This document discusses arousal, anxiety, and their relationship to sport performance. It defines arousal as physiological activation triggered by the autonomic nervous system, leading to increased heart rate, blood pressure, and other fight or flight responses. Anxiety is defined as both a trait, a general tendency to feel anxious, and a state, immediate situation-specific feelings of anxiety that have cognitive and somatic components related to perceiving threats. The document explores the physiology behind arousal and the sympathetic nervous system response, as well as how brain structures like the hypothalamus can increase alertness during arousal.

1. Arousal & Anxiety in Sport

2. Arousal Definition
• Physiological activation
• Autonomic reactivity
• Fight or flight response
• Physiological measures?

3. Physiology of Arousal
• Arousal levels directly related to autonomic
nervous system (HR, BP, skin conductivity, and
respiration)
• Two divisions: Sympathetic
&Parasympathetic

4. Sympathetic Nervous System
• Primarily responsible for body changes with
arousal levels
• Sweating hands, increased HR, increased
respiration, release of glucose, catecholamine
release
• Works relatively quickly, while
parasympathetic n.s. works relatively slowly

5. Brain Mechanisms
• Activiation of higher order systems (CNS
structures) occurs during arousal
• Cerebral Cortex - conscious thought
processes; desynchronized, fast, low
amplitude EEG readings
• Hypothalamus - midbrain; electrical
stimulation can increase alertness/excitement

6. Anxiety Definitions
• Trait Anxiety
– General tendency to experience anxiety in many
(or most) achievement situations
• Predisposition to perceive environmental
situations as threatening
• Respond to these situations with increased
state anxiety

7. Anxiety Definitions
• Five factors related to increases in state
anxiety (Endler, 1978)
• State Anxiety
– Immediate feelings of anxiety; situation specific
• Cognitive Vs. Somatic

8. Somatic Anxiety
• Physiological activation
• Perception of physiological symptoms of
increased anxiety
• Closely related to arousal levels

9. Cognitive Anxiety
• Emotional/cognitive dimension of anxiety
• Our typical understanding of anxiety
• Perception of threat
• Possible sources of threat (sport)??

10. Stress Vs. Anxiety
• Often linked to anxiety
• Stress is “nonspecific response of the body to
any demand made upon it” (Selye, 1983, p. 2 )
• Eustress vs. distress
• Hypostress vs. hyperstress
• Considered necessary