1. Psychology of Sport Sep 2-Sep 9, 2009 Classes #5-7
Chapters 6-8 (both LeUnes and Orlick books): Anxiety and Anxiety Reduction
Psychology of Sport
Sep 2-Sep 9, 2009
Classes #5-7

2. Divisions of the Nervous System
Consists of two systems
Central Nervous System
Brain and spinal cord
Peripheral Nervous System
Which connects the CNS to the rest of the body

3. Organization of the Nervous System

4. Peripheral Nervous System
Two components:
Somatic Nervous System
Transmits sensory input to the CNS from the outside world and directs motor output
Autonomic Nervous System
Controls glands and muscles of our internal organs – “automatic pilot”

5. Autonomic Nervous System
Dual system:
Sympathetic Nervous System
Arouses the body
Parasympathetic Nervous System
Calms us down

6. Central Nervous System Structures Controlling Arousal
Cerebral Cortex
Hypothalamus
Ascending Reticular Activating System

7. State and Trait Anxiety
Spielberger (1971)
State Anxiety:
A transitory form of apprehension that varies in intensity depending on the fear-eliciting cue
Trait Anxiety:
An enduring type of anxiety

8. Spielberger (1971) TWO SOURCES OF ANXIETY: Trait Anxiety State Anxiety
Inherited Linked with arousal
Always anxious Anxious at certain times
Predisposition Learned from experiences

9. Is participating in sports stressful
Is participating in sports stressful??? Does someone enjoy sports because of the stress involved?

10. Precompetitive State Anxiety
Anxiety that occurs prior to a competitive situation
Five antecedents leading to an increase in anxiety in anticipation of an achievement situation (Endler, 1978)
Fear of performance failure
Fear of the upset
Fear of negative social evaluation
Being booed by the home team’s (your) fans (ex: Philadelphia, NY)
Being booed by the opposition team’s fans
Fear of physical harm
Fear of injury especially after an injury
Situation Ambiguity
What’s my role”
Disruption of a well-learned routine
Asked to do something new without ample time to practice

11. Understanding Pressure
Stress
Arousal
Anxiety

12. What is stressful? Importance
Uncertainty (50-50 probability of winning)
Low control

13. Event New task New place High expectations High fan involvement
Prior success

14. Can sports be too stressful?

15. Arousal Signs of arousal Physiological effects Cognitive effects
Theories

16. Do you remember a time when you were very excited? What were the signs?

17. Types of Anxiety Somatic Cognitive
Somatic anxiety is a conditioned response to competition
Cognitive
Cognitive anxiety is marked by worry and negative expectations, a distraction

18. Somatic (Physical) Effects
Martens & Russell (2003)
Body is jittery, tense, etc.
Stomach aches
Heart pounding
Hands get clammy
Body feels tight

19. Somatic (Physical) Effects
Neurons fire
Muscles contract
Hormones (epinephrine, etc.)
Heart rate & breathing
Blood to muscles
Digestive shutdown

20. Cognitive Effects Martens & Russell (2003)
They think they will lose, choke, or play poorly
Disappoint others

21. Cognitive Narrowing of perceptual field Less aware of environment
Shift to dominant attentional style

22. Arousal Theories Drive theory Inverted-U Hypothesis IZOF Theory
Reversal Theory
Catastrophe Theory

23. Drive Theory
Theory of learning that predicts a linear relationship between drive (arousal) and learning
See next slide 

24. Drive Theory
Performance
Arousal

25. Inverted-U Hypothesis
Yerkes-Dodson Law (1908)
Their hypothesis applied to sport, which states that performance improves as arousal levels increase up to an optimum point, beyond which it deteriorates
See next slide 

26. INVERTED-U HYPOTHESIS
OPTIMUM LEVEL
PERFORMANCE
LEVEL
LEVEL OF AROUSAL

27. IZOF
Hanin (1976)
Individual zones of optimal functioning (IZOF) theory contends that for each individual there exist a specific range, or zone, of state anxiety that is most conductive to superior performance

28. IZOF IN ZONE OUT OF ZONE Out of zone IN ZONE Out of zone
Athlete A
Low IZOF
IN ZONE OUT OF ZONE
Athlete B
Mid IZOF
Out of zone IN ZONE Out of zone
Athlete C
High IZOF
OUT OF ZONE IN ZONE

29. Reversal Theory Kerr (1985, 1990)
Sport psychologists mention this similar theory referred to IZOF
How an individual interprets anxiety is the key here
What may be unpleasant for one person is positive for someone else
Individual interpretations also are subject to change and thus a shift or reversal in how one views an anxiety-provoking situation is possible

30. Catastrophe Theory Thom, 1965; Hardy, 1990
A mathematical model developed by the French mathematician, René Thom, to show how the interaction of varying factors produce sudden, dramatic changes
Sports psychologists (for example, Hardy 1990) use catastrophe theory to explain why athletes subjected to a critical level of stress experience a huge and sudden loss of performance
See next slide 

31. Catastrophe
Performance
Arousal

32. Case Study Greg Norman Master golf tournament (1996)
Norman blows six stroke lead on final round
In one four-hole stretch Norman went from three strokes ahead to two behind, enabling Nick Faldo to play the kind of golf he does best - methodical, precise, controlled

33. Do different sporting events or different positions in the same event require different levels of arousal?

34. High Arousal? Football: Wrestling? Basketball: Baseball/Softball:
Blocker? QB
Wide Receiver
Wrestling?
Basketball:
Offense
Defense
Baseball/Softball:
Pitcher?
Hitter?
Bowling?
Gymnastics?
Soccer?

35. Motivational Speeches
Would they work with any of these athletes?

36. Baumeister (1984)
Defined choking under pressure as “a metaphorical expression used to describe the occurrence of inferior performance despite individual striving and situational demands for superior performance”

37. The Choking Process

38. Lewis and Linder (1997)
Reported that when pressure to perform a motor skill is increased, individuals commonly perform more poorly at a golf-putting task than when there was less pressure
They found that participants exposed to high pressure performed worse than those in the low-pressure condition and distracted participants performed better than their nondistracted counterparts

39. Distractions External distractions: Noise Gamesmanship Weather
Playing conditions
Visual distractions
Internal distractions:
Thoughts
Fears

40. Distractions
Anxiety can lead athletes to perceive cues as threatening and to focus on irrelevant cues
Optimal level of arousal will help prevent distraction

41. “The ironic opposite” Wegner, Ansfield, and Pilloff (1998):
Individuals find themselves producing movement errors that represent the “ironic opposite” of what they intended to accomplish
Found further evidence for this effect by showing that subjects who were asked to try to keep a pendulum from swinging in a particular direction were, in fact, more likely to commit movement errors that were the opposite of their intended actions

42. Attentional Allocation
High-level performers are exceptionally efficient at allocating attention
As anxiety increases, response times to relevant cues increase

43. Attentional Allocation
It may be possible to train athletes to enhance visual control to create more appropriate responses to attentional cues (e.g., “quiet eye”) (Vickers, 2007)

44. Attentional Flexibility
The ability of athletes to quickly and effectively shift attention from one location to another
When “in the zone” this appears to be easy

45. Three Uses of the Term Attention
Alertness
Capacity
Selectivity
(Posner & Boies, 1971;
Abernethy, 2001.)

46. Attention As Alertness
Alertness depends on the athlete’s emotional state.
Anxiety, arousal, and visual attention are related (Janelle, 2002).
As anxiety increases, it can lead to
Attentional narrowing
Controlled processing
Inefficiencies in attentional allocation
Distraction by irrelevant or threatening cues

47. Attentional Narrowing
Width or breadth of attention is narrowed
Example: Weapons-focus effect
Important cues are missed
Mistakes are made; attention may be directed to errors. A vicious cycle occurs

48. Controlled Processing
Once a task becomes automated, it no longer requires conscious attention
But as pressure increases, attention can shift from relevant cues to focus on control of performance
Media often says “choking” occurs

49. Attention Control Training
The process of narrowing or widening attention through arousal management and reduction strategies
Imagery skills
Hypnosis
VMBR
Maintaining Optimal Intensity
Understanding and Practicing Relaxation
Distraction Control

50. Focus of Attention
Internal or External Focus
Which is better?

51. Enhancing Attention for Competition
Research by Gabrielle Wulf and Richard Masters
Performance was increased on tasks by focusing attention on the effects of the action
Should athlete think about own movements or the movement of the racket head, club, or other equipment?
Focusing on immediate effects is more advantageous than focusing on resultant effects (flight of ball or where ball lands)

52. The “reinvestment” of conscious processing…
Could it be that there is a type of personality that is highly susceptible to this
Could there be a predisposition that could lead to reinvestment?
Skill breakdowns under pressure?
Can we be over-motivated?
See inverted U theory

53. Flow and Attention
Csikszentmihalyi argues that we don’t help people get into flow by trying to create it
Flow happens as a result of creating an environment that matches the skills of the athlete with the challenges of the task
For focused concentration, athletes need skills, perceptual awareness, self-confidence, and emotional control

54. Measurement Of Anxiety
Sport Competition Anxiety Test (SCAT)
Competitive State Anxiety Inventory-2 (CSAI-2)
Because of its multidimensionality – need to measure it cognitively, physiologically, and behaviourally.
Anxiety is seen as primarily a cognitive manifestation
Difference between cognitive antecedents of anxiety and somatic. What precedes each type differs. For example – threat of unpleasant stimulus somatic manifestation, performance evaluation cognitive manifestation
Performance manifestations different

55. Credits: Several slides prepared by: