Sport Psychology Topic 1: Arousal and Anxiety

Faze and hardy (1988)

3 criticisms of Yerkes -Dodson inverted V theory: used arousal and anxiety interchangeably, lack of evidence, lack of predictive validity

Made new model including cognitive anxiety

Catastrophe theory - arousal too high causes sudden drop in performance (chocking)

Oxendine

said that the model did not take into account individual differences in performed or skills that need different levels of arousal

1. high arousal needed for gross skills

2. high arousal interferes with fine skills

3. slightly above average arousal is preferable for all motor tasks

peak arousal would differ for different sports

Holmes and Collins

Imagery and PETTLEP

Physical - holding equipment

Environment - simulate competition environment

Task - details

Timing - can be slowed for specific technique

Learning - visualisation as you improve

Emotions - feelings associated with competition

Perspective - first or third person

Lagos et al

Biofeedback

-14 year old golfer

-monitored change in heart rate so he could control his anxiety with deep breathing

-POMS to assess mood

-CSAI-2 to assess anxiety

-after 10 weeks - reduction in negative moods and anxiety, competitive performance improved from average of 91 strokes to 76

Woods et al

Deep breathing techniques: can distract athletes, provides relief from pressure, simple and easy can be done anywhere