1. The Effect of Anxiety on Performance

2. Objectives
Understand what anxiety is and what forms of anxiety there are
Explain how anxiety effects performance
Explain ways of controlling high anxiety levels
Evaluate the benefits of goal setting and methods of goal setting

3. What is Anxiety?? Anxiety is defined as:
The negative aspect of experiencing stress.
Anxiety is the worry, the unpleasant feeling
experienced because of the fear of failure
Often caused by too much worry about the
final outcome of the event or situation

4. 4 types of Anxiety We already know two, what are they?
Cognitive + Somatic
Psychological + Physiological
Broken down into two further types
State anxiety = Situation anxiety
Trait anxiety = Personality anxiety

5. State Anxiety State Anxiety: The emotional reaction of someone to a
situation that they experience as
threatening
Consciously perceived feelings of
apprehension and tension and associated
with activation or arousal of the autonomic
nervous system

6. State Anxiety Example Basketball Player
Start of the game slightly elevated
level of state anxiety
During game, low levels of state anxiety as
settled into the game well
End of the game, free throw to win the match
high levels of state anxiety

7. Trait Anxiety Trait anxiety is a personality trait of the
performer. The performer reacts to a situation
in an anxious way.
A performer will perceive a non-dangerous
situation to be threatening and respond
with state anxiety reactions that exceed
the danger of the situation

8. Trait Anxiety Example
Last minute penalty conversion to win the match. Both players are of equal skill and technical ability
Player 1
Low Trait anxiety
Laid back approach
Doesn’t perceive kicking the last minute penalty as threatening
State anxiety reaction is no different than expected in the situation
End result = Possible score
Player 2
High trait anxiety
Up tight and tense
Perceives the kick as being extremely threatening
State anxiety reaction to the situation is greater than expected
End result = Possible miss

9. Anxiety and Performance
Anxious people (high state and trait) reach optimum performance at low levels of arousal
Low state and trait - tolerate high levels of anxiety - high levels of arousal to reach optimum performance
Better performers = control anxiety levels easily with cognitive processes
Some performers = difficulty with controlling anxiety – specially designed techniques

10. Relationships Direct relationship between those with high
measures of trait anxiety experiencing high
levels of state anxiety in competitive and
evaluative situations
Not perfect as anxiety can be controlled
Trait anxiety is a good predictor of a persons
reaction to threatening situations

11. Measuring Anxiety How anxiety has been measured?
Physiological measures
Observation
Questionnaires
Problems
Artificial situation could make performer anxious
even before performance
Observations could cause anxiety and it’s someone else interpreting the signs
Are the answers in a questionnaire a true representation

12. Questionnaires 3 Main types The STAI
Self report questionnaires are regarded as the cheapest, quickest, and relatively accurate way of administering an anxiety test
3 Main types
The State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI Spielberger 1970)
The Sport Competition Anxiety test (SCAT; Martens 1977)
The Competition State Anxiety Inventory – 2 (CSAI-2; Martens 1990)
The STAI
Basic self report questionnaire, people rating how nervous they are in general and in certain situations. Gives indication of state and trait anxiety of a performer

13. Questionnaires The SCAT
Developed to find out which performers are more likely to become too anxious during a competitive situation
Questions are specifically applied sports competitions and situations
Martens believes there are 4 main factors that relate to competitive anxiety:
Individual differences
Different types of anxiety a performer experiences
Competition trait anxiety
The competition itself – interaction between personality traits, competition trait anxiety and the situation

14. Questionnaires The CSAI-2
Measures – cognitive state, somatic state, self confidence in competition
Given out several times leading up to a competition
1 week before
2 days before
half hour before
Allows researchers to obtain a base line anxiety level, then see changes during pre competition periods and compare them
Cognitive state anxiety increases pre competition and fluctuates during it
Somatic state anxiety lower leading up to competition but increases dramatically hours before

15. Task
Complete a SCAT questionnaire truthfully to give an indication of your level of competition anxiety
I will give you the scoring system once you have completed the questionnaire