Motivation, Arousal, & Anxiety

Motivation, Arousal, & Anxiety September 16, 1999

• Motivation  The coach of a little league baseball team offers $20 to any player who hits a home run  The coach of a college football team makes his players watch him swallow a worm  A college basketball coach leaves the bench in the middle of a game and sits in the stands  A high school coach uses fake blood and blanks to stage his own shooting in the school cafeteria  The coach of a college football team requires that his players witness the castration of a bull  Anderson, K. (1994) Coach gets cut by players. Sports Illustrated General Models of Motivation  Trait Approach—(Personal Factors)  personality motivates performance (needs, interests, goals)  early research focused on identifying/measuring trait  Problem

 personality scales poorl General Models of Motivation  Situational Factors  motivation is primarily determined by situational factors (coaching, facilities)  Problem: Overjustification Effect Rewards and Attribution  Controlling Rewards (designed to influence)  Informational Rewards (designed to give feedback)  Overjustification Effect and Professional Sports (Deci & Ryan)

Cognitive Evaluation (Attributions for success/failure)  Locus of Causality  Internal (ability, effort)  External (task difficulty, luck)  Stability  Stable (ability, task difficulty)  Unstable (effort, luck)  Self-serving bias Interactional View of Motivation Sorrentino & Sheppard (1978) Coaching  Understand why people participate  Both situations & traits  People often have conflicting interests  Motives Change Over Time Major Motives for Participation  Youth Sports:  improving skills, fun, being with friends, fitness  Exercise Participation  initially: health factors, weight loss, fitness, self-challenge, feel better  later: program enjoyment, social factors Coaching  Structure Environment to enhance motivation  Competition or recreation  Provide for multiple motives Coaching  Be Realistic  Other physical and psychological factors influencing motivation must be considered  Some motivational factors are more easily influenced than others

 Imagine that it is only a few minutes before a championship game. Your opponent in the sport in which you participate has defeated you once earlier in the season, the only loss you suffered. How do you feel three minutes before the game begins?

 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Very anxious not at all anxious Arousal, Anxiety, & Stress  Arousal--neutral emotionally (neustress/eustress)  Anxiety--negative emotionally (distress)  cognitive & somatic  Spielberger’s trait/state anxiety distinction Measurement  Physiological measurement of arousal  biofeedback devices  Questionnaires  SCAT and CSAI Sport Competition Anxiety Test  SCAT--measure of competitive trait anxiety  trait anxiety correlates significantly with the amount of state anxiety experienced just before competition Scoring  reverse score items 6 and 11 as:  1 = often 2 = sometimes 1 = hardly ever  Do not score “dummy” items 1, 4, 7, 10, and 13  scores range from 10 (low competitive trait anxiety) to 30 (high competitive trait anxiety) Stress Process  1. Environmental Demand  2. Individual’s Perception of Demand  3. Response  arousal, state anxiety, muscle tension, attention shifts  4. Outcome Drive Theory  Monotonic relationship between arousal/anxiety and performance  As one increase, so too does performance Inverted-U Hypothesis  Optimal arousal theory  Zones of Optimal functioning  Catastrophe Model (deterioration is not so gradual) Why Arousal Influences Performance  Facilitation and Disruption  Nideffer’s Attentional Shift Model  low arousal: attention too broad  high arousal: attention too narrow  Muscular Tension  Self-handicapping