Arousal

Question 1

Drive theory of arousal

Answer 1

-as arousal increases, performance also increases
-As arousal increases, emission of the dominant response increases
-Experts will have a skillful dominant response

Question 2

Evaluation of drive theory of arousal

Answer 2

POSITIVES
-Simple to understand
-Is an accurate representation for expert performers
NEGATIVES
-An increase in arousal does not always increase the quality of performance
-Does not explain decline in performance at high arousal
-Does not take into account individual differences

Question 3

Inverted U theory of arousal

Answer 3

-At under-arousal, performance is poor, as arousal increases performance quality improves up to an optimal point
-At the optimal point, performance is at its peak
-Further increase to this level of arousal causes a deterioration in performance
-At over-arousal, performance is also poor
-The optimal level of arousal can vary from person to person, depending on their personality, experience, ability or type of skills

Question 4

Inverted U theory evaluations

Answer 4

POSITIVES
-Inverted U theory takes into account individual differences e.g shifting the optimal point of arousal to the right or left depending on the performer’s personality, ability, or type of skill
-Inverted U theory explains the decline in performance at high arousal
-Simple to understand
NEGATIVES
-Still too simple
-Does not take into account different types of arousal
-Arousal is unlikely to have even distribution

Question 5

Catastrophe theory of arousal

Answer 5

-As arousal increases, performance also increases up to an optimal point
-When cognitive and somatic anxiety is too high, there is a sudden decrease in performance (catastrophe)
-If cognitive anxiety decrease, the performer can recover and improve performance
-If anxiety continues, the performance will continue to decrease

Question 6

Catastrophe theory evaluations

Answer 6

POSITIVES
-Catastrophe theory explains how people can “go tp pieces” at big events
-Catastrophe theory takes into account both somatic and cognitive arousal
-Sudden decrease in arousal is more realistic than even distribution
NEGATIVES
-Catastrophe theory does not take into individual differences
-Optimum point of arousal may not be the midpoint
-Catastrophes only happen at extreme levels so we might not see this occur often