Psychological Factors Affecting Sports Performance

DR. ANSHUL SINGH THAPA

Stress

• Stress is defined as “a substantial imbalance between demand (may be physical or psychological) and response capability, under condition where failure to meet that demand has important consequences”. It is a process, a sequence of events that will lead to a particular end.

Environmental Demand

(Physical and Psychological)

Individual’s Perception of the environmental demands

(amount of psychological or physical “threat” perceived)

Stress Response

(Physical and Psychological)

• Arousal
• State anxiety
• Muscle tension
• Attention changes

Behavioral consequences

(Performance or outcome)

Stage 1

Stage 2

Stage 3

Stage 4

Types of Stress

• Not all stress is bad and harmful to us. Experts say that there are 3 types of stress:
• Neustress - this is neutral stress, when the arousal is neither harmful nor helpful.
• Eustress - the good stress, just the right amount of stress to stimulate us, to make us feel alive, interested and engaged in life. Eustress fuels success and achievement. Some examples of eustress are: meeting a challenge, falling in love, and winning a competition.
• Distress - this is the stress that is harmful to our bodies and minds. It is too much or too little stress (boredom, lack of meaning in life).

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Coping Strategy

• Although many definitions of coping has been given in the psychological literature, the most popular definition is “a process of constantly changing cognitive and behavioral effort to manage specific external and internal demands or conflict appraised as taxing or exceeding one’s resources”.
• This view has advantage of considering coping as a dynamic process involving both cognitive and behavioral efforts to manage stress – a definition that is consistent with McGrath’s model of stress.

Categories of coping

• The two most widely accepted coping categories are problem-focused coping and emotion focused coping.
• Problem focused coping involves effort to alter or manage the problem that is causing the stress for the individual concerned. It includes such specific behaviors, categories as information gathering, pre competition and competition plan, problem solving, increasing efforts and self talk etc.
• Emotion focused coping entails regulating the emotional response to the problem that cause stress to the individual. It includes such specific behavior or categories as meditation, relaxation, wishful thinking, mental and behavioral withdrawal and cognitive effort to change the meaning (but not the actual problem) of the situation.

Anxiety

• Anxiety is a state characterized by cognitive, somatic, emotional, and behavioral components. These components combine to create an unpleasant feeling that is typically associated with uneasiness, apprehension, fear, or worry.
• Anxiety is a generalized mood condition that can often occur without an identifiable triggering stimulus. As such, it is distinguished from fear, which occurs in the presence of an observed threat.
• Additionally, fear is related to the specific behaviors of escape and avoidance, whereas anxiety is the result of threats that are perceived to be uncontrollable or unavoidable

Types of Anxiety

• State Anxiety is the situation specific response. It is an immediate emotional state that is characterized by apprehension, fear, tension and increase in physiological arousal.
• Trait Anxiety is a personality disposition. It is predisposition to perceive certain environmental situation as threatening.

The Multidimensional Nature of Anxiety

• Anxiety is multidimensional in two different ways the trait and state component. The trait component is like a personality disposition, while the state component is a situation specific response. State anxiety is an immediate emotional state that is characterized by apprehension, fear, tension and an increased in physical arousal.
• Conversely, trait anxiety is a predisposition to perceive certain environmental situations as threatening and to respond to these situation with increased state anxiety.
• Anxiety is also multidimensional in the sense that it is believed that there are both cognitive and somatic components of anxiety.
• Cognitive anxiety is the mental component of anxiety caused by such things as fear of negative social evaluation, fear of failure and loss of self esteem.
• Somatic anxiety is the physical component of anxiety and reflects the perception of such physiological responses as increased heart rate, respiration and muscular tension.

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Aggression

Aggression refers to any behavior that is hostile, destructive, and/or violent. Generally, aggressive behavior has the potential to inflict injury or damage to the target person or object. Examples of aggressive behavior include physical assault, throwing objects, property destruction, self-harming behaviors, and verbal threats. Aggression can have mental aspects, as well

Relationship of arousal and performance

• The following are the three theories which helps us to understand the relationship of arousal caused by the above discussed psychological factors such as Stress, Anxiety, Aggression, Fear and Tension.
• Drive Theory
• Inverted U Hypothesis
• Individual Zone of Optimal Functioning

Drive Theory

Inverted U Hypothesis

Individual Zone of Optimal Functioning

Low Arousal

Zone

Moderate

Arousal

Zone

High

Arousal

Zone

Athlete 3

Athlete 2

Athlete 1

1) Drive Theory: Drive theory states that the more arousal and anxiety an individual experiences, the higher their performance will be.

2) Inverted U Hypothesis: This theory posits that their is a medium amount of arousal and anxiety that causes one to perform higher - too little anxiety/arousal and too much anxiety/arousal will cause performance to be poorer.

3) Individual Zones of Optimal Functioning: This theory takes into account that people have different levels of anxiety and arousal that are unique in making them perform at their best. Some people perform their best with low anxiety, some with a medium amount and others with a high amount. The amount of anxiety/arousal that an individual requires to perform their best is based on individual characteristics.

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Arousal Regulation Techniques

• Progressive relaxation techniques
• Autogenic training
• Biofeedback training
• Meditation techniques

�Progressive Relaxation Technique

• Progressive relaxation technique is a technique of systematically tensing and releasing of muscles, in order to create whole body relaxation. By consciously letting go of tension from our bodies and creating an environment which is peaceful and quiet, our bodies go from an activated mode into a deactivated one. The technique was developed by Dr. Edmund Jacobson in the 1930's and described in his book Progressive Relaxation. This technique is a muscle relaxation technique and can relax the body within minutes. However, at the beginning it takes practice to learn to release the muscles. Once body knows how to tense and then relax muscles, we can relieve tension and stress on the spot.

Progressive relaxation is based on a fact that complete physical relaxation is the absence of tension. If we are completely relaxed it is impossible to be tense and anxious. Progressive relaxation can help us achieve a state of profound physical relaxation by soothing the chronic muscle tension that keeps the sympathetic nervous system in overdrive. There are four stages in progressive relaxation technique:

• Awareness of tension - by concentrating on an area of our body, we learn to recognize tension.
• Tensing the muscles
• Letting go of the tensing
• Awareness of relaxation - we concentrate on the particular area of our body, and we learn to recognize the feeling of relaxation.
• The best position for practicing progressive relaxation technique is lying down. Some people use this technique just before falling asleep, but we can use it at anytime of the day.

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�Autogenic Relaxation Technique

• Autogenic means self-regulation or self-generation. It means that the power for achieving relaxation is all within we. During autogenic relaxation we will relax our muscles deeply. By relaxing our muscles, our mind automatically follows. And we find our self experiencing deep relaxation.

�Autogenic Relaxation in Simple Steps

To practice this relaxation technique we need to find a quiet place. While seated in a comfortable position we repeat a particular autogenic phrase to ourself (see the list bellow).

At the beginning, we do this for a few minutes at a time, several times a day. Gradually, we increase the time until we practice 20 minutes twice a day.

There are six parts to autogenic training, each focuses on a different part of the body and different sensation:

• heaviness in the extremities - "my arms and legs are heavy"
• warmth in the extremities - "my arms and legs are warm"
• heartbeat - "my heart is calm and regular"
• breathing - "my breathing is calm and regular"
• warmth in the solar plexus - "my solar plexus is warm"
• forehead - "my forehead is cool"

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Biofeedback Training

• Biofeedback is a method of measuring physiological functions we are not normally aware of (such as skin temperature, muscle tension, or brain waves) and then training ourself to control these functions.
• Depending on what particular physiological function we are working with, different techniques are used.
• The most common biofeedback techniques are:
• Temperature biofeedback
• EMG biofeedback
• EEG biofeedback
• Galvanic Skin Response
• With biofeedback we are in control. No needles and no medications. we learn to listen and talk to our body and make our nervous system an ally in our healing process

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Meditation

• Meditation is a verb. It is doing. It is a practice of concentration. we may concentrate on our breath, a sound, object, visualization, movement, or sensations in the body. The goal of meditation is to increase the sense of well-being, reduce stress, activate the relaxation response, and enhance personal and spiritual growth.
• "Meditation is a way of being. Meditation is not about trying to get anywhere else. It is about allowing ourself to be exactly where we are and as we are, and the world to be exactly as it is in this moment, as well." John Kabat-Zinn

• we will understand what meditation is once we experience it. Here is a short exercise that will show we what is meditation.
• Find a quiet spot where we will not be disturbed.
• Sit in a chair with our back straight, shoulders relaxed, feet flat on the floor.
• Close our eyes and turn our attention to our breath.
• Notice how the breath moves. Just observe our breath.
• Feel how our abdomen (or our chest) is rising and falling with each breath.
• Just observe. Don't force anything.
• Focus on the feeling of our breath - our body rising and falling with each breath.
• Continue for 5 minutes.
• Congratulations! we now know what is meditation and how to meditate.

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