sport performance

Question 1

Anxiety

Answer 1

An aversive emotional state characterised by feelings of worry

Question 2

Arousal

Answer 2

The state of an organism varying on a continuum from deep sleep to intense excitement

Question 3

electroencelephagram (EEG) brain waves when increased anxiety/arousal

Answer 3

decreased sleep (theta waves) and increased excitement (beta waves)

Question 4

electrocardiogram (EKG) heart rate when increased anxiety/arousal

Answer 4

increased heart rate

Question 5

electromyogram (EMG) muscle tensionwhen increased anxiety/arousal

Answer 5

increased muscle tension

Question 6

ventilation when increased anxiety/arousal

Answer 6

increased respiration rate and decreased tidal volume

Question 7

blood pressure when increased anxiety/arousal

Answer 7

increased blood pressure

Question 8

skin response when increased anxiety/arousal

Answer 8

increased sweating and decreased skin resistance

Question 9

biochemical when increased anxiety/arousal

Answer 9

increased adrenaline and noradrenaline

Question 10

social facilitation (Zajonc 1965) shows that

Answer 10

more arousal= increased likelihood of one’s dominant response - high arousal should hinder novice performance and help expert performance

Question 11

the testing of social facilitation (maccracken and stadulis 1985)

Answer 11

examined the effects of arousal on children’s balance - balance pretest classified children as having high or low balance skill - results showed that low skill performance was worse in front of spectators

Question 12

what are the problems with social facilitation

Answer 12

too simplistic and its predictions often fall short- can’t explain choking under pressure

Question 13

inverted-U hypothesis (Yerkes and Dodson 1908)

Answer 13

increased arousal improves performance but only up to a certain point- further increases in arousal cause a gradual deterioration of performance

Question 14

criticisms of social facilitation and inverted-U models

Answer 14

Arousal conceptualised as a uni-dimensional response - there is evidence for 3 distinct forms of arousal (electrocortical, autonomic, behavioural) Lacey 1967 - also cognitive appraisal of arousal symptoms can influence physiological measures (bandora 1997)

Question 15

catastrophe model (Hardy 1990)

Answer 15

3D model that considers interactions between anxiety, arousal and performance

Question 16

4 faces of catastrophe model

Answer 16

1) when arousal is low as anxiety increases so does performance 2) when anxiety is low performance increases with arousal up to certain extent 3) when arousal high performance decreases as anxiety increases and 4) when anxiety is high performance increases with arousal up to certain point (mismatch)

Question 17

testing the catastrophe model (hardy & Parfitt 1991)

Answer 17

measured anxiety (questionnaire), arousal (HR) and performance (basketball shooting accuracy)- didn’t match predictions when anxiety low (arousal didn’t influence performance)

Question 18

limitations of Hardy & Parfitt 1991

Answer 18

only one basic measure of arousal and arousal was manipulated by physical exercise rather than by psychological factors

Question 19

general criticisms of the catastrophe model

Answer 19

difficult to test and difficult to make predictions from model because optimal levels of anxiety/arousal depend on nature of task & personality of individual

Question 20

general criticism of all models

Answer 20

they do not detail how anxiety and arousal exert their effects on performance