Arousal & Arousal Regulation

• arousal: psycho & physio activation, varying in intensity

• anxiety: negative emotional state associated w/ activation/arousal

• state anxiety: level of anxiety you experience right now

• trait anxiety: level of anxiety you experience as normal

Measuring Anxiety

• physiological signs (HR, respirations, sweat, biochem)

• self-report scales

Stress is both psychosomatic & somatopsychic

• stress: a substantial imbalance between physical & psychological demands when the situation might result in consequences

Stress sequence

1. Environmental/situational demand

2. Individual’s perception of the demand

3. Stress response (up HR, sweating, poor self talk)

4. Behavioral consequences (bad performance)

5. feedback loop

Sources of Stress & Anxiety

• Situational

  • important events/ uncertainty

• Personal

  • trait anxiety

  • self-esteem

  • social physique

How Arousal & Anxiety Effect Performance

Drive theory

• performance matches anxiety, more excitement = better performance

Inverted U theory

• Excitement & performance match up to a point, but then when excitement is too much performance drops off

IZOF (Individualized Zone of Optimum Function)

• Each individual has a “zone” of state anxiety level in which they will perform best

  • ex: A performs best in low arousal, B in medium, and C in high arousal

Catastrophe Model

• Matches the inverted U until individual realizes performance has had a slight decline, and then falls completely once the realization is made

Mulidimensional Anxiety Theory

• cognitive anxiety is negatively related to performance

• somatic anxiety is related to performance in an inverted U

• we need to find the point where cognitive anxiety & somatic anxiety line up

Reversal theory

• arousal effects performance based on how we interpret arousal

• if you feel the arousal as a negative (anxiety) performance will drop

• arousal interpreted as pleasant (excitement) performance will increase