Sport And Exercise Psychology: A Critical Introduction

Why do athletes differ so much from each other in the amount of precompetitive anxiety
which they display? According to Wann (1997), research on this question has identified
at least three key mediating variables. First, the level of competitiveness of the athlete
appears to be important In particular, athletes who are relatively low in competitiveness
tend to show a steady increase in cognitive anxiety before an important competition
whereas those who score highly on it tend to show a stable pattern of pre-competitive
cognitive anxiety. Second, the type of sport seems to make a difference. Thus athletes
who participate in endurance sports tend to display lower levels of precompetitive anxiety
than do athletes competing in other track-and-field sports. Finally, gender may play a
role. Specifically, whereas cognitive anxiety levels tend to remains relatively stable for
male athletes, they tend to increase in female performers as a competition approaches,

Critical thinking questions
Do these general principles make sense to you? If not, which of them do you find it
hard to believe and why? Is it valid to compare the possible determinants of pre-
competitive anxiety in athletes from different sports?

Attributions/expectations

As I explained in Chapter 2, a tendency to attribute successful outcomes to external and
unstable factors (e.g., luck) and to attribute unsuccessful outcomes to internal and stable
factors (e.g., low levels of skill) is likely to induce anxiety in athletes. Perceptions of
audience expectations are also important determinants of performance anxiety. For
example, the soprano June Anderson said that “in the beginning of your career... nobody
knows who you are, and they don’t have any expectations. There’s less to lose. Later on,
when you’re known, people are coming to see you, and they have certain expectations.
You have a lot to lose” (cited in Blau, 1998, P. 17).

Perfectionism

Athletes who set impossibly high standards for their performances may feel anxious
when things fail to go smoothly for them. Interestingly, Frost and Henderson (1991)
discovered that athletes who displayed a significant concern for their mistakes (which is
associated with perfectionism) tended to experience more anxiety than did less
perfectionistic colleagues. A similar problem is apparent in the performing arts. For
example, the pianist Louis Lortie attributed stage fright and other forms of anxiety to the
fact that “we were brought up with the idea that there shouldn’t be mistakes” (cited in
Blau, 1998, p 17).

Fear of failure

Many athletes are indoctrinated to adopt a “win at all costs” attitude, which ultimately
makes them vulnerable to performance anxiety. If they believe that their self-esteem is

Sport and exercise psychology: A critical introduction 74