ANXIETY, STRESS & AROUSAL

HOW ARE THEY INFLUENCING US? HOW CAN WE COPE WITH THEM?
DEFINITION OF ANXIETY, STRESS & AROUSAL

 Stress = the non-specific response of the body to any demand on it

 Arousal = general physical and psychological activity

 Anxiety = a negative emotional state

STRESS
Eustress Distress

Is a positive form of stress, which people seek to
test their abilities:
 Motivates, focuses energy (arousal)
 Is short-term
 Is perceived as within our coping abilities
 Feels exciting
 Improves performance & learning ability
Imbalance between the demands that someone
feels and his/her feelings to meet the
demands. Especially when failure of the task has
important consequences.
 Causes anxiety or concern
 Can be short – or long – term
 Feels unpleasant
 Can lead to mental and physical problems
 Decreases performance & learning ability
PHYSICAL RESPONSE TO
STRESS
Fight, Flight or Freeze Response
• Bear in the woods
• Flight? Or Fight? Or Freeze?

• Body releases epinephrine (formerly called adrenaline) that prepares the body for quick action:
• Breathing speeds up to get more oxygen through your body
• Heart beats faster to increase the flow of blood to carry more oxygen to your muscles
• Muscles tense up to get ready to be quickly
• Pupils get wider = allow more light in = more sensitive vision
• Digestion slows down because it’s an unnecessary activity in an emergency
• Blood sugar increases = more fuel for fighting or running
5 TYPES OF STRESSORS

 Environmental - conditions around

 Biological - your biological conditions
 Thinking - any kind of mental challenge
 Behavioral - unhealthy behaviors
 Life Change Stressors - any major life change
PARAGRAPH

Write about the major stressors in your life. Try and talk about one
from each of the 5 categories of stressors, and explain why it causes
you stress.
 ANXIETY
 Feelings of worry, nervousness and apprehension that is associated with the activation of the body
(performance & learning of skills)
 Athletes often can’t specify the exact cause of their emotional state

Cognitive responses to anxiety Somatic responses to anxiety

 Loss of concentration
 Feelings on apprehension
 Inability to cope
 Attentional narrowing
 Fear of failure (Flight, freeze or fight)
 Sweating
 Increased muscle tension
 Feelings of nausea
 Increased heart rate
 Increased breathing rate

These are PSYCHOLOGICAL responses! These are PHYSIOLOGICAL responses!

STATE ANXIETY (A-STATE)

ANXIETY FELT IN A PARTICULAR SITUATION

“An emotional reaction of someone in a situation that they

experience as threatening”

A basketball player’s level of state anxiety would change during

the match.

Prior to tip off – elevated level (nerves)

During match – lower level
Final seconds faced with 3 free throws – extremely high level.
TRAIT ANXIETY (A-TRAIT)
AN ENDURING PERSONALITY TRAIT, GIVING A
TENDENCY TO VIEW ALL SITUATIONS AS
THREATENING.
“Anxiety as a personality trait is a tendency to react to
situations in an anxious way”
Two rugby players with equal skill are put under pressure to kick a last minute goal.
They have different state anxiety reactions to the situation because of their personalities – their level of trait
anxiety.

1) Laid back (low trait anxiety), doesn’t perceive kick as overally threatening, doesn’t experience any more
state anxiety than expected. Is able to perform as in training.

2) High trait anxiety, finds all situations threatening. Is not able to recall same performance as during
training.
AROUSAL

 Is determined by psychological processes such as emotions, which depend on higher

cognitive functions (thoughts)
 Coma is a pathologically low state of arousal vs agitation is an extremely high arousal level

Effects on performance
 Increases muscle tension and affects co-ordination
 Affects attention, which becomes either narrow with too much arousal or broad with too
little arousal (pay too much attention to environment)