ANXIETY

Presented by: Khadija Yasin

Anxiety

• The term “anxiety refers to an unpleasant emotion,

which is characterized by vague but persistent
feelings of apprehension and dread.”
• Buckworth and Dishman (2002) defined this emotion
as a state of worry, apprehension, or tension that
often occurs in the absence of real or obvious danger.
Elements Of Anxiety

Psychologists view anxiety as a multidimensional construct

with three key elements:
• Cognitive
Cognitive anxiety involves negative appraisal of situational
factors as well as of the self.
• Somatic
Somatic anxiety refers to the physical manifestation of
anxiety.
• Behavioral
Behavioral anxiety include tense facial expressions, agitation
and restlessness.
Types of Anxiety

• State anxiety
• Trait anxiety
 State anxiety (or A-state) is a transient, situation specific form
of apprehension.
 Trait anxiety (also known as A-trait) refers to a general,
enduring and relatively stable personality characteristic of
‘anxiety-proneness’ in people. It is a predisposition to perceive
certain situations as threatening or anxiety provoking.
• Technically, state anxiety is subjective consciously perceived
feelings of tension and apprehension whereas trait anxiety
describes a general disposition among people to feel anxious
in certain environmental situations.
Theories of Anxiety

• The inverted-U hypothesis

• Drive theory
• Catastrophe theory
• Processing efficiency theory
• Conscious processing hypothesis
The Inverted-U Hypothesis

• According to the inverted-U hypothesis the relationship between arousal

and performance is not linear, but instead, curvilinear.
• By this theory, increased arousal is believed to improve performance up to
a certain point, beyond which further increases in arousal may impair it.
• This theory that arousal has diminishing returns on performance is derived
from the Yerkes–Dodson law. Briefly, this principle proposed that there is
an optimal level of arousal for performance on any task.
• Specifically, performance tends to be poor at low or high levels of arousal
but is best at intermediate levels of arousal. If the Yerkes–Dodson theory is
correct, then athletic performance which occurs under conditions of either
high or low arousal should be inferior to that displayed at intermediate
levels. Evidence exists to support this hypothesis.
• For example, Klavora (1978) found that within a sample of high school
basketball players, the highest levels of performance were displayed by
people who reported moderate levels of somatic anxiety.
Drive Theory

• In psychology a drive is an aroused state that occurs

because of a physiological need. However, Hull (1943)
suggested that there was a difference between a need
(which is a physiological state of deprivation of the body –
as happens, for example, when one is hungry) and a ‘drive’
(which is a psychological state that is based on, but not
the same as, a physiological need).
• Based on this distinction, drive theory postulates a
positive and linear relationship between arousal level
and performance. In other words, the more ‘psyched up’
or aroused athletes become, the better they should
perform.
Catastrophe Theory

• The ‘catastrophe theory’ of anxiety is different from previous

arousal–performance models in proposing that physiological arousal
interacts with anxiety to determine athletic performance.
• Thus its central tenet is that physiological arousal is associated with
athletic performance in a manner described by the inverted-U curve,
but only when athletes have low cognitive state anxiety (that is,
when they are not worried). When cognitive anxiety (worry) is high,
however, increases in arousal tend to improve performance up to a
certain point, beyond which further increases may produce a swift,
dramatic and discontinuous decline in performance rather than a
slow or gradual deterioration.
• Furthermore, catastrophe theory claims that once athletes have
capitulated to the effects of anxiety, they cannot simply go back to
where they were previously.
Processing Efficiency Theory

• The ‘processing efficiency theory’ was developed to explain the complex

mechanisms by which state anxiety appears to affect task performance.
• Briefly, it has at least two key ideas. First, it postulated that worry serves both
cognitive and motivational functions. Thus on the one hand, worry consumes
the processing and storage capacity of working memory and hence is likely to
impair the performance of difficult tasks .
• But on the other hand, worry may motivate the performer to invest more
effort on the task in order to escape ‘the aversive consequences of poor
performance.
• Therefore, anxiety may lead to ‘active and effortful responses designed to
improve performance and to reduce threat and worry’.
• In short, anxiety sometimes leads to improved performance because it may
motivate performers to exert more effort on the task than they had done
previously.
Conscious Processing

• The ‘conscious processing’ or ‘reinvestment

hypothesis suggests that sudden deteriorations of
skilled performance under anxiety-provoking
conditions are caused by a ‘reinvestment of
controlled processing’ or a ‘tendency to introduce
conscious control of a movement by isolating and
focusing on specific components of it’
• In other words, this theory proposes that anxiety
encourages athletes to attempt to control their
movements using explicit rules rather than
automatic, implicit habits.
Methods and measures

• Physiological measures:
As anxiety is a type of fear reaction, it has a strong physiological
basis. The anxiety states are ‘accompanied by or associated with
activation of the autonomic nervous system’
As we have seen, this activation results in such typical symptoms
of anxiety as elevated heart rate, increased blood pressure, fast
and shallow breathing, sweaty palms and tense musculature.
If such indices could be measured conveniently, they would
facilitate research on anxiety, as they are relatively unaffected
by response ‘sets’ such as people’s tendency to present
themselves in a favourable light when answering questionnaire
items (a tendency called ‘social desirability’).
• Self-report Instruments:
Given their simplicity and convenience, paper-and-pencil tests
of anxiety have proliferated in sport psychology research in
recent years.
Among the most popular self-report instruments in this field
are measures of state anxiety such as the Competitive State
Anxiety Inventory-2 (CSAI-2) and the Mental Readiness Form
(MRF)
On the other hand, trait anxiety measures such as the Sport
Competition Anxiety Test (SCAT) (Martens, 1977) and the
Sport Anxiety Scale (SAS) (Smith et al., 1990) have also been
used extensively.
Practical Issues and Interventions

• Predispositions, trait anxiety

• Perceived importance of the competition
• Negative attribution
• Perfectionism
• Fear of failure
• Competition-specific
THANK
YOU