Sport Psychology: Stress Management

Question 1

What is stress?

Answer 1

A negative response of the body to a threat causing anxiety

Question 2

What is eustress?

Answer 2

A positive response of the body to a threat

Question 3

What type of effects can stress have?

Answer 3

Cognitive and Somatic

Question 4

Cognitive examples of stress?

Answer 4

Anxiety, fear and aggression

Question 5

Somatic examples of stress?

Answer 5

Sweating, shaking and feeling sick

Question 6

What is the stressor?

Answer 6

The cause of stress

Question 7

What can stressors include for athletes?

Answer 7

. Injury
. Important games
. Very good opponents
. Rewards such as prize money, contracts
. Fear of failure - being watched by significant others, role models, scouts

Question 8

4 ways to help somatic stress?

Answer 8

. Biofeedback
. Progressive muscle relaxation
. Centering
. Breathing control

Question 9

What is biofeedback?

Answer 9

Using a device to help recognise the physical changes that happen under stress. It measures heart rate, breathing rate, muscle tension, temperature or electrical activity. It helps the performer recognise when they are stressed and they can use techniques to calm down

Question 10

What is progressive muscle relaxation?

Answer 10

Alternating a period of muscle tension and relaxation. Muscles are tensed, held and then relaxed. You should work from the extremities to the core.

Question 11

What is centering?

Answer 11

Breathing control whilst relaxing the chest and shoulders using controlled breaths. Slow breathing diverts attention away from the stressful situation

Question 12

What is breathing control?

Answer 12

Controlling and concentrating on the rate of depth of breathing. This allows the performer to relax and be less distracted

Question 13

6 ways to help cognitive stress?

Answer 13

. Thought stopping
. Positive self talk
. Imagery
. Visualisation
. Mental rehearsal
. Attentional control and cue utilisation

Question 14

What is thought stopping?

Answer 14

Using a trigger to remove unhelpful thoughts. This helps redirect to more positive thoughts. It must be practiced

Question 15

What is positive self talk?

Answer 15

Replacing negative thoughts about performance with positive ones. This can help to focus on a tactic and can help with negative thoughts

Question 16

What is imagery?

Answer 16

Recreating a feeling of successful movement. Can be the formation of mental pictures of a good performance. Can involve creating a calm place

Question 17

What is visualisation?

Answer 17

Using a mental image of the skill. Can help to overcome pressures

Question 18

What is mental rehearsal?

Answer 18

Going over the moments in your mind. Best in a calm situation.

Question 19

What is attentional control and cue utilisation?

Answer 19

Higher the stress, the less information processed
. Attentional control - changing the focus of attention to detect relevant cues
. Attentional narrowing - less information is absorbed as stress and arousal increase
. Cue utilisation - the ability to process information is directly linked to the level of arousal

Under stress you focus less on cues from the environment and miss key cues affecting decision making known as attentional wastage resulting in reduced performance

At lower levels of stress more information is absorbed and performance is successful

Question 20

What is important about visualisation, imagery and mental rehearsal?

Answer 20

. It can be internal - kinaesthesis and emotions of the movement, experiencing the feeling/sensation of the movement
. It can be external - environment, details of the pitch and opponents, seeing yourself complete the movement

Question 21

What is Niddefer’s model of attentional focus?

Answer 21

It is when the performer must choose the right attention of style for the right situation. This allows unrequired information to be filtered and relevant info is focused on.

Question 22

What are the 4 styles of Niddefer’s model?

Answer 22

. Broad – attending to several stimuli with wide vision
. Narrow – focusing on one or two cues.
. Internal – inner thoughts
. External – looking at the environment.

Question 23

What are the two dimensions of Niddefer’s model of attentional focus?

Answer 23

. How many cues are being focused on = broad or narrow
. Concerned with where the focus is placed = internal or external

Question 24

What does a broad and external model look like?

Answer 24

Many cues concerning environment, it is fast, paced, open game environment

Question 25

What does a broad and internal model look like?

Answer 25

Many cues concerning the performer

Question 26

What does a narrow and external model look like?

Answer 26

One or two cues concerning the environment, concentrate on specific object, limited cues

Question 27

What does a narrow and internal model look like?

Answer 27

One or two cues concerning the performer