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AROUSAL
DEFINITIONS
Often the terms stress, anxiety and arousal are used interchangeably to explain how emotions and mental factors
affect sports performance. This is often the case for someone without a sports science background. However, these
terms are usually defined and described as different things by sports psychologists; despite this there is still some
overlap.
Stress
Stress is the imbalance between the demands of a situation and the individual’s perceptions of their capability to
meet the demands, when success is important. Stress can be both physical and psychological. Every situation places
an individual under stress, for example as you read this page you may experience physical and psychological
demands; however, you probably think that you are able to cope with the demands of this task so the level of stress
is minimal. Yet, if you were rock climbing the demands would be more intense and some people may not perceive
themselves as having the capability to cope, particularly those with a fear of heights, therefore they would
experience higher levels of stress.
Stressor
Demands placed on an individual that instigate stress; examples in sport may include the pressure of taking an
important penalty, the level of competition such as World Championships, and the audience. Another example is
physical fatigue, as this can also be a stressor.
Let's Talk About Stress! Emotion, Stress, and Health: Crash Cours…
Anxiety and arousal are often referred to as consequences of stress. Arousal and anxiety are related to each other
in terms of the performance situations (states) and the actual performer (trait)
The interrelationships among arousal, trait anxiety, and state anxiety. Weinberg and Gould (2007) Foundations of
Sport and Exercise Psychology pp 80. Human Kinetics.
Arousal is a general physiological and psychological
Arsenal 4 Tottenham 4 'FANZONE'
activation, varying in intensity along a continuum.
This ranges from deep sleep to intense excitement as
seen on this FanZone clip.
Anxiety is a negative emotional state with feelings of
Anxiety Hurts
worry, nervousness, and apprehension associated with
activation of the body.
Trait Anxiety is part of the athletes personality, it is innate and is manifested in a natural predisposition to perceive
situations as threatening e.g. a footballer worrying about the condition of the pitch every match or an athlete
worrying about getting injured every race.
State Anxiety is an immediate emotional state characterised by apprehension and tension. This temporary
emotional state is in response to a situation e.g. a sprinter feeling tense at start of race or a rugby player about to
take conversion which could decide match.
Somatic anxiety is the physiological response to anxiety these physiological symptoms include:
increased heart rate
increased sweating
increased muscle tension
nausea
'butterflies in the stomach'
Cognitive anxiety is psychological response to anxiety and these psychological symptoms include:
mental feelings of worry
doubt
apprehension
negative thinking
nervousness
Sometimes an exam question will ask you to explain how anxiety changes in the lead up to a competition:
Cognitive state anxiety increases slowly & gradually in the days prior to competition.
Cognitive state anxiety changes during competition, as the likelihood of success or failure changes
Somatic state anxiety tends to be low well before competition, but increases rapidly as event approaches
Somatic state anxiety generally decreases during competition.
EFFECTS OF ANXIETY ON PERFORMANCE
The effect arousal has on performance has been investigated by a number of different psychologists and it has led to
the development of different models. Each of these models looks to explain the relationship between increasing
levels of arousal and sports performance.
These theories tend to be used to explain over arousal and choking.
Choking is the inability to perform at an optimum level often seen as a sudden impairment or failure of sports
performers due to over anxiety/over arousal/pressure this is linked to catastrophe theory
DRIVE THEORY
This is a simplistic model that suggests a positive linear relationship between arousal and performance. The more
‘psyched up’ an individual is the better they will perform. A key element of this model is the dominant response,
which is the usual behaviour of the performer; this develops the drive theory to differentiate between levels of
learning and the effects of arousal. The dominant response is intensified as arousal increases.
The dominant response is a response that is most likely to occur in a given situation.
For example if we were looking at the serve of a novice and an experienced tennis player, the dominant response
for a performer in the cognitive phase of learning (beginner) which is poorly learnt with a number of flaws in
comparison to the perfect technical model. At low levels of arousal the performer may concentrate on trying to
improve the performance of the skill as they execute it, but as arousal increases, the dominant habit is used so more
errors occur and performances suffer. The dominant response for a performer in the autonomous phase
(experienced) would be a well leant, correct response, so when there are high levels of arousal, performance would
be improved.
INVERTED U THEORY
One of the main criticisms of Drive theory is that the relationship between arousal and performance is rarely linear.
Drops and improvements occur with different levels of arousal. It does not explain how elite performers have bad
games despite being highly aroused and for this reason a better model to explain this link could be the inverted U
theory . This theory states that as the athlete’s arousal level increases so will their performance; this rise will
continue to an ‘optimum point’ where performance will be at a very high level. However, if arousal continues to rise
beyond this ‘optimal point’ performances will deteriorate. In this instance if a performer is too highly aroused to
return to their best performance they must reduce their arousal optimum level.
There are many different circumstances that
exist under the inverted U theory, for
example the New Zealand Rugby team psych
themselves up before a match by doing the
Haka, and this not only intimidates the
opposition but also brings their levels of
arousal up to optimal levels for the game. It
would seem obvious that for making a big
tackle one would need to be highly aroused.
However, a snooker player may listen to
calming music to keep their level of arousal
low.
A snooker shot is a fine, complex
skill which requires a lower
optimum level of arousal
A Clean and Jerk is a gross skill less
complex requires high optimum
levels of arousal
Too much or too little arousal
interferes with co-ordination,
cognition, decision making and/or
performance.
High arousal in beginners will
impair performance. The dominant
response is incorrect therefore
performance deteriorates.
Elite performer with a well-learned
task, dominant response will be
correct so high arousal will not
impair performance it will help
improve performance.
Cognitive Stage: Requires low levels of arousal so the curve shifts left and is lower in height than the autonomous
stage performer. This is due to an inability to attend to many cues, so they are unable to chunk information, the
increased arousal causes a narrow attention band which means they will miss vital cues.
Autonomous Stage: Require high levels of arousal so the graph shifts further to the right and is higher than that of
cognitive stage learner. This is becuase they can chunk information together and run whole motor programme as
one piece of information this frees attention channels so the attention band needs high arousal in order to narrow
and block out irrelevant cue
CATASTROPHE THEORY
The previous anxiety models do not distinguish between the effects of somatic and cognitive anxiety. Catastrophe
theory suggests that an athlete is affected differently by each type of anxiety and that performance does not simply
drop off. Sometimes the performance can dramatically decline.
Catastrophe theory proposes that when an athlete is under conditions of low cognitive anxiety the relationship
between performance and somatic anxiety would follow the inverted U theory. So, if an athlete is experiencing raised
heart rate and butterflies in their stomach but is not worried about how they are playing, they would experience a
rise in performance to an optimal point followed by a gradual drop off. Under conditions of high cognitive anxiety
the relationship between somatic anxiety and performance would rise to the optimal level but any increase in
somatic anxiety would result in a catastrophic decrease in performance. Once this has occurred it is difficult to
return to the original levels of optimal performance.
Fazey and Hardy: Catastrophe Model
EFFECTS OF AN AUDIENCE
The presence of others is an important factor when discussing arousal of the performer. It is generally accepted that
the presence of an audience increases arousal and this in turn will affect performance. Zajonc (1965) proposed the
term Social Facilitation to describe situations when the presence of an audience increases arousal and performance
is improved. Social inhibition is used when describing how increasing arousal leads to decreases in performance.
This is based on the principles of Drive theory and the dominant response occurring. When in front of an audience,
players in the cognitive phase of learning will experience a rise in arousal and the dominant response would contain
mistakes resulting in poor performance. Conversely, a performer in the autonomous phase would find this arousal
improves performance with the dominant response of correct skills. However, inverted U theory can also be applied
to this idea as different levels of arousal can facilitate performance if this takes the performer into their optimum
arousal level.
Crowds can play an influential role in performances and these factors have been shown to affect arousal
In the Research
In 1897 Normal Triplett conducted one of the first sports psychology experiments when he studied cyclist’s
performances when they cycled on their own or in a group. He identified that cyclists rode faster when they were in a
pair or group, demonstrating social facilitation.
Poulter (2009) analysed statistical data from 808 UEFA Champions League matches over a six-season period (2001–
2007) to investigate home advantage theory. Performance analysis indicated that the home team scored more goals,
had more shots on and off target, had a superior share of possession, and won more corners than the away team.
There was an opposite trend for disciplinary variables, with the home team committing fewer fouls than the away
team, receiving less yellow and red cards. There were home advantage effects at player level for total shots, shots on
target, goals scored and assists. The overall team home win percentage was 67.7% and home teams were twice as
likely to score a goal as away teams, while away teams were twice as likely to receive a yellow card as home teams.
EVALUATION APPREHENSION
In some sports the audience does not only include spectators but also people who make judgements on the
individuals’ performance, these can be judges in sports such as ice-skating and gymnastics, scouts and selectors in
sports like football, rugby and cricket. Sometimes an individual may feel that their parents or friends who are
watching are making judgements on their performance and it increases anxiety; this perception is known as
evaluation apprehension.
Evaluation apprehension is when a performer feels they are being evaluated in some context by a crowd member;
this feeling of evaluation causes arousal levels to increase.
Evaluation apprehension is more likely to occur if:
The judges are of high status like team selectors
The perceived evaluator is of the opposite sex
The performer has low self-efficacy
The performer’s ability level is low
The audience are openly and verbally critical
The event is important and the result is critical
The previous performance was poor
External rewards are high
CONTROLLING ANXIETY AND AROUSAL
Strategies to Combat Social Inhibition and Stress Management Techniques
It is clearly important for a performer to manage levels of arousal so they can operate in their optimal zone or point.
Strategies can be used to either increase or reduce arousal to the optimum level for best performance. Selective
attention is a method of blocking out irrelevant cues such as crowd noise; it helps to avoid distractions and therefore
prevents arousal from rising to high.
Although performers may experience both somatic and cognitive state anxiety in times of stress, often they are
affected more by just one of these types of anxiety. For this reason, if a performer experiences somatic anxiety then
sports psychologists will work with the performer on somatic methods of maintaining optimum levels of arousal.
Similarly, those who experience more cognitive anxiety will be given cognitive methods for reducing arousal.
Mental rehearsal is a method that can either increase or decrease arousal to the desired level. Other terms that are
related to this are imagery and visualisation. It can be used to improve concentration by mental selection of cues and
escape distractions similar to selective attention. Visualising success can raise confidence levels and imagery of
relaxing situations can lower arousal levels. Mental rehearsal can be used to manage emotions, for example simply
imagining feeling good can lower arousal; also the situations can be rehearsed before entering into them, like
picturing a large audience.
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Stress management techniques
Strategy Explanation
Mental rehearsal Practicing the performance of a skill in the mind allows the
performer to be con!dent in the actions and this
lowers arousal. For example, a gymnast might
preparation
vault
practicein their mind to focus on speci!c elements of
a di"cult
!ne tuneand
the skill their
performance.
Imagery Picturing a situation in the mind that is associated with relaxation
will help to lower arousal. For example, a tennis play
‘a quiet
may beach with blue sea and so# sand’ before
imagine
onto
walking theout
Meditation Use of controlledcourt.
breathing to induce a ‘state’ of mental
Somatic Strategies (Physiological)
Two main strategies to reduce anxiety are Progressive Muscular Relaxation (PMR) and Biofeedback. PMR involves
progressively tensing and relaxing muscles combined with rhythmical breathing; relaxation is achieved by
distinguishing the feelings of tension and relaxation. It can focus the mind on reducing somatic anxiety, but also
serves as a distraction from negative thoughts so can also help reduce cognitive anxiety.
Biofeedback is the use of physiological measuring equipment such as heart rate monitors, galvanic skin response
detectors and blood pressure monitors. By monitoring the changes in these recordings an individual is able to
physically decrease or increase the levels. Once this technique is learned, when required, the performer would be
able to lower these responses without equipment; an example being, before taking a penalty in football.
Progressive Muscle Relaxation Training
Mr Wnuk PE @guywnuk
