantee succes

What is home field advantage

Relates to the phenomenon where home teams has better results

Advantage of having home crowd

Support boosts confidence

Familiar surroundings lowers arousal

No hostile crowd

Away team ma be anxious

disadvantage of home crowd

More pressure to please fans

Evaluation apprehension for home team due to high expectation from home fans could lead to over arousal

What is stress

The perception that there is an imbalance between task demands and response capabilities where failure to complete the task has significant consequences to the performer

Stressor

The causes of stress

Somatic stress

Physiological effect of stress such as butterflies nausea sweating and shaking

Cognitive stress

Psychological effects of stress such as negative thoughts and loss of concentration

What is eustress

Positive version of stress where they enjoy challenges. It takes a performer out of their comfort zone and the outcome is uncertain.

Examples of stressors

Lack of preparation

High expectations

Difficult opposition

Injury

Large crowd

What are stress management techniques

Methods that allow athletes can use to help control their stress levels before and during competition

What is thought stopping

Using a cue to prevent negative thoughts entering their minds to focus on the task.

What is positive self task

Using statements such as I can do this to prevent negative thoughts. Also allows to remeber key things such as technique and tactics to stay focused

What is imagery

Where a performer recreates a successful performance in their mind. They picture themselves performing the skill to give them self belief they can do it in the moment. It also involves imagining the kinaesthetic feel.

What is visualisation

This involves a performer perfecting an imagine while perfoming the skill successfully in training to lock it in and re live during match situations

Can be external where is like watching self or internal where performer imagines doing skill in own eyes

Mental rehearsal

Going over movements of a task before action takes place. Helps to remember what they are going to do.

What is attentional control

The performer altering their perceptual field and being selective about the information they take into their minds.

Types of cue utilisation

Broad - focuses on wide range of information

Narrow - focuses on one of two stimuli

Internal - focus on stimuli within

External - focused on stimuli outside of them

Broad external

Picking up wide range of cues from environment such as position of teammates

Broad internal

Performer focuses on mentally rehearsing a wide number of cues such as tactics

Narrow external

Performer focuses on one solitary cue from the environment such as the hoop when shooting free throw

Narrow internal

Focus on one or two stimuli from within such as preparing mentally at start of race

Why is this important

To switch the appropriate style for the specific situation to manage stress more effectively

Somatic stress management techniques

Biofeedback

Progressive muscle relaxation

Breathing control

What is progressive muscle relaxation

Consciously tensing each muscle holding tension and then letting go of tension going from the core to outwards of body or head to toe

What is breathing control

taking a slow breath onwards then on way out relaxing chest shoulder and abdominal muscles. Use key word as breathe out to help relax stress. Can prevent negative thoughts as focused on breathing

What is biofeedback

Using various devices to measure somatic stress such as heart rate monitor, blood pressure monitor, electron graph or galvanic skin response. Then using relaxation technique to lower stress and have days to confirm it works. Then eventually not requiring testing

What is a goal

An aim or an objective.

Benefits of goal setting

Focus on what needs improving

Enhance motivation

Increased confidence

Reduce stress and anxiety

Enhance persistence

Overcome plateau

Types of goals

Outcome

Task orientated

Performance related

Process goals

Outcome goal

Focuses on result of performance. Not in control as have to outperform others. (To win a match)

Task orientated goal

Focused on mastering a skill or task. ( I want to learn to do a volley in football)

Performance related goal

Focused on improving technique or strategy. They are under the performers control. (I want to get a PB of under 10 seconds in 100m)

Process goals

Focused on improving personal standards. Focused on the performer. (I aim to improve my approach for long jump)

Issues with the outcome goals

Performer has no control on result

Result dependent on performance of others

Could lead to demotivation

Other goals much more effective

Whag is the acronym for goal setting

Smarter

Specific

Measurable

Achievable

Realistic

Time bound

Evurate

Redo

Specific

Goal must have precise aims.

Measurable

Should have objective data that can be tracked

Achievable

Goal must be within performers capabilities

Realistic

Given available time and resources is the goal achievable (think lifestyle)

Time bound

The goal must have a deadline to maintain motivation

Evaluate

Review and adjust goal regularly

Re do

Performer and coach must set next goal to maintain focus