1. Chapter 5
Anxiety: From Pumped to Panicked
By Gloria Balague

2. Anxiety and Preparation
Anxiety can lead to increased effort and preparation.
The capacity to experience anxiety is linked to our capacity to plan.
(continued)

3. Anxiety and Preparation (cont)
Too much anxiety results in tension, inefficient activity, difficulty in making decisions, negative focus, and reduced enjoyment and self-confidence.

4. Anxiety and Competition
Biological preparedness function of anxiety causes these conditions:
Muscle tension
Increased heart rate
Increased respiration
Narrowed attention
Diminished cognitive flexibility
(continued)

5. Anxiety and Competition (cont)
In competition, anxious athletes have different, ineffective movement patterns compared to when they are relaxed.
Increased anxiety causes a lack of cognitive flexibility. Anxious athletes confuse what is merely possible with what is likely.
(continued)

6. Anxiety and Competition (cont)
Coaches may not know how to show athletes to relax and may be hampered by their own anxiety.
Merely telling athletes to relax is not the same as showing them how to relax.

7. Definitions
Anxiety: perception of a threat to an essential value. The threat may be
physical (injury),
psychological (shame), or
interpersonal (loss of respect).
Fear: based on the presence of a specific, observable danger.
(continued)

8. Definitions (cont)
Arousal: physical level of activation of the person and intensity of the behavior.
Stress: the cognitive perception that one does not have the necessary resources to cope with the demands of a challenge.

9. Symptoms of Anxiety
Physiological
Cognitive
Behavioral
Emotional

10. Anxiety and the Nervous System
The “fight or flight” reaction
Activation of sympathetic nervous system
increases cardiac contraction,
constricts blood vessels,
increases respiration,
stimulates sweat glands, and
stimulates adrenal medullae.

11. Physiological Symptoms of Anxiety
Palpitations, accelerated HR
Sweating
Trembling, shaking
Shortness of breath
Feeling of choking
Chest pain or discomfort
Nausea or abdominal distress
(continued)

12. Physiological Symptoms (cont)
Dizziness, light-headedness
Chills or hot flashes
Numbness or tingling
Restlessness
Feeling easily fatigued
Increased muscle tension
Sleep disturbance

13. Cognitive Symptoms of Anxiety
Uncontrollable worry or apprehensive expectation (“possible” becomes “likely”)
Difficulty concentrating
Difficulty making decisions

14. Behavioral Symptoms Withdrawal, isolation Rumination
Shifting of activities
Avoidance

15. Emotional Symptoms Irritability Negative affect
Outbursts: crying and anger

16. Theories of Anxiety and Performance

17. State-Trait Model Developed by Charles Spielberger
State anxiety: the current experience of anxiety (e.g., before a big game, an exam, or a wedding)
Trait anxiety: a personal characteristic that makes you more likely to perceive a variety of situations as threatening

18. Anxiety and Cognition Anxiety affects attention.
Narrowing of attention is a common response to threat. Attention narrowed on internal cues can lead to increased anxiety when the player focuses on how badly he or she is feeling.
(continued)

19. Anxiety and Cognition (cont)
Anxiety can cause hypervigilance—the player is on the lookout for threats.
Anxious people tend to interpret ambiguous situations as threatening. For example, an athlete returning from injury may interpret normal pain very negatively.

20. Worry One of the main activities of anxious players.
Provides a false sense of control and is therefore self-reinforcing.
An ineffective coping mechanism—the worried athlete hardly ever finds a solution or actively copes with the problem.
Interventions aim at reducing or changing (restructuring) worry.

21. Inverted-U Hypothesis
From Kirk et al., 1999.

22. The Inverted U
Optimal performance occurs at an intermediate level of arousal; both very high and very low levels of arousal will result in impaired performance.

23. Problems With the Inverted U
Not a predictive theory. What is an optimal level of arousal?
Ignores various cognitive interpretations of arousal (e.g., activation of sympathetic nervous system may be interpreted by one athlete as readiness and by another as anxiety).
The symmetry of the inverted U suggests a gradual decline in performance with increased arousal, whereas performance decrements are often dramatic and rapid.

24. Individual Zones of Optimal Functioning (IZOF) Hypothesis
Developed by Russian scientist Yuri Hanin.
An idiographic model.
Proposes that an athlete’s optimal activation level can be identified based on past experiences.
(continued)

25. Individual Zones of Optimal Functioning (IZOF) Hypothesis (cont)
From Hanin, (continued)

26. Individual Zones of Optimal Functioning (IZOF) Hypothesis (cont)
From Hanin, 2000.

27. Reversal Theory
Developed by Michael Apter. How arousal affects performance depends on an individual’s interpretation of his or her arousal level.
Arousal can be interpreted as excitement (pleasant) or as anxiety (unpleasant).
Arousal interpreted as pleasant facilitates performance.
Arousal interpreted as unpleasant hinders performance.

28. Analysis of Reversal Theory
Research on this theory is limited.
Theory does not offer a good rationale for predicting reversals in feelings.
Not clear why positive feelings should facilitate better performances.
But it does suggest a number of cognitive interventions aimed at reinterpreting negative symptoms in a more positive light.

29. Theories of Multidimensional Anxiety
Somatic versus cognitive
Intensity
Frequency
Direction
Debilitative
Facilitative

30. Catastrophe Theory Developed by Lew Hardy and colleagues.
When cognitive anxiety is low, the arousal-performance relationship resembles the inverted U.
When cognitive anxiety is high, arousal increases beyond an optimal level, resulting in drops in performance that are rapid and dramatic.
When physiological anxiety is high, cognitive anxiety causes decreased performance.
When physiological anxiety is low, cognitive anxiety causes improved performance.

31. Measuring Anxiety in Sport
Physiological signs
EEG—brain activity
Heart rate (ECG)
Respiration
Skin conductance (GSR)
Biochemical indicators (epinephrine and norepinephrine)
Global and multidimensional self-report scales
CSAI-2—somatic anxiety, cognitive anxiety, self-confidence
POMS

32. Measurement Concerns Validity of self-report measures
Do all athletes interpret questions in the same way?
Items may have different relevance across sports.
Does timing matter?
Does answering a questionnaire raise anxiety?

33. Making Competitive Anxiety Work for You
Develop a relaxation ritual.
Create a precompetition game plan.
Practice competitive routines.