Transcript Slide 1

Stress and Anxiety
Anxiety
A negative emotional state characterised
by nervousness, worry and apprehension
and associated with activation and arousal
of the body.
Trait anxiety: an acquired disposition
that predisposes a person to perceive
a wide range of objectively nondangerous circumstances as
threatening and to respond to these
with disproportionate state anxiety
levels.
Arousal: a general physiological
and psychological activation of the
organism that varies on a
continuum from deep sleep to
intense excitement.
State anxiety: moment to
moment changes in feelings of
nervousness, worry and
apprehension associated with
arousal of the body.
Cognitive state
anxiety: moment to
moment changes in
worries and negative
thoughts.
Somatic state anxiety:
moment to moment
changes in perceived
physiological arousal.
Measuring arousal and anxiety
 Measuring arousal requires
looking at changes in
physiological signs e.g. HR,
respiration, skin conductance
and biochemistry.
 People can also rate their
arousal with a series of
statements.
 To measure state or trait
anxiety psychologists use
global and
multidimensional selfreport scales.
 E.g. CSAI-2 is the
cognitive state anxiety
inventory version 2. SCAT
is the sport competition
trait anxiety test.
Relationship between state and
trait anxiety
 A direct (although not perfect) relationship exists between a
person’s levels of trait and state anxiety.
 Those who score highly on trait measure of anxiety also score highly
on state measures of anxiety in evaluative situations.
 A highly trait anxious athlete may be very experienced in a
particular situation and for that reason not perceive a threat and
therefore not suffer from state anxiety OR some highly trait anxious
people learn coping strategies to reduce their state anxiety in
evaluative situations.
 Knowing a person’s level of trait anxiety will generally help to
predict how they will behave in competition.
Stress and the stress process
Stress
Stress is defined as: a substantial
imbalance between demand (physical or
psychological) and response capability,
under conditions where failure to meet the
demand has important consequences.
(McGrath 1970)
Stage 1
Stage 2
Environmental demand
(physical or psychological)
Individual’s perception of the
environmental demand. (amount of
psychological or physical threat
perceived)
Stress response (physical or psychological)
Stage 3
•Arousal
•State anxiety (cognitive and somatic)
•Muscle tension
•Attention changes
Stage 4
Behavioural consequences
(performance or outcome)
Explanation of stages
 Stage 1
 A physical or psychological
demand is placed on the
individual.
 Stage 2
 The individual makes a
perception about the demand
based on what they think their
ability to meet the demand is.
 If the person perceives an
imbalance between what is
being asked and what they can
do, the stress process
continues.
 Trait anxious people tend to
view more situations as
threatening which has an
influence at this stage.
Explanation of stages
 Stage 3
 This is the individual’s physical
and psychological response to
the perception of the situation.
 If an imbalance between
demands and response
capability is perceived, there
will be increased state anxiety,
increased worries, heightened
physiological activation,
possible changes in
concentration and increased
muscle tension.
 Stage 4
 This is the actual behaviour of
the individual.
 Performance may decline due
to the problems of state
anxiety or improve because of
increased intensity.
 This stage feeds back into the
first stage. E.g. a pupil
demonstrates in front of a
class but fails, the others laugh
and this then becomes another
demand on the pupil, so the
cycle continues.
Responding to stress
 Individuals all respond differently to stress but the most common
psychological reactions are anger, apathy and anxiety.
 Physiological reactions include activation of the sympathetic autonomic
nervous system, resulting in increased levels of adrenaline, blood sugar, HR
and blood pressure (flight or fight response).
 If stress is prolonged Seyle (1956) states that following the alarm reaction
stage (noted above) there is a resistance stage where the body tries to
revert to normal functioning thus coping with the increased adrenaline.
 Continued stress results in exhaustion or collapse. Whilst trying to deal with
the increased stress the body has gradually depleated its’ own resources.
The adrenal cortex fails to function correctly and this results in physiological
problems like ulcers, heart disease and high blood pressure.
 This model is called the General Adaptation Model (GAS)
Causes of Stress
There are literally thousands of causes of stress,
from major life events such as marrying or
moving house to daily hassles like loosing your
keys or the car breaking down.
For athletes there are factors like performing up
to standard, financial costs or time for training,
self doubt about talent or relationship issues
with team mates or the coach.
Situational sources of stress
Event Importance
Uncertainty
Generally the more
important the event,
the more stress
provoking it is. E.g. a
championship game
over a regular season
game.
The greater the uncertainty about
the outcome of the event the
greater the stress.
E.g. not knowing the starting line
up for the game.
Other sources include competition, frustration, conflict,
personal, physiological/ climatic and the audience. Make
notes about what these are under the above headings
Social Physique Anxiety
A personality disposition defined as ‘the
degree to which people become anxious
when others observe their physique’ (Hart,
Leary and Rejeski 1989)
People with high social physique anxiety
will experience stress during fitness
evaluations and tend to avoid fitness
situations.
Eustress (good stress)
Many sports performers e.g. rock climbers
actively seek out sources of stress in order to
test their capabilities to the limit.
Some claim that being in stressful situations
helps the focus, pay attention and generally
develop skills and enjoyment in the context of
sport.
The positive benefits in terms of self satisfaction
and enhanced intrinsic motivation gained from
having coped with a stressful situation are seen
as greater then the negative impact of stress.