Sport And Exercise Psychology: A Critical Introduction

Types of anxiety: state and trait

Since the seminal research of Spielberger (1966), a distinction has been drawn by
psychologists between anxiety as a mood state (“state” anxiety) and anxiety as a
personality characteristic (“trait” anxiety). Whereas the former term (also known as “A-
state”) describes transient, situation-specific feelings of fear, worry and physiological
arousal, the latter one (also called “A-trait”) refers to a relatively stable personality trait
(or chronic pre-disposition) which is characterised by a tendency to perceive certain
situations as anxiety-provoking. Thus as Spielberger (1966) explained, state anxiety may
be defined as “subjective, consciously perceived feelings of tension and apprehension”
(p. 17) whereas trait anxiety refers to a general disposition among people to feel anxious
in certain environmental situations (e.g., when playing an important match). Applied to
sport, the concept of state anxiety may be used to describe situations in which an athlete’s
feelings of tension may change during a match. Thus a footballer may feel nervous in the
dressing-room before an important match but may become calmer once the competitive
action begins. On the other hand, a player who scores highly on trait anxiety may feel
pessimistic most of the time. Another way of explaining this distinction is to say that trait
anxiety is a predisposition to experience state anxiety under certain circumstances.
According to this view, athletes who display a high degree of trait anxiety are more likely
to interpret sport situations as threatening than are less anxious counterparts.

What causes anxiety in athletes?

Many factors induce feelings of anxiety in athletes. Unfortunately, due to space
restrictions, this section contains only a brief list of possible determinants of anxiety in
sport performers (but see Woodman and Hardy, 2001, for more detailed accounts of this
issue).

Perceived importance of the competition

In general, the more importance is attached to a forthcoming competition by an athlete,
the more anxiety s/he is likely to experience in it.

Predispositions: trait anxiety

Many sport psychologists (e.g., Anshel, 1995) believe that athletes’ levels of trait anxiety
are important determinants of the amount of state anxiety which they are likely to
experience in a given situation. But, as we indicated in Chapter 2, it is not valid to use a
personality trait as an “explanation” for a mental state. After all, one cannot explain
aggressive behaviour by saying that a person has an “aggressive” personality. Clearly, we
must be careful to avoid circular reasoning when seeking to explain why athletes become
anxious in certain situations. Nevertheless, research suggests some reasons why athletes
differ in their level of pre-competitive trait anxiety (see Box 3.2).

Box 3.2 Thinking critically about...why athletes might differ in pre-

competitive anxiety

"Psyching up" and "calming down": anxiety in sport 73