Chapters 6-8 (both LeUnes and Orlick books): Anxiety and Anxiety Reduction

1. 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 AnxietyState Anxiety Inherited Linked with arousal Always anxious Anxious at certain times Predisposition Learned from experiences

9. 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 • 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 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: • 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?