Sport And Exercise Psychology: A Critical Introduction

1 Based on the research of Thomas et al. (2002), you could investigate possible changes
in athletes’ experiences of arousal and anxiety in the days preceding a competitive
match. As yet, little is known about the time course of these constructs among athletes
in field settings. Of course, in such a study, you would have to be extremely careful to
be as unobtrusive as possible in your data collection to prevent possible interference
with the athletes’ preparation.
2 It would be helpful to explore the extent to which athletes’ anxiety experiences change
during a series of competitive encounters (e.g., over the rounds of a strokeplay
tournament in golf). Few studies have been conducted on this topic (but see Butt,
Weinberg and Horn, 2003).
3 It would be interesting to compare and contrast the sources of worry (cognitive anxiety)
experienced by athletes in different sports (see Dunn, 1999; Dunn and Syrotuik, 2003).
For example, do players involved in physical contact sports such as soccer or rugby
have different worries from those of equivalent age and ability who are involved in
non-contact sports such as golf or tennis?
4 You could evaluate the psychometric adequacy of one of the self-report anxiety scales
described in this chapter. Surprisingly little data on these tests have been gathered
from elite athletes.
5 It would be interesting to attempt a replication of Masters’ (1992) study on the
differential effects of anxiety on a skill acquired under either implicit or explicit
learning. The hypothesis to be tested is that a golf putt that has been learned implicitly
will be significantly more resistant to the effects of pressure than will one that has
been learned explicitly (ibid.).

Summary

It is widely agreed that athletic success depends significantly on the ability to regulate
one’s arousal levels effectively. Put simply, sport performers need to know how and
when to either psych themselves up or to calm themselves down in competitive
situations.

• In the first section of the chapter, we examined the nature, causes and types of anxiety
  experienced by athletes. We also distinguished between anxiety and related constructs
  such as fear and arousal and explored the question of whether anxiety facilitates or
  impairs performance in sport.


• The second section of the chapter reviewed the most popular instruments available for
  the measurement of anxiety in athletes.


• Next, theories and research on the relationship between arousal, anxiety and
  performance were examined. This section also contained a brief discussion of the
  nature and causes of choking under pressure in sports.


• The fourth part of the chapter addressed the practical issue of how to control anxiety
  and cope effectively with pressure situations in sport.


• Finally, some unresolved issues on anxiety in athletes were identified along with several
  potentially fruitful new directions for future research in this field.

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