Psychology

The pressure of performing in competition can have two effects on an athlete’s performance; it can have a positive effect and encourage and improve an athlete’s performance, or can have a negative effect and damage the athlete’s performance. In the following report I will define and discuss factors leading to stress, arousal and anxiety, and the psychological and physiological effects on an athlete’s performance and behaviour as well as critically analyzing strategies of stress management. Stress is what results when performers see themselves incapable to meet the demands of a situation. Lazarus and Folkman (1984) defined stress as ‘’Stress is a pattern of negative physiological states and psychological responses occurring in situations where people perceive threats to their well-being which they may be unable to meet.” Stress is widely used to refer to the term distress and the negative physiological and psychological responses which result when the athlete feels they are unable to meet the needs of the situation they are presented with. It is the athlete’s perception of a situation, which will determine whether stress will occur. Therefore stress can have both a positive and negative effect on performance. If the demand the athlete is presented with is seen as a positive by the athlete, this will not create any stress, but if the demand is perceived as negative by the athlete, this will have a negative effect on performance. A demand which is perceived as a negative demand is termed a stressor.
Sport psychologists commonly refer to stress and anxiety being interchangeable, meaning they are able to be used in place of one another. Kremer and Scully (1994) are among some of the sport psychologists who have argued, separating stress, anxiety and arousal is too orderly, because there is an interaction between them and a substantial overlap between all three. A negative perception of one may lead on two the other two factors i.e. a negative perception of

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