Department of Psychology University of Peshawar 2008-2009 Assessment and Treatment of Competition Anxiety Among Sportsmen and Women

ASSESSMENT AND TREATMENT OF COMPETITION ANXIETY AMONG SPORTSMEN AND WOMEN

RABIA AMJAD

Supervised by:

Prof. Dr. Erum Irshad

Department of Psychology

University of Peshawar

DEPARTMENT OF PSYCHOLOGY UNIVERSITY OF PESHAWAR 2008-2009 ASSESSMENT AND TREATMENT OF COMPETITION ANXIETY AMONG SPORTSMEN AND WOMEN

RABIA AMJAD

Supervised by:

Prof. Dr. Erum Irshad

Department of Psychology

University of Peshawar

A dissertation is submitted to the department of Psychology University of Peshawar in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the

DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY IN PSYCHOLOGY

DEPARTMENT OF PSYCHOLOGY UNIVERSITY OF PESHAWAR 2008-2009

In the name of ALLAH, the most Gracious, the most Merciful

ASSESSMENT AND TREATMENT OF COMPETITION ANXIETY AMONG SPORTSMEN AND WOMEN

RABIA AMJAD

Approved By:

Examination Committee

1. Prof. Dr. Muhammad Jahanzeb Khan

2. Dr. Asghar Ali Shah

3. Dr. Mrs. Asad Bano

______

Supervisor

______

Chairman

DEPARTMENT OF PSYCHOLOGY UNIVERSITY OF PESHAWAR

APPROVAL CERTIFICATE

It is certified that PhD dissertation entitle “Assessment and Treatment of Competition

Anxiety among Sportsmen and women” completed by Ms. Rabia Amjad has been approved for submission to the University of Peshawar, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa,

Pakistan as partial fulfillment of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy.

Prof. Dr. Muhammad Jahanzeb Prof. Dr. Erum Irshad Chairman Supervisor Department of Psychology University of Peshawar

Table of Contents

Content No Description Page No 1 List of Tables ii 2 List of Figures iii 3 List of Annexure v 4 Acknowledgment vi 5 Abstract vii 6 CHAPTER-I 7 Introduction 1 8 Literature Review 32 9 Rationale 47 10 CHAPTER-II 11 Objectives 49 12 Hypotheses 50 13 Operational definitions 50 14 Method 52 15 Sample 52 16 Instruments 53 17 Procedure 54 18 CHAPTER-III 19 Results 57 20 CHAPTER-IV 21 Discussion 73 22 Conclusion 85 23 Limitation 87 24 Suggestions 89 25 References 92 26 Annexure 118

i List of Tables

Table No Description Page No

Table 1 Frequency and percentages of demographic variable 57

(N=200)

Table 2 Descriptive statistics and alpha reliability coefficients, 58

univariate normality of study variables (N=200)

Table 3 Item total correlations of PFAI and its subscale 59

(N=200)

Table 4 Item total correlations of PFAI Scale (N=200) 60

Table 5 Item total correlations of Sport Competition Anxiety 62

Test Scale (N=200)

Table 6 Inter subscale correlation of PFAI (N=200) 63

Table 7 Correlation between Performance Failure Appraisal 64

Inventory and its subscale with Sports Competition

Anxiety scale (N=200)

Table 8 Mean scores, Standard Deviation and t-values on 66

SCAT with respect to gender (N=200)

Table 9 Mean scores, Standard Deviation and t-values on 68 PFAI and its subscales with respect to gender

(N=200)

Table 10 Mean scores, Standard Deviation and t-values on 70 HFD with respect to gender (N=200)

Table 11 Paired sample t-test and Descriptive Statistics for 72

competition anxiety by using Progressive relaxation

technique (N=30).

iii List of Figures

Figure No Description Page No

Figure 1 Educational level of sportsmen and sports women 56

(N=200)

Figure 2 Participation in games (N=200) 56

Figure 3 Mean SCAT scores of sportsmen and sportswomen 65

(N=200)

Figure 4 Mean scores of sportsmen and sportswomen on PFAI 67

subscales (N=200).

Figure 5 Mean scores of sportsmen and sportswomen on HFD 69

(N=200)

Figure 6 Mean SCAT scores before and after applying PMR. 71

iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

First of all I would like to thank Almighty ALLAH who gave me strength and courage to complete my research. The writing of this dissertation has been one of the most significant academic challenges I had to encounter.

I dedicate my work to all the aspiring athletes, coaches and people who see sports as a vehicle for developing character and values that contributes towards building a healthy community and a better society.

I would like to thank Prof Dr. Erum Irshad who agreed to act as my supervisor despite other many other academic and professional commitments. Her wisdom, knowledge and commitment to the highest standards kept me inspired and motivated. I am grateful for the help provided by Mr. Mohammad Usman. He provided immeasurable support for compiling the results and guiding me regarding the statistical aspects of my dissertation.

I would pay my thanks to all the participants who cooperated in my study. Thanks offered to my friends for their support and cooperation in different aspects of completing this study

I am also thankful to my husband, in-laws and parents, who have always supported, encouraged and believed in me, in all my endeavors and who so lovingly and unselfishly cared for my daughter while I was busy completing my work.

v ABSTRACT

The present study was conducted for assessment and treatment of competition anxiety and fear of failure among sportsmen and sportswomen. It was hypothesized that sportsmen will exhibit higher level of competition anxiety and fear of failure as compared to sportswomen. High competition anxiety will be positively correlated with fear of failure. Sportswomen will show higher number of emotional indicators on

Human Figure Drawing Test as compared to sportsmen. The sample comprised of

200 sportsmen and sportswomen. Three scales were used namely Sports Competition

Anxiety Test, Performance Failure Appraisal Inventory and Human Figure Drawing test. The results supported the hypotheses. It was found that sportsmen exhibit higher level of competition anxiety and fear of failure as compared to sportswomen and sportswomen showed higher number of emotional indicators as compared to sportsmen. Results proved that progressive muscle relaxation technique is effective in decreasing high competition anxiety. This study addressed some vital questions pertaining to sports psychology such as correlation between high competition anxiety and fear of failure which will contribute significantly to the conceptual understanding of these two factors. The findings of this study will serve as platform for improving the mental wellbeing of athletes.

vi Chapter – I

INTRODUCTION

Sport is more than just a recreational activity it has become an essential part of modern society. It plays a critical role in communication between people and linking them together. The European Commission defines sports as physical bodily activities which can be indulged occasionally or by planned participation that brings about improvement in the physical condition and the mental health, improving upon the social relationships giving ideal conditions in order to create competitions between individuals and states achieving records in whatever sport is being performed (Jones,

1995a). Sports help in healthy development of mind and body. In modern civilizations the role of sports is more than just a recreational activity. The current day sport is much more competitive. The high demanding games put stress and anxiety on the athletes (Jones, 1995b).

Research suggests that being in an environment or society where sports are greatly encouraged and supported to be carried out; social values exist to a higher level providing opportunities where one can easily socialize (Smith & Smoll, 1991). It was found that students who indulged themselves in sports were receiving better grades, their behavior had considerably improved in a positive manner, dropping out of school was being reduced and absences had reduced with improved participation in classes and higher appearances that were more frequent. Furthermore, use of drugs had greatly reduced along with reduced arrests made due to drugs since higher participation was seen in sports (Jeziorski, 1994).

1 Sports are the best source of exercise forming a better healthy life. Along with this it also serves to build a healthy mind which translates to good academic performances.

Individuals participating in sports regularly are healthier more fit, feel much better medically and face lesser problems. Individuals exercising regularly have no chance of gaining weight or being obese rather maintain a healthy life. However, these trends will not be exactly spot on, they will form variation in some places such as western societies. It is apparent that the world, in general, and the U.S. in particular, is getting less and less healthy due to an epidemic of obesity resulting from lack of sporting and physical activities (Anshel, 2007). Mental health professionals can play a central role in changing this negative trend. Sports psychology gradually evolved to tackle such problems.

Sports and exercise psychology have developed gradually over last few decades.

Anshel et al. (1991) stated that exercise psychology is the evaluation of mental factors at play while a person is exercising or involved in physical activity. It should be kept in mind that sports psychology is different from exercise psychology. In sports we take athletes, they involve in sports and focus on performance where as in exercise we use participants who involve in sports and focus on their health and fitness.

Gill and Williams (2008) defined exercise and sports psychology as a study of athletes or people involved in exercise and the behavior which they exhibit while participating in exercise or sports. A strong correlation between sporting activity and mental wellbeing has been proved among young athletes and this further strengthens the important role of sports in developing a healthy mind (Steptoe & Butler, 1996).

2 Historical background

Sports psychology first originated in the late 19th century. Norman Triplett (1898) conducted first experiment to study psychological aspects and its effects on sporting activities. Davis et al. (1995) concluded that competitiveness in sports lead to improvement in performance in sports.

Griffith (1925) called sport psychology as a vehicle enhancing performance of the sports, increasing the value of it. The observations being scrutinized conclude that sport psychology is a science assisting athletes and physical activities being participated in by the individuals in order to reach their goal, aims and functioning to provide means of personal growth. The goal of psychology in sporting activity is to nurture the mental wellbeing of athlete and to translate this wellbeing into enhanced athletic performance.

The question as to why sports psychology should be practiced has been a debate for a period of time. In response to this question Griffith (1925) commented that athletes do not utilized just their physical abilities while leaving their mind in the changing room.

In fact the best and more successful athletes are the ones who realize that the mental aspect of sports is just as important to its physical aspect.

The role of psychology in sports came into light in early 1960‟s when different professional organizations were formed, including the international Society for Sport

Psychology.

Griffith (1925) focused on assessing athlete‟s abilities, skills, personality traits, leadership skills and psychological aspects of them. During the 1960‟s and 70‟s coaches started taking help from sports psychologist while selecting players. It helped

3 them select better players based on mental toughness as determined by the psychologists (Landers, 1995). He did this through a number of different researches and kept teaching and contributing to the field of sport psychology (Gould & Pick,

1995).

Sport has got an inherent uncertainty about it. No one knows for sure the exact outcome of a sporting event furthermore the participants have got certain insecurity about their performance on a particular day. This uncertainty and insecurity is definitely linked with stress in sports. This stress may enhance the performance of some sportsman/women but for others it is a basic factor that affects their performance negatively. Sportsman and women may experience high levels of anxiety due to a number of reasons, threat from a superior opponent, hostile behavior of fans, verbal and physical abuse being some of the common ones.

Sports Psychology is basically multifaceted. It draws its knowledge from many other affiliated fields such as physiology, kinesiology, and biomechanics from psychology.

Sports psychology involves studying athletes from a psychological standpoint in addition it also attempts to analyze how different psychological factors affect athletic performances. The importance of sports psychology is much more than mere understanding of the psychology of an athlete. The applied aspect of this field aspires to bring improvement in athletic performance with the collaboration of coaches, parents and the athletes themselves. Sports psychology can also help in team building, improving communication between team members, injuries, rehabilitation and career transition (Weinberg & Gould, 2010).

Physical training is without any doubt pivotal for achieving athletic success but an athlete does not enter into a competition with an empty head. Physical training can

4 improve the skills of an athlete but without the ability to cope his or her emotions during competition, athletes may fail to perform up to their full physical potential.

Hence the psychological aspect of competitive sports is equally important to its physical dimension. To be a successful athlete does not mean that you must concentrate on physical training alone. It has been shown that successful athletes incorporate mental training and conditioning programs in to their training schedules.

So it is a combination of physical as well as mental training that can push an athlete towards achieving their goals.

It is well known that the same athlete may perform well on a given day while failing badly a few days later. These variations in performances are not a result of decrease or increase in the skill set of an athlete; changes in biomechanics or alteration in their physical strengthen. On the contrary it is the psychological or mental control that changes hence altering athletic performance. We hear all the time that an athlete has gained or lost momentum. This momentum is basically the psychological and emotional control of an athlete that affects his or her performance. It is these changes in mental control that leads to increase or decrease in athletic performance and a major goal of sports psychologist is to regulate these changes. This can be achieved by managing the anxiety or stress response of an athlete and controlling their emotions, hence leading to a more consistent athletic performance.

In order to develop and optimize the behavioral skills of an athlete, a mental training program is needed that is carried out on a regular and systematic basis while constantly assessing and reassessing the athlete and making changes as required.

Cognitive skills and strategies are taught to the athletes that are necessary for controlling and shaping the mental aspects of sporting performance. By employing

5 these strategies an athlete can not only bring consistency in his or her performance but also maximize their physical potential by battling out their mental hurdles.

Professional as well as amateur athletes, highly experienced or relatively inexperienced, all feel anxious before a competition. All athletes face stressful situations. The physical symptoms when an athlete feel anxious includes pounding of heart, sweaty hands, or weakness in knees. What differs between an elite athlete as compared to an average performer is how they cope with such situations in other words stress is inherent with competitive sports but mental training can teach an athlete how to cope with it hence decreasing its debilitating effects on performance.

Anxiety can worsen sporting performance and bring inconsistency in performance as well. The nature and effect of competition anxiety is well documented in psychology literature but unfortunately its application in actual sports setting is not that widespread. Physical training and skill development is the prime objective of majority of athletes while going from amateur to professional level and rising up the ranks.

Relatively few are taught how to cope with the stress and anxiety that they are going to face while competing at different levels. Some athletes learn to cope with stressful situation and perform well however others fail to do so and this leads to dreadful drops in performances. Hence along with physical skill training, athletes need strategies to develop and nurture mental side of their sporting activity as well.

Many sportsmen and sportswomen who had much superior physical strength and skills set have demonstrated poor athletic performances and this has led to their decline from a number of different individual and team sports. The reason behind this is that they could not perform to their full potential on the day of competition.

Although they demonstrated superior performance during practice but they failed to

6 compete when it mattered the most. It is beyond any doubt that the mental state of an athlete is pivotal for achieving better performance but even then more importance has been given to developing skills and physical strength and the mental aspect has been largely ignored for quite a long time. Identifying and dealing with the emotional factors and stressors faced by an athlete needs more importance. This can help one understand why a particular athlete performs better on a given day while failing to do so on another occasion. The role of sports psychologist is critical in helping the athletes identifying the emotional factors that affect their performance and teaching them how to deal with them.

Majority of top level athletes stated that the psychological training is of paramount importance. Athletic performance is 90 percent mental and majority of elite athletes attributed good sporting performance to mental toughness. At the highest level most of the athletes have comparable physical skills and success usually follows those who are more prepared psychologically to deal with the stress and anxiety in competitive situations. This fact is commonly ignored by coaches who have traditionally been stressing on the physical aspects of training and skill development. There is a great need for shifting the focus of training in sports. It should encompass both physical and mental aspects of an athlete. Sports psychologists can play a critical role in this respect. They need to work not only with the athletes but also with the coaches in order to bring improvement in mental outlook of athletes.

Anxiety and stress

There is no single explanation for why people develop anxiety disorders generally, although there is knowledge about some of the risk factors (Kring et al., 2007; Davey,

2008). For example, genes and biology seem to be involved and parts of the brain,

7 along with levels of neuro-chemicals, are associated with anxiety. The ways in which people think and interpret their world also seem to be important. For example, people with low perceived control, who tend to focus on negative aspects of their surroundings and who are neurotic seem more likely to develop anxiety disorders.

Research examined the role of exercise in human life and proved that in general population increased level of sports activity is negatively correlated with anxiety disorders (Stephens, 1988; De Moor, et al., 2006).

Jones (1995) described that the concept of anxiety is used interchangeably with those of stress. The same is true for anxiety and arousal as well. The matters are even more confusing in the field of sports psychology even though each of these entities requires different measures and regulation strategies (Gould & Krane, 1992). It is therefore critical to properly identify and define each of these before proceeding further. Seyle

(1975) the response of human body to a demanding situation leads to stress. He defined stress as a response developed by a person when he or she perceives that there is a clear discrepancy between the required demands and the physical or mental capabilities in order to meet or fulfill those demands. Yet another definition of stress is that it is “an ongoing process that involves individuals interacting with their environments, making appraisals of the situation they find themselves in, and endeavoring to cope with any issues that may arise” (Fletcher, Hanton & Mellalieu

2006). On the other hand arousal is the physiological response of the body to a competitive or demanding situation. This involves activation of autonomic nervous system and may affect respiratory and hear rates, sweating, body temperature and brain activity (Marchant, 2004).

8 Having defined stress and arousal it is pertinent to properly define anxiety and its relationships with stress and arousal. Anxiety has been defined as the emotional impact of arousal (Gould & Krane 1992). Hardy (1996) argued that anxiety is the state that occurs when a particular individual seems him or herself incapable of coping properly with a certain stressful situation.

Competition anxiety

Competition anxiety is the emotional state consisting of subjective, consciously perceived feelings of apprehension, worry, and nervousness along with activation of the autonomic nervous system leading to heightened arousal. Competition anxiety is not a single entity; its subtypes need to be understood in order to clearly grasp the m concept of competition anxiety.

Competition anxiety is of two types, competitive trait anxiety and state anxiety.

Martin and Hall (1997) defined trait anxiety as the inherent disposition of an athlete to interpret a particular demanding situation as a threat and hence responding with feelings of worry and nervousness. Spielberger (1966) had defined state anxiety as the conscious feelings or perception of such feelings associated with tension and nervousness. This is commonly accompanied by the activation of autonomic nervous system which leads to physical symptoms as well.

Davey (2008) showed a relationship between competition anxiety and athletic performance. Sportsmen sometimes experience anxiety before starting the game and if this anxiety make hindrances to performing well then it is considered a serious problem and can be treated well by sports psychologist.

9 Spielberger‟s theory (1966) suggested a catalyst-cognition response archetype to competition. Spielberger (1966) proposed that arousal in an A-state type comprise a sequence of events which lead to appraisal of a particular stimulus as threatening by that particular individual hence culminating in A-state reaction. He further described that this A-state reaction in an individual is the basis of behaviors that is designed for avoiding danger or appraisal of danger. This A-state reaction to a particular stimulus can be described in other words as A-state anxiety. Such anxiety responses are also affected by individual differences towards appraisal of that particular stimulus as a danger and not otherwise. Based on Spielberger‟s model one can hypothesize that individuals who have high A-trait anxiety gauge particular circumstances as more threatening as compared to other individuals who have low A-trait anxiety.

Spielberger, Gorsuch and Lushene (1970) developed the State-Trait Anxiety

Inventory (STAI). STAI proved to be a vital tool since it was widely used not only in clinical settings but also in sports psychology. Further research in this field only strengthened the above stated hypothesis. Gould, Horn and Spreeman (1983) explored the relationship between state and trait anxiety in sports and came to the conclusion that individuals with high trait anxiety will reciprocate a particular pre competition situation with profound state anxiety.

Theoretical conceptualizations for understanding of competition anxiety:

In the early 80‟s the understanding of competition anxiety and its relationship to performance was overshadowed by arousal, which consisted of two theories. These theories were employed to explain the relationship of arousal and performance in sports setting. These were known as the drive theory and the inverted U hypothesis.

10 The Drive Theory: Hull (1943) developed drive theory but latter modified by Spence

(1966). According to drive theory the athletic performance depends on the degree of arousal of athlete along with his or her dexterity at performing the given task.

Although the drive theory has a range of conceptual gradation one of its basic and widely advocated convictions is that a linear relationship will be formed by arousal and performance.

Martens (1971) criticized the drive theory explaining that the basic hypothesis of this theory is not consistent in all settings. He further described that more arousal does not necessarily predict higher performance especially while performing complex tasks.

An impediment of the drive theory is that it failed to acknowledge the role of appraisal in performance and arousal relationship (Gill, 1994).

Inverted U Hypothesis: Originally described by Yerkes and Dodson (1908), it predates the drive theory. Like an inverted U this hypothesis describes peak performance at a certain optimal level of arousal in the middle. If level of arousal is slightly lower or on the higher side of optimum level the performance level drops accordingly. This theory further postulates that as the complexity of the task increases the level of arousal needed for optimal performance will decrease.

The limitation of inverted U hypothesis was that it failed to explain the reasons of decrease in performance at arousal level above and below the optimal level. Eysenck

(1984) further criticized the inverted U hypothesis stating that it only pertains to the general effects on global performance rather than specific effects on information processing efficiency. Humara (1999) questioned this hypothesis for its inability to explain the variable performance of athletes who are exposed to same level of arousal.

11 This model is also unable to account for the differences in performance of athletes who are exposed to same level of stresses (Humara, 1999).

Due to the above mentioned limitations there was a surge of general resentment for use of arousal as an outright concept incorporating the conglomerate emotion of anxiety. One of changes that brought about the paradigm shift was a more accurate delineation between the conceptual understanding of stress, arousal and performance

(Gould & Krane, 1992). In addition the gradual understanding that anxiety is multidimensional entity rather than uni-dimentional construct, comprising of cognitive, behavioral and physiological components also contributed greatly to this shift in thinking (Jones, 1990). In order to summarize the above statements we can safely assume that uni-dimentional approaches did contribute to our early understanding of the relationship between arousal, anxiety, and performance. On the other hand Marchant and Morris (2004) proposed that such uni-dimentional approach fails to assimilate further development while measuring and dealing with competition anxiety in sports setting.

Other major theories that needs detailed description includes reversal theory, zone of optimal functioning, catastrophe theory and finally the processing efficiency theory.

Reversal theory: The basic proposition of reversal theory is that athlete‟s perception of his or her arousal state is actually interpretation of the emotional experience (Apter,

1982). This theory predicts that an athlete usually interprets arousal depending on the current state since the current state may vary at a particular time so will the interpretations of arousal. The research in this respect stems from telic and Para-telic situation of meta-motivational state. Before proceeding forward it is critical to have a clear understanding of these concepts “telic” basically characterized by seriousness

12 and arousal avoiding behavior, and “Para-telic” by playfulness and arousal seeking behavior.

In telic state low arousal will be interpreted as relaxation while high arousal as anxiety based on this model. On the other hand in Para-telic low arousal will translate into apathy while high arousal as excitement. This theory states that reversal occurs during the shift from one state to the other that is telic changing to Para-telic or the other way around. Hardy, Jones and Gould (1996) further elaborated this by proposing that meta-motivational states are present in an individual in the form of opposite pairs and they are prone to rapid changes or reversal in one of two continuums and this intern affects performance in sports.

Reversal theory draws a line between telic state and meta-motivational dominance as well (Apter, 1982). The meta-motivational dominance depends on one‟s preference of one motivational state over the other while telic state is associated with interpretations which are more specific. Intervention options may involve either moderating arousal or changing interpretations. It is possible to enforce reversal between the two states with proper coping strategies (Kerr, 1987). The major drawback of reversal theory is that it is based on the much older uni-dimensional construct of arousal while the current understanding favors multi-dimensional conceptualization (Smith, Smoll, &

Ptacek, 1990). Humara (1999) stated that reversal concept failed to draw relationship between emotions and performance.

Zone of Optimal Functioning Theory: Hanin (1980) developed zone of optimal functioning theory. He proposed an alternate model for understanding of anxiety and performance relationship. This helps to develop and explores how the given level of anxiety leads to optimum function and any level above or below it will have a decline

13 in performance. Hanin (1980) theorized that every sportsman and women possesses an optimal pre-performance anxiety zone within that zone the performance will be at its peak. Dependent upon athlete personality traits, in some cases even higher level of competitive anxiety can bring optimal performance. A number of investigations have partially supported the zone of optimal functioning hypothesis (Williams & Krane,

1993; Annesi, 1998). The theory itself is also intuitively appealing as it helps to identify an optimal zone for anxiety by employing the individual as a unit of analysis

(due to the great variability amongst athletes) and has practical significance for applied sport psychologists in that peak performance can be identified relatively easily (Hardy et al., 1996). Although zone of optimal functioning theory has received criticism (Hardy & Parfitt, 1991; Gould & Tuffey, 1996; Hardy et al., 1996;

Woodman & Hardy, 2001), but the approach has received considerable success in its application to the investigation of a broader range of emotions rather than anxiety alone (Gould & Udry, 1994).

Catastrophe theory: Hardy and colleagues‟ catastrophe model describes a reciprocal effect between cognitive anxiety and arousal on athletic performance (Hardy, 1990;

Hardy & Parfitt, 1991; Hardy, 1996). Elevations in cognitive anxiety can have positive performance consequences contingent upon physiological arousal levels.

When cognitive anxiety levels are low, variations in physiological arousal invoke relatively small performance effects characterized by a mild inverted-U type reaction.

However under certain circumstance including those with high cognitive anxiety increasing the level of arousal to a particular extent will lead to better performance.

Continued increases in physiological arousal may, however, eventually result in dramatic performance decrements characterized by a „catastrophic‟ drop in performance levels. Although a growing body of research has examined the

14 predictions of the catastrophe model the findings are equivocal (Hardy & Parfitt,

1991; Hardy & Jones, 1994; Krane, Joyce, & Rafeld, 1994; Edwards & Hardy, 1996;

Woodman, Albinson, & Hardy, 1997; Edwards, Kingston, Hardy, & Gould, 2002).

This has been suggested to be due in part to methodological issues (Cohen, Pargman,

& Tenenbaum, 2003). Hardy (1996) stated that the cusp catastrophe approach is more of a model rather than a theory hence based on this suggestion it was postulated that catastrophe model would fail to account how anxiety affects performance. Cohen,

Pargman and Tenenbaum (2003) criticized the catastrophe approach and stated that it lacks proper theoretical conceptualization and is insufficient to predict the outcomes accurately. They suggested the need for adopting more sophisticated multidimensional approaches in order to account for potential mediating factors such as coping strategies, regulation mechanisms employed by the athletes and the role of self-confidence in this respect. One such multi-dimensional approach could be the butterfly five dimensional model which incorporated self-confidence and task complexity. This model may explain how high cognitive anxiety can bring improved performance in some athletes (Hardy & Parfitt, 1991). While no direct test of the butterfly model has been conducted yet, some evidence does favor the role of self- confidence in catastrophe structure (Hardy, Woodman & Carrington, 2004).

Processing Efficiency Theory: This theory was formulated in order to explain how some athletes with elevated anxiety levels outperform their counterparts who have comparatively lower anxiety (Eysenck & Calvo, 1992). Hardy (1997) suggested that anxiety response in sports is not always detrimental to the athlete. In some individuals higher anxiety levels may actually lead to improved performance. This statement by

Hardy (1997) was based on the earlier work of Eysenck (1986) in sports psychology.

Cognitive anxiety furnishes two important functions. The first one being consumption

15 of athlete‟s attention for that particular stimulus this results in lowering the working memory as result of worry. Second aspect is that cognitive anxiety also strikes the importance of a particular task at hand hence leading to an increase in stakes if there is perception of below performance (Eysenck, 1992). The answer to countering this reduction in effective capacity lies in an equally increase effort (Eysenck, 1986). In other words athletic performance can be improved by decreasing the processing efficiency even if the high competition anxiety situation persists by using a much greater portion of the resources that are available to the athlete. The role and application of processing efficiency theory has been supported in sports especially so in those sports where the athletes have a working memory (Woodman & Hardy,

2001).

Cattell and Scheier (1961) were the first to differentiate between state and trait dimensions of anxiety. They pondered on their findings after a number of studies which were designed to study anxiety. There groundbreaking work led to the development of a new state-trait theory of anxiety (Spielberger, 1966). This theory provided the fabric for further exploration of major variables that constructed anxiety.

Furthermore this theory helped a great deal in foretelling how these two variables are related to each other. State anxiety is defined as “a transitory experience, characterized by subjective, consciously perceived feelings of apprehension and tension, accompanied by or associated with activation or arousal of the autonomic nervous system” (Spielberger, 1966). Similarly Anshel et al. (1991) further defined state anxiety “as an immediate emotional experience that is characterized by apprehension, fear, and tension, and is sometimes accompanied by physiological arousal”.

16 Spielberger 1966 has described trait anxiety as more of an individual‟s own characteristic rather than something that he or she draws on when grappling a daunting situation. Hence trait anxiety is proportionately a constant facet of one‟s personality that he or she implies from a particular situation (Anshel, 1995).

Factors Affecting Competition Anxiety:

The multi-dimensional approach to competition anxiety enabled sports psychologists to identify a number of variables which may affect competition anxiety. These factors are as follows.

1. Skill level of athlete: Skilled athletes are better suited to deal with competition

anxiety as compared to those with relatively lower skill levels. Highly skilled

players employ mental strategies in order to regulate their concentration and

attention. This helps them achieve optimal levels of arousal so that they can

achieve the desired goals better. Skilled players also exhibits better and more

stable mood states as compared to less skilled athletes. This also helps them in

dealing with competition anxiety (Kerr and Cox 1991). Mahoney and Meyers

(1989) conducted literature review and arrived at the conclusion that the

negative fallout of anxiety affects less skilled players much more than the

highly skilled ones. They also set forth the reasons behind it by stating that

skilled athletes are able to regulate their anxiety before the competition hence

they remain more focused on the tasks at hand in order to improve their

performance. On the other hand the concentration of less skilled athletes is

depleted by their efforts to curtail anxiety rather than focusing on the required

task or goal. Furthermore when an athlete faces a tougher opponent with

better skill sets, his or her self-confidence decreases and they tend to

17 experience higher level of competition anxiety (Thuot, Kavouras & Kenefick,

1998).

2. Competitive experience: Competitive experience means how familiar an

athlete is with different competitive situations. Skills of an athlete are his or

her ability to perform physically but with time when an athlete faces different

competitive situations they accumulates experience regarding how stressful

different situations can be and how to react to such situations (Martens,

Vealey, et al., 1990). Different sporting environments like national or

international level events put the athletes at different levels of competitive

experiences (Cerin et al., 2000). As the athletes advance in their career they

tend to acquire mental strategies in dealing with cognitive symptoms. This is a

gradual process and accumulates over the career of an athlete. It can be

naturally learned behavior or taught from different educational programs or

interventions. Initially new athletes may be affected negatively by

competition anxiety but with time they learn to change their mental responses

in order to improve their performance (Hanton & Jones, 1999). It has been

suggested that competitive experience may actually be an indicator of the

mental strategies developed by athlete overtime rather than being just the

physical skill sets. There is the possibility that a sportsman or sportswomen

may sharply rise up the ranks to achieve elite athletic status without gaining

sufficient competitive experience. This situation may arise from an athlete

having exceptional skills but due to lack of competitive experience the

psychological development of such athlete lacks behind (Hanton & Jones,

1999 ; Mellalieu, Hanton & O‟Brien, 2004).

18 3. Gender: Sports psychology literature has shown that in sportsmen the somatic

and cognitive anxiety response is much strongly influenced by their

interpretation of abilities of the opponent and the possibility of them winning

the event. It has been postulated that since sportsmen respond differently from

sportswomen with respect to competition anxiety so there is an increasing

need for developing intervention programs tailored to the specific needs of the

particular gender. Other factors affecting competition anxiety should also be

considered while developing an intervention program (Humara, 1999). When

assessing the effects of anxiety response and self-confidence gender may act

as a mediating variable (Jones, Swain & Cale, 1991). While evaluating the

predictors of cognitive dimension of anxiety and confidence Jones, Swain and

Cale (1991) noted that such predictors were related to winning and

interpersonal comparisons in sportsmen on the contrary they were associated

with personal goal setting and personal standards in case of sportswomen.

Furthermore the skill level of athlete also plays an important differential role

when it comes to gender in sports (Hanton & Jones, 1995). To summarize the

effect of gender on competition anxiety one can only comment that it also

plays a vital role.

4. Individual versus team sports: The earlier work by Simon and Marten (1979)

showed that athletes participating in individual sports may experience higher

levels of state anxiety as compared to those involved in team sports. The same

finding was replicated latter by the work of Martin and Hall (1997).

Competitive trait anxiety does not differ significantly between individual and

team sports however participants of team sports tend to have lower cognitive

and somatic state anxiety (Zeng, 2003).

19 5. Hardiness: Hardiness is made up of three components, control, commitment and

challenge. It is defined as the ability of a person to remain mentally healthy even

if he or she is facing stressful situation (Kobasa, 1979). It has been suggested

that a hardy personality moderates how competitive anxiety is interpreted by a

performer. One explanation for this is that a hardy athlete may have the ability to

interpret a stressful situation or demand placed on him or her in a more positive

manner (Hanton, Evans & Neil, 2003).

6. Self-confidence: An important finding that has emerged from sports

psychology literature is that individuals who positively utilize competition

anxiety in order to improve their performance are generally high on self-

confidence. On the other hand their debilitating counterparts show low self-

confidence. (Jones et al., 1994; Jones & Swain, 1995; Hanton & Jones, 1997;

Perry & Williams, 1998; Hanton, Jones & Mullen, 2000). Research has

indicated a correlation between direction subscales of CSAI-2 and self-

confidence (Jones, Swain & Hardy., 1993; Jones, Swain & Harwood., 1996).

Furthermore it has been advocated that self-confidence may have a protective

role against the crippling effects of high competition anxiety (Hardy et al.,

1996; Mellalieu, Neil & Hanton, 2006). Hardy et al. (2006) proposed that

among the different variables, self-confidence is the most important one in

determining how sportsmen and sportswomen interpret and manage their

cognitive symptoms. This fact was also elaborated by the research conducted

by Hanton, Mellalieu and Hall (2004), they interviewed elite athletes and

noted that if an athlete experience anxiety and has low self-confidence, the

situation is interpreted as out of control and this affect athletic performance

negatively. While the athletes who have high self-confidence interpret their

20 cognitive symptoms more positively and this leads them to the perception of

having control over the situation hence improving their performance.

7. Neuroticism and Extraversion: Neuroticism and extraversion are both

personality traits. Extraversion is the tendency of a person to interpret an

experience positively while neuroticism leads a person to experience the

negative effects. Cerin (2004) considered the influence of neuroticism and

extraversion upon anxiety intensity and symptom interpretation. It was noted

that for extraversion a negative relationship exists with the intensity of

cognitive anxiety while a positive relation was noted for cognitive anxiety

direction. Significant interactions were identified for neuroticism and somatic

anxiety intensity upon somatic anxiety direction and neuroticism and negative

effects on cognitive anxiety direction. Individuals who have high extraversion

tend to delineate their cognitive symptoms more favorably as compared to

individuals with low extraversion. Cerin (2004) stated that neurotic

individuals interpret situations with a more negative attitude hence distracting

them from their goals and leaving them vulnerable to fluctuations in

cognition. This negative appraisal of the situation leads an athletes to perform

poorly while in case of extravert athletes the optimism and the inherent

tendency to interpret a situation more positively may lead them to react

positively in a similar situation hence improving their performance (Cerin,

2004).

8. Performance level: Despite the apparent significance of the relationship

between precompetitive symptom interpretation and subsequent performance

only a few studies have directly investigated this association. A study by

Jones, Swain and Hardy (1993) commented that more successful athletes have

21 the ability to interpret their somatic and cognitive anxiety responses more favorably than their less experience counterparts. They arrived at this conclusion after studying gymnasts from club level by dividing them in poor or good performance groups based on their beam scores. By assessing the performance variance on direction subscales of CSAI-2 a number of studies have attempted to elaborate the relationship between performance and symptom interpretations. (Swain & Jones, 1996; Edwards & Hardy, 1996;

Jerome & Williams, 2000). For example, Swain and Jones (1996) indicated that the direction dimensions predicted more variance in basketball performance than the intensity dimension alone, while the addition of the direction scales increased the amount of performance variance explained on top of that predicted by the intensity scales (Swain & Jones, 1996). In contrast, Edwards and Hardy (1996) reported that both direction subscales failed to explain any variance in netball performance, while Jerome and

William‟s (2000) investigation of recreational and semi-professional bowlers revealed that the only significant predictor of performance was somatic anxiety direction. One reason for the equivocal findings may be that previous studies have only assessed anxiety symptoms pre-performance rather than during competition. In an attempt to compare pre and in-event measures, Butt,

Weinberg and Horn (2003) found that cognitive and somatic anxiety direction and self-confidence intensity and direction predicted a significant amount of performance variance for the 1st and 2nd halves of field hockey matches respectively. Further, the results also indicated that the anxiety and self- confidence measurements obtained during competition were more strongly related to performance than the pre-game measures. Collectively, the studies

22 investigating Jones‟s (1995a) control model suggested consistent trends

between groups of individuals in relation to anxiety interpretation.

Specifically, a broad range of personal and situation variables moderate

performers‟ symptom interpretations. Findings also support the value of

distinguishing between the intensity and the direction of symptoms

experienced in competitive situations.

9. Cohesion: As well as the study of individual variables, the impact of group

moderators upon anxiety symptom interpretation has also been examined.

Specifically, Eys et al. (2003) compared the relationship between direction

and intensity of competition anxiety with task cohesion. Findings of this study

hinted that teams with high cohesion may experience competitive state

anxiety in a different manner than the teams having less cohesion.

Furthermore, perceptions of task cohesion appear to be related to individual‟s

symptom interpretation. This highlights that improvements or changes in team

dynamics may affect the individuals in a positive manner by enhancing their

psychological status.

10. Control: It is basically the ability of an athlete to curb a stressor and is critical

in determining if the athlete will interpret a given competitive stress favorably

or not (Jones, 1995). Support for this has been found in several studies that

have measured control both indirectly, by using performer‟s goal achieving

expectations (Jones & Hanton, 1996; Hanton, O‟Brien, & Mellalieu, 2003)

and directly (Ntoumanis & Jones, 1998) through measures such as the Internal

and external locus of control scale (Rotter, 1966). Ntoumanis and Jones

(1998) comparison of symptom interpretation in internal and external locus of

control groups found that those athletes with an internal locus of control

23 perceived the intensity of trait anxiety favorably towards their performance

than those who viewed themselves as having an external locus of control.

While these studies provide some support for Jones (1995) model the cross-

sectional nature of the designs employed means that no firm conclusion can

be drawn about the moderating or mediating effects of perceptions of control.

Interestingly, several recent qualitative investigations of the precompetitive

stress experience have provided some descriptive explication regarding this

issue and the mechanisms underlying directional interpretations. Specifically,

anxiety responses which are perceived by the athlete as under his or her

control have been reported as having favorable outcomes for the athlete while

anxiety response perceived as out of control by an athlete‟s leads to

debilitative consequences. (Hanton & Connaughton, 2002; Mellalieu, Hanton,

& Hall, 2004).

Coping strategies for Competition Anxiety:

The groundwork for better understanding of the mental skill training for coping with competition anxiety was provided by Vealey (2007). Based on her description this includes model, strategies, philosophy and techniques which are used by sports psychologists in order to augment mental skills. She also commented that the most popular among such techniques are the use of imagery, thought management, setting of goals, arousal approaches and lastly physical relaxation.

For successful management of anxiety in sports a number of techniques have been reported some of which are positive thinking or cognitive restructuring also known as control strategies, goal setting, progressive muscle relaxation, diaphragmatic breathing and the use of imagery constitutes relaxation techniques, and lastly turning

24 the focus on task that is at hand (Orlick & Partington, 1988; Jones & Hardy, 1990;

Gould, Eklund, & Jackson, 1993). Larner (2008) went on to list other techniques as well stating like hypnosis, visual behavior rehearsals, thought control, stress inoculation techniques, muscle relaxations and combination of different approaches.

Stevens and Lane (2001) conducted a study by giving the athletes a predetermine list of coping strategies to choose from. They reported the use of techniques by athletes as follow in order to counter anxiety. Listening to music was most commonly selected by competitors (41.12%) followed by talking to someone or being in someone‟s company (37.38%), relaxation techniques were used by 28.97% of the participants.

This shows that athletes often use distraction techniques to counteract high competition anxiety states.

Experts dealing with psychological issues in sports utilize a number of methods to deal with high competitive anxiety in athletes, which are as follow:

Relaxation techniques:

There are a number of relaxation techniques which are commonly practiced by psychologists (Payne, 2004). The two most commonly used techniques are

Progressive muscle relaxation (Jacobson, 1938) and the Benson‟s relaxation technique

(Benson, 1975). Ost (1987) described the theoretical rationale behind these relaxation techniques. It was proposed that relaxation turns down or deactivates the physiological centers which are responsible for causing stress.

The Benson technique is a relaxation method that has been derived from meditation but unlike meditation the focus of individual is on the breathing while at the same time the person draws a mental picture of the air going in and out of the lungs. While breathing out the person is taught to say a cue word like relax. In order to achieve

25 relaxation with Benson method it is pertinent to have a quiet place without any distractions from the surroundings, position should be comfortable to relax the muscles, a repetitive word is needed to maintain the focus, lastly a passive attitude is needed so that the person‟s mind is free of other thoughts and if any external thoughts do occur they are allowed to pass by so that the focus remains intact (Benson, 1975).

Imagery

Richardson (1969) provided the definition of imagery as “Those quasi-sensory and quasi-perceptual experiences of which we are self-consciously aware and which exist for us in the absence of those stimulus conditions that are known to produce their genuine sensory or perceptual counterparts”. This definition however fails to draw a clear line between imagery and other mental phenomena (Morris, Spittle, & Perry,

2004). There was a need for an unambiguous definition of imagery which came from the work of White and Hardy (1998). They defined it as “An experience that mimics real experience. We can be aware of „seeing‟ an image, feeling movements as an image, or experiencing an image of smell, tastes, or sounds without actually experiencing the real thing”.

Overtime a number of terminologies were coined and they were used interchangeably while discussing the techniques of imagery. Some of these terms included visual motor rehearsal, imaginative practicing and mental practice or rehearsal. Other similar terminologies used under imagery included visualization, ideo-motor practicing and symbolic rehearsals (Morris, Spittle, & Perry, 2004). This variation in terminologies led some psychologists to start differentiating between mental practice and imagery.

Mental practice involves an athlete improving his or her performance by thinking about the performance or watching another person performing the same skill.

26 A framework for the analysis of imagery technique was developed by Paivio (1985).

This model showed that imagery basically influences our motor behavior by affecting it cognitively as well as motivationally. Strategies targeted at motivation are more relevant for arousal and such motivational strategies are utilized when imagery is being used for lowering anxiety in a person. Hence this model can explain the effect of imagery on influencing anxiety.

1. Combined relaxation and imagery:

The combined use of imagery with relaxation has been described in several studies. It has been suggested that imagery is more effective in combating anxiety states when used in conjunction with stress inoculation training and relaxation trainings. Stress inoculation is a type of cognitive behavioral therapy in which the participants are taught to practice different stress management techniques in an imagined scenario.

With practice they learn to remain relax in stressful situations. The use of stress inoculation training with imagery seems to augment the anxiolytic effects of imagery

(Martin, Moritz & Hall, 1999; Cogan & Petrie, 1995; Kerr & Leith, 1993;

VanDenberg & Smith, 1993; Mace, Eastman, & Carroll, 1987; Mace & Carroll,

1985). Relaxation techniques have conventionally been used with imagery and have been viewed as part of imagery technique (Morris, Spittle , & Perry, 2004).

Progressive Muscle Relaxation:

Jacobson (1938) first described Progressive Muscle Relaxation (PMR). He proposed that muscle tension affects both physiological as well as mental status. He suggested that relaxing the muscles and making a person aware of the feeling of relaxed muscle will translate into reduction of sympathetic activity in other words anxiety (Jacobson,

27 1938). This process involves sitting in a comfortable state and sequential contraction and relaxation of various muscle group. Usually PMR involves starting from larger muscle group and following in a particular sequence towards the relatively smaller groups. The athlete is accustomed gradually to tension in each muscle group to a point where they are able to sense even the slightest contraction and then they learn to relax it. After learning it in sitting position they are taught how to practice the same in real life situations. In practice the PMR involves contracting the muscle that is required for some kind of activity while simultaneously relaxing others (Jacobson, 1938).

PMR has been used in conjuncture with desensitization therapies as well (Wolpe,

1958). While using PMR and desensitization therapy attempted at raising the parasympathetic tone of the participants, Wolpe (1958) believed that cues which once initiated anxiety response can be conditioned into ones that would actually reduce anxiety. He first taught the participants muscle relaxation techniques and then exposing them to increasingly stressful stimuli as the therapy progressed hence blending PMR and desensitization therapies.

Weinstein and Smith (1992) termed PMR as a somatic technique while meditation as a cognitive one. They assessed the effect of these two techniques on somatic and cognitive anxiety. There results showed that both the techniques are effective in reducing cognitive as well as somatic anxiety. Whether one particular technique was more affective at addressing cognitive or somatic aspects of anxiety separately was not addressed by them.

The effect of PMR on cognitive and somatic anxiety was addressed individually by

Maynard (1995). He reported that after an eight week relaxation the reduction in somatic anxiety was 30.9 percent while cognitive anxiety dropped by 15.9 percent as

28 compared to control group. Gill, Kolt and Keating (2004) conducted a study on comparison of Benson‟s relaxation and PMR in reducing anxiety in university students. They found that both the techniques were able to bring about reduction in cognitive and somatic anxiety but more importantly they proved that there is no significant difference between the effects of PMR on cognitive or somatic aspects of anxiety.

Jorm et al. (2004) conducted a meta-analysis of more than 60 research papers. Their aim was to scrutinize the effectiveness of relaxation treatment for reduction in anxiety. They included all the appropriate randomized control trials that were published on this topic up till 2003. With this major meta-analysis Jorm et al. (2004) concluded that relaxation therapy was effective in combating anxiety. The effect of relaxation was equal to other treatment modalities such as cognitive therapies, pharmacological treatments and interventions based on exposure. They further commented that relaxation therapy is effective not only for reducing anxiety but also panic disorders, generalized anxiety disorders (GAD) and certain phobias as well.

More extensive evidence came from the work of Conrad and Roth (2006) they conducted a meta-analysis for evaluating the effect of relaxation therapies and concluded that relaxation is an effective modality of treatment in dealing with a variety of anxiety disorders.

Fear of failure:

Fear of failure is motive that is best described an evasion based intent in the realm of achievement. A more accurate definition could be derived from the initial research of

Murray (1938) and then from the work of Atkinson (1957). Fear of failure can be defined as “The dispositional tendency to orient toward and to seek to avoid failure in

29 achievement settings because one feels shame on failure”. An important distinction has to make at this point that fear of failure does not mean that “failure” is feared in itself rather it‟s the “remorse” that accompanies the failure (Birney, 1969). Hence in order to grasp the concept of fear of failure it is critical to know the dynamics of emotion of shame.

Atkinson (1957) proposed that fear of failure is basically avoidance of the anticipatory emotion of shame while foreseeing failure in a particular daunting situation or at a specific demanding task. Conroy, Willow and Metzler (2002) proposed the multi- dimensional theory of fear of failure. Conroy et al. (2002) described fear of failure as appraisal of a threat in the way of achievements. This achievement may be an important task or goal for a person and it may be described as better performance for an athlete. If an athlete feels that the opponent has superior skills and is better suited for winning a particular competition it is perceived as a threat and this invokes the fear of failure response. The authors described five views about the repercussions of failure which are hence tied to threat appraisal and due to this appraisal such repercussions are then feared (Conroy, Willow, & Metzler, 2002).

Conroy, Kaye and Fifer (2007) attempted to inquire into perfectionistic concern by evaluating socially assigned and self-oriented perfectionistic attitude. The study consisted of college level students who were involved in physical activities. Results indicated that both types of perfectionisms had identical correlation. Furthermore the self-oriented type was correlated with four subtypes of fear of failure and failed to show any significant correlation with fear of uncertain future. The socially prescribed perfectionism on the other hand was positively correlated with all five subtypes. They concluded that complicated cognitive and behavioral factors are involved in the

30 aspiration towards perfectionism and avoidance of failure. They also commented that the multi-dimensional nature or concept of perfection in personality is best represented by the concerns and endeavors of perfectionism.

Kaye, Conroy and Fifer (2008) studied how the concerns over lapse in perfectionism and the personal standards for perfectionism are related with the five subtypes of fear of failure. Results indicated that concerns in lapses of perfection is correlated with all five types of fear of failure on the other hand personal standards showed positive correlation with only fear of shame and embarrassment and fear of important others losing interest

It‟s the apprehension of committing mistakes and perception of the pressure of perfectionism which leads to fear of failure furthermore it‟s not the personal standards of perfectionism that is linked to fear of failure.

In sports there is a need for continuously evaluating the situations and responding accordingly. While setting higher standards in sports definitely lead to more striving and improvement in performance but the downside is that such high standards and perfectionism may lead to loss of self-worth and higher fear of failure (Clements,

2008). The role of sports psychologist is of utmost importance in this respect since they can channel such perfectionism in a positive way for improvement of athletic performance (Pleva & Wade, 2007).

31 Literature Review

Athletes who have high trait anxiety are susceptible to high state anxiety as well. The reason for this finding may be the lack of specific coping strategies in such individuals as compared to those who are more prepared to face the same situation with respect to coping strategies. (Eysenck, 1992). Endler and parker (1990) highlighted avoidance oriented and task oriented strategies, who stated that individuals who face similar pre competition anxiety situation will respond in two ways. Those with low trait anxiety will deal situation with active coping is termed as task oriented response on the other hand athletes with high trait anxiety characteristics will try to avoid that particular stimulus this was termed as avoidance oriented response (Endler & Parker, 1990).

Jorm (1989) stated that trait anxiety is more of a personality idiosyncrasy of a particular athlete and it echoes the propensity to respond with elevated anxiety levels provided that a correlation exist between state and trait anxiety. Jorm (1989) contributed a great deal to sports psychology with his mile stone research in which he attempted to explain whether trait anxiety responses are fixed or modifiable, furthermore whether interventions designed specifically for trait anxiety would alter state anxiety or not. He stated that “trait measures are generally stable over time; but that the magnitude of the correlations between such measures would still allow for a considerable amount of individual change”. He also commented on the fact that previous studies designed to evaluate twins for trait anxiety have attributed the individual trait variations to genetics.

Jorm (1989) questioned genetic influence on variation in trait anxiety, stating that only half of the variations can be inferable to genetics as proven by research.

32 Similarly other researchers also found lower influence of genetics (Scarr, Webber,

Weinberg & Wittig, 1981).

State anxiety has been further categorized as cognitive and somatic (Liebert & Morris,

1967). Davidson and Schwartz (1976) proposed more multidimensional understanding of anxiety stating its two facets, cognitive and somatic anxiety. This notion was further reinforced by the finding that both somatic and cognitive form of anxiety could be abrogated by relaxation therapy.

Morris, Davis and Hutchings (1981) defined cognitive aspect of anxiety as “negative expectations and cognitive concerns about oneself, the situation at hand and potential consequences”. While somatic anxiety was defined as “one‟s perceptions of the physiological-affective elements of the anxiety experience, that is, indications of autonomic arousal and unpleasant feeling states such as nervousness and tension”.

Hardy (1999) presented more contemporary view of cognitive and somatic anxiety.

He defined somatic anxiety as “performers‟ perceptions of their physiological response to psychological stress” on the other hand he described cognitive anxiety as

“performers‟ concerns about performing well and the consequences of failing to do so”.

Hardy (1999) above mentioned definition of somatic aspect of anxiety provided which is primarily based on athlete‟s perception of arousal and is not the measure of arousal in itself, drawing this distinction is of utmost importance since omitting or ignoring such distinction will lead to dubious research. The concepts of somatic anxiety in sports setting specifically points towards athlete‟s interpretation of arousal and is not a direct measure of arousal in itself. Hence this interpretation may well be considered as a cognitive appraisal of a particular situation.(Smith,Smoll, & Schutz,

33 1990). Anshel et al. (1991) defined state anxiety as “a state of arousal engendered by a stressful or threatening situation”.

Davidson and Schwartz (1976) proposed multi process theory. Analysis of this model reveals the type of coping strategies for somatic and cognitive anxiety. They proposed that cognitive therapy will be more effective in relieving cognitive anxiety while relaxation treatment, desensitization and biofeedback will be more helpful for dealing with somatic anxiety. In addition successful management of anxiety needs simultaneous dealing of both cognitive as well as somatic anxiety otherwise the affect will not be that significant (Davidson & Schwartz, 1976). Maynard and Cotton (1993) gave a good explanation of this difficult matter by stating that “the matching hypothesis could be tested by applying a cognitive technique to both a cognitively anxious population and a somatically anxious population, claiming that such an approach would be investigating the effects of a compatible versus a non-compatible treatment”. A more clear delineation can be made by stating that cognitive anxiety is the mental component of anxiety while somatic anxiety is its physical or physiological component (Burton, 1988). Positive thought control was used in order to counter cognitive anxiety to two groups matched and then mismatched (Maynard & Cotton

1993). They used the cognitive or somatic scales of CSAI-2 in their study. However, the authors were not able to prove that both aspects of anxiety namely the cognitive and somatic ones responded to cognitive intervention alone. Maynard and cotton

(1993) conducted a study and predicted that the anticipated intensity of somatic and cognitive anxiety and there directional interpretation altered in positive direction.

Landers (1980); Karteroliotis & Gill (1987); Cottyn, De Clercq, Pannier, Crombez, &

Lenoir (2006) noted that the correlation between psychological aspects of anxiety

34 with that of its physiological aspect is quite low. Based on similar finding we can postulate that addressing the symptoms of anxiety directly may not be as effective as those interventions which are aimed at addressing or altering individual‟s perception or interpretations of the symptoms of anxiety and its intensity. Adding to this ongoing debate one can also propose that a combined intervention aimed at both physiological symptoms of anxiety and its interpretation or perception may prove to be most fruitful. The use of direct physiological measure of competition anxiety was studied by Anshel, Brown and Brown (1993). The aim of their study was to determine the effectiveness of coping mechanisms in the form of critical feedback on the performance of athletes involved in dart throwing competition. They assessed the performance of athletes, emotional indicators and muscle tension. They reported improvement in performance as a result of intervention.

Explanation to the above stated findings can be found in the work of Sonstroem

(1984). He described that the anxiety state does not necessarily evoke a singular physiological effect or response. This statement can be elaborated to say that in the previous study the muscle tension may not have been the anxiety symptom itself hence it remained unaltered after intervention. Further explanation to this finding was provided by Larner (2008) who described that anxiety response cannot be portrayed by a single behavioral or cognitive change rather it is the multi-modal measures entailing to wide range of content that best describes the anxiety response and hence its effects on variation in performance.

The predicted relationship between state and trait aspects of anxiety has been described in the domain of multi-dimensional concepts of anxiety models. This relationship has been studied by a number of authors (Albrecht & Feltz, 1987;

35 Maynard & Howe, 1987; Karteroliotis & Gill,1987; Crocker, Alderman, & Smith,

1988).

Ryska (1993) conducted a study to evaluate state and trait competition anxiety in athletes. He postulated that athletes who had high trait anxiety would demonstrate high somatic and cognitive anxiety as compared to the lower trait anxiety counterparts. Their results indicated a correlation of 0.47 between somatic anxiety and uni-dimensional trait anxiety while a similar correlation of cognitive anxiety with uni- dimensional trait anxiety was noted as 0.37 furthermore these correlations proved to be significant.

Study conducted by Man et al. (1995) does not confirm the above findings. Their study consisted of 45 professional football players. They gave reasons for their findings stating that since participants of the study were elite athletes and had regular exposure to competitive anxiety so this might have caused gradual desensitization.

They failed to support predicted relationship between trait and state anxiety. They made an important pretention when they commented that highly skilled or elite athletes are unresponsive to measures of anxiety in general.

To summarize the above findings one can postulate that the multi-dimensional theory of anxiety was a major breakthrough in understanding of the different aspects of anxiety response. This especially proved helpful in the theoretical as well as practical applications in sports psychology (Larner, 2008).

Wine (1980) stated that one of the major hypotheses of sports psychology researchers was that cognitive aspect of anxiety serves to draw attention from the relevant tasks and this leads to the wide held concept that this affects performance negatively.

Research at that time predicted a linear relationship between performance and arousal.

36 This was proved in other studies as well. Such as Gould, Petlichkoff, Simons and

Vevera (1987) found it true in shooting competition; Cox (1986) in volleyball competition and Burton (1988) demonstrated the same in swimming athletes. On the other hand Martens et al. (1990) gave impetus to the inverted U hypothesis when they postulated that the relationship between somatic anxiety and performance is like an inverted U where anxiety above or below a certain optimal level lead to decline in performance.

Burton (1988) conducted a study in high level swimming athletes using CSAI-2 as the measuring tool. The outcome measure in this study was the swimming time. He went on to highlight the fact that it is the cognitive anxiety and not its somatic counterpart that is more strongly related to performance. Furthermore his results indicated an inverted U type of relationship of somatic anxiety with performance while a negative relationship was inferred between those of cognitive anxiety and performance.

The role of temporal patterning is essential for understanding anxiety and performance relationship. Research in this respect showed that state anxiety increases about one week prior to competitive sporting event. About one hour before the start of event there is further increase in state anxiety with more increment just before the start of competition. Some studies reported a decline in state anxiety. The anxiety drops once the event has started (Durtschi & Weiss, 1984; Cerin, Szabo, Hunt, &

Williams, 2000). However the relationships of specific dimensions of anxiety are not fully understood. Temporal patterning of the CSAI-2 sub components showed at sharp rise in somatic anxiety as the sporting event approaches and it dissipates quickly once the event is over. Cognitive anxiety observations were somewhat similar but not very pronounced (Cerin et al., 2000).

37 Martens et al. (1990) conducted a study to assess the temporal patterning of anxiety by utilizing CSAI-2. They administered the inventory to athletes at five time intervals.

Firstly 48 hours before the start of event then 24 hours, 02 hours and lastly just 05 minutes before the start of competition. The results were striking; the cognitive aspect of multi-dimensional state anxiety remained stable prior to the start of event while somatic anxiety started increasing before the onset of competitive event. Burton

(1988) also reported similar findings but proposed that performance decline was strongly related to cognitive anxiety as compared to somatic one. Larner (2008) summed up these findings by postulating that the relationship between the two dimensions of anxiety and performance is not as simple as the original multi- dimensional theory had suggested.

Kleine (1990) reported the unpredictability between anxiety performance relationship stating that the effect of anxiety is sometimes positive and sometimes negative. The authors commented this after he conducted a meta-analysis of anxiety performance relationship in sports. His results showed that only ten studies depicted an inverted U relationship.

Larner (2008) summarizing the research done in respect to anxiety performance relationship stated that there have been some inconsistencies in the predictions made by the anxiety construct and the outcome in terms of athletic performance is not accurately predicted. The research conducted by Burton (1988) was nothing short of a mile stone in the field of sports psychology since it furnished factual evidence of all the conjectures posed by multidimensional theory of anxiety with respect to performance.

38 Critical analysis of sports psychology literature sheds light on why several study designs failed to substantiate some of the major theoretical predictions overtime. A number of reasons have been identified for this purpose. Firstly the researchers generally entrusted upon the “between-subject, cross-sectional” designs rather than

“within-subject, longitudinal” study designs. The latter study designs were urged by

Sonstroem and Bernardo (1982). Secondly most of the research probing the relationship between competition anxiety and athletic performance has investigated a linear relationship between these two variables rather than focusing on a curvilinear one. This has been a major limitation in most of the sports psychology literature since the premise here is at fault so one cannot expect accurate predictions. (Gould,

Petlichkoff, Simons, & Vevera, 1987; Parfitt, Jones, & Hardy 1990; Jones, 1995).

Further limitations were described as the lack of proper operationalization of anxiety construct and the primary measures used for it (Jones, 1995). It was proposed that the routine use of global measure of performance may not be ample enough to detect anxiety in sports (Eysenck, 1992). For the same reasons the development of standardized and more sensitive scales was encouraged by Jones in order to come up with a more exact measure of anxiety in sports. Lazarus (1993) provided hints that a much broader take on emotion rather than focusing just on anxiety may prove to be more fruitful. It was postulated that an athlete may perform even better if he or she perceives higher pre competition anxiety (Eysenck, 1982). A similar finding was reported that anxiety may have a positive influence on performance (Carver &

Scheier, 1986). From the above stated findings one can come to the conclusion that anxiety is not necessarily detrimental in sport psychology. The cognitive appraisal of anxiety can have a positive influence on athlete‟s performance however if it is perceived in a negative sense it can lower the performance as well.

39 When it comes to responding to a particular stressful situation individual differences between the athletes are other factors which may affect the relationship between performance and anxiety (Hassmen, Raglin, & Lundqvist, 2004). Furthermore the same authors stated that in some athletes the anxiety responses fluctuate greatly while for others it may remain stable. They further commented that anxiety is a better predictor of athletic performance in the athletes who experience greater fluctuations in anxiety.

Overtime there was increased need of a more unified approach in order to measure anxiety in sports. Such approach would take into account the different dimensions of anxiety together into a more holistic approach in order to come up with a more realistic predictor of performance (Jones, 1995). Gill (1994) stressed the importance of a model that would basically be a multi-dimensional model highlighting cognitive appraisal of related variables involved in sports psychology. Furthermore Jones

(1995) also proposed that “the methods attempting to predict performance well before that actual performance, may not reasonably be expected to be all that successful based on the understanding that more accurate performance predictions would be expected just prior to performing by which time the majority of perceived threats to success would become apparent”.

Gould, Petlichkoff and Weinberg (1984) suggested that there is provisional support for the premise that somatic and cognitive dimensions of anxiety may have different precedence. Research has favored the application of multi-dimensional conceptualization as compared the earlier uni-dimensional models since it better describes the specific anxiety responses rather than providing a more generalized view. Jones (1995) stated that “the antecedents of cognitive anxiety, and also those of

40 self-confidence, are hypothesized to be those factors in the environment that are related to athlete expectations of success, including perception of one's own and opponent‟s ability”. Whereas the antecedents of somatic aspect seems to be of relatively shorter duration and are usually non evaluative in nature. It may comprise of conditional responses to stimulation during warm ups of an athlete or his/her change room preparations (Martens et al., 1990; Gould, Petlichkoff, & Weinberg,

1984).

In addition the need for qualitative as well as quantitative methods of investigations was recommended by Jones (1995). He stressed such methodologies since it would provide a more precise prospect of competitive anxiety and how it relates to athletic performance. Jones (1995) was proponent of more qualitative methods while investigating competition anxiety and searching for the sources of different stressors facing athletes. With time such qualitative methods started shedding more light on the stressors confronted by elite athletes. Some of these included factors like sporting event organization, impact of coaches and team members, decisions from the referees and absence of social support of an athlete (Jones & Hardy, 1990; Scanlan, Stein, &

Ravizza, 1991; Holt & Hogg, 2002; Noblet & Gifford, 2002; Hanton, Fletcher, &

Coughlan, 2005).

Hanton, Fletcher and Coughlan (2005) conducted a qualitative study on highly skilled athletes in order to compare the quality and content of competition anxiety. The authors carried out interviews of the participants which consisted of 10 elite sports players. They indulged into finding the source of their anxiety symptoms. The authors stated their finding that “elite athletes experience and recall more demands associated

41 primarily and directly with the sport organization than with competitive performance”.

A number of sports psychology researchers have attempted to explore temporal patterning of competition anxiety. It has been proved that a week before the start of an important sporting event there is no significant relationship between cognitive anxiety and its somatic component. As the event comes closer this relationship grows stronger. Furthermore similar research has also unveiled that cognitive anxiety response remains stable before the athletic competition but there is a sharp rise in somatic anxiety just prior to the competition. This pattern persists unless there is an unexpected change in the competitive situation like sudden injury to the opposing athlete. These findings were noted after psychoanalyzing athletes for temporal patterning based on CSAI-2 sub-scales (Slaughter, Selder, & Patterson, 1994; Swain,

Jones & Cale 1990; Karteroliotis & Gill, 1987). This variation in the somatic and cognitive anxiety response in relation to the timing of an event further strengthens the fact that these subtypes of anxiety are separate entities. Jones (1995) stated an important finding which may have practical applications. He found that one week prior to a competitive sporting event both somatic as well as cognitive aspects of the multi-dimensional model are low and not significant but as the event comes closer it rises progressively. A major impediment to accurate evaluation of the temporal patterning of competition anxiety has been the measuring scales or instruments themselves. Some of these instruments are time exhausting and difficult to apply especially just prior to the start of competition since some of the athletes view it as a distraction from their physical and mental preparations.

Another important factor to consider is the frequency of anxiety responses while measuring temporal patterning. Simply stated it means that even though the intensity

42 of anxiety may not change at a particular time from the competition but the frequency with which the athlete feels that anxiety increases. The intensity of anxiety felt by the athlete may be the same but how often he or she thinks or worry about the competition has a great impact. These finding have been reported by Swain and Jones

(1993) who showed that in the weeks prior to competition athlete‟s intensity of cognitive anxiety remained uniform but the frequency of its symptoms increased as the event came closer.

Woodman and Hardy (2003) carried out meta-analysis and contributed a great deal to our understanding of anxiety and its effect on performance. Furthermore their research also contributed to our understanding of the effect of cognitive anxiety and confidence on athletic performance. Woodman and Hardy refuted the inverted U hypothesis hence they precluded somatic anxiety from their research on the grounds that somatic anxiety is an indirect measure of arousal. In itself it was an important step not to include the indirect measures of arousal since most of the other researchers have totally ignored this fact however the authors can be criticized for the fact that the same holds true for cognitive anxiety as well since fundamentally speaking cognitive anxiety is also an indirect measure of arousal since we lack the tools to measure cognition itself.

Even though the work of Woodman and Hardy (2003) had the above mentioned limitations still their work was a great achievement in the field of sports psychology.

The authors focused on probing three hypotheses. The first hypothesis was to determine the prediction of a multi-dimensional theory of anxiety in terms of cognitive anxiety and performance. The next hypothesis was to determine the magnitude of effect sizes in cognitive anxiety and performance relationship. Lastly

43 the authors explored the variables which were thought of as mediating the relationship between performance and anxiety. The work of Woodman and Hardy (2003) gave important insight into cognitive anxiety and performance. They noted a relatively weaker negative mean effect size of cognitive anxiety and slightly high mean effect size for self-confidence. Both these effect sizes were significant however hence supporting a multi-dimensional theory of anxiety. In exploring the relationship between cognitive anxiety and performance the authors noted that competitive standards and gender were the utmost important mediating variables. The gender stratification of their results revealed that pre-competition anxiety had more influence on men as compared to women.

The other meta-analysis explored the relationship between somatic and cognitive anxiety intensity and performance along with its prediction by a multi-dimensional theory of anxiety (Craft, Magyay, Becker, & Feltz, 2003). Furthermore the authors also probed into exploring the importance of mediating variables in performance anxiety relationship. In contrast to Woodman and Hardy‟s meta-analysis of 2003,

Craft et al. (2003) reported a small but positive correlation between the intensity of cognitive anxiety and performance. The authors went on to comment that these findings were not supportive of one of the primary hypothesis of multi-dimensional theory of anxiety. The contrasting findings of Craft et al. (2003) can be justified by the fact that the CSAI-2 which was used by the authors may not have adequately assessed the cognitive anxiety or the authors may not have used it at the appropriate time during the competition or more simply the relationship predicted by the theory may be incorrect in itself or such relationship may be so complex that its prediction by employing only cognitive aspect of anxiety may have been insufficient.

44 Sport psychology researchers have mostly described linear measures when predicting the relationship between performance and somatic anxiety however Craft et al. (2003) proposed a curvilinear relationship. In addition Craft et al. (2003) also explored the effect of nature of sports on anxiety. They commented that somatic and cognitive anxiety is more prominent in individual sports as compared to team sports. This finding by Craft et al. (2003) was in concurrence with the earlier findings of Kleine

(1990). In addition the work of Craft et al. (2003) also showed that a positive relationship exists between performance and both somatic as well as cognitive anxiety for elite level athletes. On the contrary for entry level sport competitors this relationship was close to zero. This finding by the authors only further strengthened the already existing believe that elite level sportsmen and sportswomen have the ability to utilize their anxiety in a more positive and beneficial way as compared to the entry level athletes.

Lastly Craft et al. (2003) stated that while studying the temporal patterning of competition anxiety response the use of instruments may prove to be a major limitation since some athletes may view filling a lengthy questionnaire or an interview as distraction especially just before the start of the competition. This is the time when the athletes focus on their planning and mental preparations. They noted that the

CSAI-2 subscale is a stronger predictor of anxiety about half an hour to one hour before the competition and its predictions weakens as the event approaches. Chris

Larner (2008) commented on the findings of Craft et al. (2003) stating that the findings of craft casted significant doubts on the application of CSAI-2 in its current format while doing research on the relationship between anxiety and performance.

Larner (2008) went on to say that unfortunately at the moment there are few well tested alternatives to the use of CSAI-2.

45 To summarize the above stated research one can argue that the multi-dimensional conceptualization of anxiety comprising of somatic and cognitive components was a paradigm shift from the once simplistic uni-dimensional understanding of performance and anxiety relationship. The previously thought of straight forward anxiety-performance relationship has been greatly complicated by a number of mediating variable. These variable which effects the performance-anxiety relationship range from skill level, gender, antecedents of anxiety, team versus individual sports, temporal patterning of anxiety and finally the frequency of somatic as well as cognitive intrusions (Larner, 2008). Advancement in sports psychology added to the complexity of theoretical conceptualization of anxiety as well as listed the loop holes in the measuring tools. Larner (2008) went on to quote Jones (1991) who stated the fact that commonly used measure for competition anxiety, the CSAI-2 is more focused on a limited dimension of anxiety more specifically the CSAI-2 measure the intensity that a competitor perceives, the competition anxiety response rather than addressing the individual‟s interpretation of the perceived anxiety. Further light was shed on this issue by Jones (1993) who stated that this situation may stem from the fact that anxiety has been in general regarded as detrimental to performance and not the other way around.

46 RATIONALE

Sports are commonly perceived as purely physical in nature. The mental component which is the most important aspect of sports is commonly neglected. We often hear the familiar tone that 90 % of performance in sports is mental but we witness that 90 percent of the coaches and athletes spent 100 percent of their time in grooming or practicing the physical aspects only. They commonly neglect and ignore the mental side of an athlete and it is the mental side of an athlete that distinguishes a successful athlete from those who fail to reach their full potential.

Sports psychology has been studied for decades now, but the main focus at initial stages was the conceptual understanding of the basic psychological aspects of an athlete. The actual on field utilization of this understanding while working in tandom with coaches and athlete opened a new arena. Simply stated for every physical and fundamental act in sports, there is an equally important mental component which must be addressed.

The present study will focus on investigating competition anxiety and fear of failure among sportsmen and sportswomen; furthermore the current study will attempt to determine the effectiveness of Progressive Muscle Relaxation Technique in reducing high competition anxiety. It has long been known to psychologists that stress and anxiety affects athletic performances. Competition anxiety has been proven to negatively affect performance of sportsmen and women. It is well known that reducing high competition anxiety leads to better sporting performances. Some studies suggest that female athletes suffer from higher level of depressive symptoms and social anxiety, but whether female athlete‟s exhibits higher level of competition anxiety is rarely explored. The present study will also attempt to investigate the

47 gender differences of competition anxiety in order to get a better understanding of this issue.

The negative impact of competition anxiety and fear of failure can be minimized with a number of behavioral techniques. Such techniques may include biofeedback, progressive muscle relaxation technique, visualization, autogenic training, meditation, hypnosis, negative thought stoppage, and finally confidence enhancement. This study will attempt to determine the effectiveness of Progressive Muscle Relaxation

Technique in reducing competition anxiety. Progressive Muscle Relaxation is a simple technique that can easily be taught to coaches and athletes alike. Regular practice of this technique can help combat high competition anxiety which is helpful for the overall mental well-being of an athlete but it can also help the athlete achieve his or her full physical potential by reducing the mental impediments for achieving better athletic performance..

The present study will not only contribute to the enrichment of understanding the psychology behind sportsmen and women but it will also provide an insight into the psychology of local athletes, which has not been thoroughly studied yet. This research will try to dig the issues and provide some solid evidences regarding the stressors facing sportsmen and women. Understanding these stressors and determining the effectiveness of Progressive Muscle Relaxation Technique will help to improve performance of the athletes. It will contribute significantly to the conceptual understanding of the correlation between competition anxiety and fear of failure since it has rarely been explored until now.

48 Chapter – II

Statement of the Problem

The main purpose of the study was to investigate the level of competition anxiety among sportsmen and sports women. It also aims to study the level of fear of failure among sportsmen and sportswomen and correlation between competition anxiety and fear of failure. This study also aims to evaluate the effectiveness of Behavior therapy technique such as Progressive Muscle Relaxation in the treatment of competition anxiety among sportsmen and sportswomen.

Objectives

The study has the following objectives:

1. To investigate the level of competition anxiety among sportsmen and women.

2. To investigate the level of fear of failure among sportsmen and women.

3. To explore the correlation between competition anxiety and fear of failure.

4. To examine the emotional indicators among sportsmen and women on Human

Figure Drawing Test.

5. To study the effectiveness of behavior therapy technique i.e. Progressive Muscle

relaxation technique among sportsmen and women suffering from competition

anxiety.

49 Hypotheses

The following hypotheses were formulated for the present research.

1. The sportsmen will score high on sports competition anxiety test as compared to

sportswomen.

2. Sportsmen will score high on Performance Fear Appraisal Inventory as

compared to sports women.

3. High competition anxiety will be positively correlated with fear of failure.

4. Sportswomen will show higher number of emotional indicators on Human Figure

Drawing Test as compared to sportsmen.

5. Sportsmen and women receiving psychological intervention i.e. Progressive

Muscle relaxation technique will show improvement in the level of competition

anxiety as compared to control group.

Operational Definitions

FEAR OF FAILURE

Failure can often induce fear. Fear of the consequences and the feelings that are associated with failure. It is also this fear that can lead to problematic behaviors and attitudes. Fear of failure is a type of avoidance motivation. That is, people seek to avoid failure, sometimes at all costs (Bartel, Magun-Jackson, & Ryan, 2010).

In this research Conroy, Metzler and Hofer (2003) have defined Fear of Failure as one‟s tendency to assess danger and experience anxiety during a situation in which there is a chance of failing. They have also linked Fear of Failure with five aversive

50 consequences: Fears regarding facing disgrace and embarrassment, Fears regarding decline in one‟s self-worth, Fears with respect to future prospects, Fears about diminishing interest from important others, and having Fears about displeasing important others.

COMPETITION ANXIETY

Competition anxiety is the tendency to assess confrontational situation as dangerous and respond accordingly with feelings of tension and apprehension (Martens & Bump,

1998). This anxiety quickly escalates immediately before competition and quickly decreases afterwards (Gould, Petlichkoff, & Weinberg, 1984).

In this research Martens, Vealey and Burton (1990) have defined Competition Trait

Anxiety as a tendency to sense competitive situations as frightening and to react toward such situations with a state of anxiety. Sports competition anxiety has been defined in terms of the cognitive anxiety component, known as "worry," which is usually considered as an essential element in the process of competitive sport anxiety

(Martens, 1977; Martens et al., 1990). Worry refers to a series of negative thoughts that are somewhat uncontrollable (Borkovec, Robinson, Pruzinsky, & DePree, 1983, p. 10) relating to a number of domains including health, education, financial status, family etc.

51 Method

Sample

The target sample for the present study was consisted of athletes from colleges and universities of District Peshawar, Mardan and Nowshera. Purposive sampling technique was utilized in this study.

Phase I

In this phase Sample consisted of 200 athletes (N=200) with equal representation from both genders, sportswomen (n=100) and sportsmen (n=100). Participants from both genders ranging from age group 18 to 27 year were included in this study. All of them were matched for age, educational and socioeconomic status.

Phase II

In phase II of this study sportsmen and sportswomen who scored high on Sports

Competition Anxiety Test were randomly assigned to experimental and control group.

Total sample size was (N=60), experimental group (n=30) and control group (n=30).

Sportsmen and sportswomen were equally assigned to both groups.

Inclusion criteria: Subjects included in the sample had age ranging from 18 to 27 years. They must have been involved in team sports such as cricket, hockey, and football or volley ball for the last 3 years.

Exclusion criteria: Those who were under psychiatric treatment or taking any drugs were also excluded from the sample. Athletes who were involved in sports for less than three years and athletes who were already practicing any relaxation techniques including Progressive Muscle Relaxation technique were also excluded from sample.

52 Instruments

Following instruments were used in this study.

 Semi-structured Interview:

Semi structured interview was conducted on each subject to get demographic information including age, gender, education, socio-economic background, duration of sports participation and past psychiatric history.

 Sport Competition Anxiety Test (SCAT):

SCAT was developed by Martens in 1977. This test measures the tendency of an athlete to experience anxiety when competing in a sport. Test scoring is based on 15 questions that ask individuals how they feel when competing in sports and games.

Each item is answered on a three point scale. Reliability of the scale is .79 (Martens,

1977).

 Performance Failure Appraisal Inventory:

Performance failure appraisal inventory was developed by Conroy, Metzler and

Hofer in 2003. The 25 items scales measures fear of failure in participants. Test retest reliability of the scale is 0.80 (Conroy, Metzler, & Hofer, 2003).It is composed of five subscales of failing: (a) fear of experiencing shame and embarrassment, (b) fear of devaluing one‟s self-estimate, (c) fear of having an uncertain future, (d) fear of important others losing interest and (e) fear of upsetting important others. Participants responded to items on a five point Likert Scale ranging from do not believe at all (-2) to believe 50% of the time (0) to believe 100% of the time (+2). Construct validity evidence has been found for this inventory (Conroy et al, 2002; Conroy & Metzler,

53 2003a). Internal consistency estimates range from .69 to .90 (Conroy & Metzler,

2003a).

Human Figure Drawing Test (HFD):

HFD is a projective test that was used to assess emotional indicators among sportsmen and sports women. Reported reliability is 0.60 (Koppitz, 1968).The most popular quantitative approach was developed by Elizabeth Koppitz. He developed a measure of assessment that has a list of emotional indicators including size of figures, omission of body parts, and some “special features”. The total number of the indicators is simply added up to provide a number that represents the likeliness of disturbance (Murstein, 1965).

Procedure

The research was conducted in three phases.

Phase I

In phase I sample was purposively selected from public and private universities and colleges of District Peshawar, Nowshera and Mardan. Before selection of sample a meeting was held with head of Institutes, explaining them the nature and purpose of research. After permission of the concerned authorities and consent from subjects semi structured interview was conducted to confirm the inclusion criteria. Those who were not up to the inclusion criteria were excluded.

The subjects were informed about the nature and purpose of research and assured that their results would be kept confidential. Those subjects who agreed with the terms and conditions of the research were included in the sample.

54 Phase II

In phase II different psychological tests were administered as pretest on selected sample such as Sports Competition Anxiety Test, Performance Fear Appraisal

Inventory and Human Figure Drawing Test, in order to assess the different psychological parameters of athletes. Sports Competition Anxiety Test was administered just prior to sporting event. After pretest all tests were scored to evaluate the level of competition anxiety among sportsmen and sports women. Those who scored high on Sports Competition Anxiety Test were selected for intervention in phase III.

Phase III

In phase III subjects were randomly assigned to Experimental and Control groups.

The Experimental group received psychological intervention for eight weeks i.e.

Progressive Muscle Relaxation. Participants were given PMR sessions twice a week in group settings. They were instructed to practice PMR twice a day for ten minutes.

It was a group practice and each session‟s duration was forty minutes. During the intervention period participants were asked not to take any other psychological treatment and medication. Control group was not given any intervention.

Eight weeks later post-test i.e. Sports Competition Anxiety Test was administered on both experimental and control group to reassess the sportsmen and women.

55 Education level of athletes

M.Phil 2%

Master Intermediate 27% 22%

Graduation 49%

Figure-1.Educational level of sportsmen and sports women (N=200)

Participation from different games

Volleyball Cricket 23% 26%

Football Hockey 25% 26%

Figure-2. Shows participation in games (N=200)

56 Chapter-III

RESULTS

Table 1

Frequency and percentages of demographic variable (N=200)

Variables F % Gender Male 100 50 Female 100 50 Education Intermediate 45 22.50 Graduation 99 49.50 - Master 53 26.50 M.Phil 3 1.50 Games Cricket 121 61 Hockey 120 60 Football 112 56 Volleyball 107 54 District Peshawar 94 47 Mardan 53 26.50 Nowshera 53 26.50

57 Table 2

Descriptive statistics and alpha reliability coefficients and univariate normality of variables (N=200)

Range

Variables items a M SD Skew Kur Potential Actual SCAT 15 .72 28.57 5.38 .28 -.53 15-45 18-42

PFAI 25 .96 70.01 20.58 -.16 -.67 25-125 26-113

FSE 7 .89 19.26 6.42 -.29 -.72 7-35 7-33

FDSE 4 .72 11.43 3.19 -.26 -.47 4-20 4-18

FUF 4 .77 11.45 3.45 -.02 -.26 4-20 4-20

FIOLI 5 .86 13.88 4.63 -.18 -.79 5-25 5-23

FUIO 5 .81 13.97 4.52 .04 -.54 5-25 5-25

Note: SCAT= Sport Competition Anxiety Test, PFAI= Performance Failure Appraisal

Inventory, FSE=Fear of Experiencing Shame & Embarrassment, FDSE= Fear of

Devaluing One‟s Self Esteem, FUF=Fear of Having an Uncertain Future, FIOLI=Fear of Important Others Losing Interest, FUIO=Fear of Upsetting Important Others.

Table 2 shows the reliabilities of all the scales ranged from .72 to .96. Hence the reliability fell under good and acceptable criteria. Furthermore table 2 also shows the mean, standard deviation, skewness and kurtosis of all the scales. Statistical analysis proved distribution of sub scale.

58 Table 3

Item total correlations of PFAI and its subscale (N=200)

FSE FDSE FUF

Item No r Item No r Item No r 10 .76** 1 .65** 2 .73**

15 .76** 4 .74** 5 .80**

18 .75** 7 .81** 8 .76**

20 .76** 16 .75** 12 .80**

22 .82**

24 .82**

25 .74**

FIOLI FUIO

Item No r Item No r 11 .85** 3 .65**

13 .73** 6 .70**

17 .74** 9 .63**

21 .82** 14 .55**

23 .84** 19 .65**

Note: **p < .001, PFAI= Performance Failure Appraisal Inventory, FSE=Fear of

Experiencing Shame & Embarrassment, FDSE= Fear of Devaluing One‟s Self

Esteem, FUF= Fear of Having an Uncertain Future, FIOLI=Fear of Important Others

Losing Interest, FUIO=Fear of Upsetting Important Others.

Table 3 shows the item total correlations of the subscale of Performance Failure

Appraisal Inventory which is ranging from .55 to .85 which shows that the scale is consistent and the items are correlated with total of each scale.

59 Table4

Item total correlations of PFAI Scale (N=200)

Item No r 1 .53** 2 .62** 3 .67** 4 .65** 5 .71** 6 .72** 7 .73** 8 .68** 9 .72** 10 .75** 11 .78** 12 .74** 13 .73** 14 .68** 15 .72** 16 .69** 17 .66** 18 .75** 19 .77** 20 .70** 21 .78** 22 .75** 23 .78** 24 .78** 25 .69** **p < .001

60 Table 4 shows the item total correlations of Performance Failure Appraisal Inventory are consistent and the items correlate well with the total scale. It also shows that items range from .53 to .78.

61 Table 5

Item total correlations of Sport Competition Anxiety Test (N=200)

Item No r 1 .44**

2 .53**

3 .61**

4 .33**

5 .35**

6 .31**

7 .50**

8 .28**

9 .72**

10 .28**

11 .41**

12 .53**

13 .38**

14 .43**

15 .66**

**p < .001

The Table 5 shows the item total correlations of Sport Competition Anxiety Test which ranges from .28 to .72. The scale is consistent and the items are correlated with the total scale.

62 Table 6

Inter subscale correlation of PFAI (N=200)

FSE FDSE FUF FIOLI FUIO PFAI FSE - FDSE .77** - FUF .78** .78** - FIOLI .89** .79** .77** - FUIO .85** .82** .84** .83** - PFAI .95** .88** .89** .94** .94** -

Note: **p < .001, PFAI= Performance Failure Appraisal Inventory, FSE=Fear of

Experiencing Shame & Embarrassment, FDSE= Fear of Devaluing One‟s Self

Esteem, FUF= Fear of Having an Uncertain Future, FIOLI=Fear of Important Others

Losing Interest, FUIO=Fear of Upsetting Important Others.

Table 6 shows that all inter scales correlation of Performance Failure Appraisal

Inventory are highly correlated with each other it ranges from .77 to .95 and is also correlated with total Performance Fear Appraisal Inventory score.

63 Table 7

Correlation between Performance Failure Appraisal Inventory and its subscale with

Sports Competition Anxiety Test (N=200)

PFAI and Subscales SCAT PFAI .98** FSE .93** FDSE .87** FUF .89** FIOLI .92** FUIO .94** Note: **p<.001, SCAT=Sport Competition Anxiety Test, PFAI= Performance

Failure Appraisal Inventory, FSE=Fear of Experiencing Shame & Embarrassment,

FDSE= Fear of Devaluing One‟s Self Esteem, FUF= Fear of Having an Uncertain

Future, FIOLI=Fear of Important Others Losing Interest, FUIO=Fear of Upsetting

Important Others.

Table 7 shows the correlation between Performance Fear Appraisal Inventory and its subscales with Sport Competition Anxiety Test. Results proved that there is strong positive correlation between Performance Fear Appraisal Inventory score and Sports

Competition Anxiety score which means that high the Sport Competition Anxiety

Test scores will leads to higher score on Performance Fear Appraisal Inventory. The correlation values ranges from .84 to .98.

Mean SCAT scores

29.5

28.5

27.5

26.5

26 Male Female

Figure –3.Mean SCAT scores of sportsmen and sportswomen (N=200)

65 Table 8

Mean scores, Standard Deviation and t-values on SCAT with respect to gender

(N=200)

Male Female

Scales (n= 100) (n= 100) 95%CI Cohen’s M SD M SD t(198) p LL UL d

SCAT 29.6 5.48 27.49 5.06 2.91 .004 .69 3.64 0.41 Note. SCAT: .CI = Confidence interval; LL = Lower limit; UL = Upper limit

Table 8 shows the mean differences between sportsmen and sportswomen on the

sports competition anxiety test score. Figure shows that sportsmen have higher SCAT

mean score as compare to sportswomen. This mean difference is highly significant

with t-value 2.91 and p < .01. Effect size is medium as d = .41.

66 PFAI subscale scores

Male Female 10

0 FSE FDSE FUF FIOLI FUIO

Figure-4.Mean scores of sportsmen and sportswomen on PFAI subscales (N=200).

67 Table 9

Mean scores, Standard Deviation and t-values on PFAI subscales with respect to

gender (N=200)

Male Female

Scales (n= 100) (n= 100) 95%CI Cohen’s M SD M SD t(198) p LL UL d

FSE 20.60 6.30 17.93 6.27 3.00 .003 .91 4.42 .43 FDSE 12.05 3.16 10.82 3.12 2.77 .006 .35 2.10 .39 FUF 10.85 3.22 12.06 3.57 2.51 .013 .26 2.16 .36 FIOLI 15.04 4.52 12.72 4.47 3.64 .000 1.06 3.57 .52 FUIO 15.16 4.53 12.79 4.19 3.83 .000 1.15 3.58 .54

Note: PFAI= Performance Failure Appraisal Inventory, FSE=Fear of Experiencing

Shame & Embarrassment, FDSE= Fear of Devaluing One‟s Self Esteem, FUF= Fear

of Having an Uncertain Future, FIOLI=Fear of Important Others Losing Interest,

FUIO=Fear of Upsetting Important Others.CI = Confidence interval; LL = Lower

limit; UL = Upper limit

Table 9 shows the mean difference and t-value between sportsmen and sportswomen

on the Performance Failure Appraisal Inventory and on its subscales. It shows that

sportsmen have higher PFAI mean score overall and all its subscales as compare to

sportswomen. This mean difference is highly significant with p < .01. Effect Size (ES)

varies from .36 to .54.

Mean scores on HFD

0 Male Female

Figure 5. Mean scores of sportsmen and sportswomen on HFD (N=200)

Table 10

Mean scores, Standard Deviation and t-values on HFD with respect to gender

(N=200)

Male Female

Scales (n= 100) (n= 100) 95%CI Cohen’s M SD M SD t(198) P LL UL d

HFD 4.43 0.89 5.52 0.81 -9.05 .000 -1.33 -0.85 -1.29

Note. HFD= Human figure drawing test, CI = Confidence interval; LL = Lower limit;

UL = Upper limit

Table 10 shows the mean difference between sportsmen and sportswomen sample on

the HFD score. Results proved that sportswomen had higher number of emotional

indicators as compared to their male counterpart. The difference proved to be

statistically significant p < 0.001.

Mean SCAT scores before and after PMR

20 34.95 15 27.44 10

0 Before After

Figure- 6 Shows the mean SCAT scores before and after applying PMR.

71 Table 11 Results of paired sample t-test and Descriptive Statistics for competition anxiety by using Progressive relaxation technique (N=30)

95% CI for Before After Mean Technique Technique Difference Outcome M SD M SD LL UL r t-value competition 34.95 2.84 27.44 1.54 7.19 7.96 .93 39.45*** anxiety

*** p< .001.

Table 11 shows that the mean competition anxiety score dropped by 7.57 points after application of PMR. The difference proved to be statiscally significant p < 0.001.

72 Chapter-IV

DISCUSSION

The purpose of this research was to study competition anxiety among sportsmen and women and application of Behavioral technique i.e. Progressive Muscle Relaxation

Technique to treat competition anxiety among sportsmen and sports women.

It was hypothesized that “The sportsmen will score high on sports competition anxiety test as compared to sportswomen”. Which is confirmed by the findings of the study

(table, 8).Anxiety is one of the major factors that affect the athletic performance, its accurate assessment and management is pivotal for improving the mental health of athletes and improving their performance. Anxiety is a negative emotion. It effects perceptions in competitive environments including sports. Majority of sportsmen and sportswomen consider competition anxiety as debilitating, affecting their performance

(Raglin & Hanin, 2000; Weinberg & Gould, 2011). Murphy (1988) noted that over 50 percent of consultations among athletes of an Olympic event involved anxiety and stress related problems. When competition anxiety is not handled properly, athletes may fail to curb their emotions, as a result their performance level decreases

(Martens, Vealey, & Burton, 1990). Despite the fact that there is sufficient evidence to support a link between competition anxiety and athletic performance, the role of demographic factors that affect the level of competition anxiety remains uncertain

(Martens et al., 1990; Humara, 2001). Gender is one of such factors that play a critical role in competitive sports. The spotlight of sports psychology has been on male athletes for decades (Cox, 2011). This makes it difficult for researchers to understand the level and nature of competition anxiety in female athletes, furthermore the gender differences of competition anxiety and athletic performance still need more in depth

73 analysis (Oglesby & Hill, 1993). Women may be less effective in competitive situations as compared to their male counterparts. Differences in skills, talent and belief between the two genders may lead them to act differently in competitive environments hence producing different results. A competitive situation may produce differences in behavior as the subject attempts to adjust his/her best choices to different strategic environments. In any particular situation when the subject believes that men are more skillful at the given task than women and effort is costly, one would expect men to put in more efforts than women (Uri Gneezy, Muriel Niederle,

& Aldo Rustichini, 2003). This study also revealed that sportsmen and sportswomen responded differently under similar competitive situations hence supporting the previous studies.

The question that whether one particular gender is associated with relatively higher level of competition anxiety is of significant practical implications since intervention therapies tailored to particular gender will prove to be more efficient in lowering the anxiety response and it will translate into better performance. Our study revealed a significant difference between the level of competition anxiety between male and female athletes.

Singh (2011) studied the pre and post competition anxiety in athletes using SCAT.

The results showed higher level of competition anxiety among sportsmen as compared to sportswomen hence supporting our hypothesis.

Evangelos (2012) studied competitive state anxiety and gender differences among

Greek badminton players. Their study included 33 sportsmen and 23 sportswomen. A

Greek version of SCAT was utilized in this study. The authors reported that sportswomen felt more relax as compared to sportsmen hence favoring our findings.

74 They also reported that competitiveness and aggressiveness are aspects of athletes that are low in female as compared to male.

Martens et al. (1990) reported higher SCAT values in males. Durtschi and Weiss

(1984) while studying elite and non-elite marathon runners also reported higher

SCAT values in male athletes. Similar results were obtained in another study which attempted to evaluate the influence of sports level and gender on psychological characteristics and satisfaction among swimmers and water polo players

(Konstantoulas, Bebetsos, & Michailidou, 2011).

On the contrary our findings are in contradiction to those reported by other studies.

Montgomery and Morris (1994) reported higher levels of anxiety in female as compared to male and attributed it to biological factors and role expectation of genders by the society. Jones and Cale (1989) had explained the role of society in anxiety response by stating that the society expects male gender to control their emotion while on the contrary it expects the female to exhibit their emotions hence leading to high level of anxiety response. The role of society is different to different environments. We can argue that these findings were reported in the western society which has different expectations pertaining to gender than our society. The lower level of competition anxiety in current study may be a reflection of the role of our society with respect to gender. In our society the athletic activities of female are not given the same importance as compare to male. This leads to a less demanding situation on female athletes and may have caused the lowered level of competition anxiety in our study. A similar finding was reported by Barksy, Peekna and Borus

(2001) while reporting the somatic symptoms between men and women. Thatcher,

Thatcher and Dorling (2004) while studying the temporal patterning and hormonal

75 responses of pre competition anxiety reported that male‟s anxiety and hormonal responses mirrored each other, this was not the case for the females with increase in female‟s cognitive and somatic anxiety intensity levels accompanied by decreases in adrenaline and nor-adrenaline. More recently Marcose, Sandra, Jose and Helder

(2012) reported lower level of cognitive anxiety in male athletes as compared to female. The researchers reported higher self-confidence in male athletes as compared to their female counterparts.

The second hypothesis of present study was that “Sportsmen will score high on

Performance Fear Appraisal Inventory as compare to sportswomen‟‟. Findings of the study proved the hypothesis (table, 9) shows that sportsmen scored higher than their female counterparts on performance fear appraisal inventory. Like competition anxiety fear of failure is also detrimental for athletic performance. The earlier conceptual understanding of fear of failure led to the development of a multi- dimensional model in sports psychology. This model had a hierarchical design and was built on the “cognitive-motivational-relational” theory of emotion (Lazarus,

1991). According to this model when an athlete interprets a particular competitive situation as having the potential of negative consequences it triggers his or her believes about failing and it leads to state anxiety that is associated with fear of failure.

Conroy (2001) reported that the downside of fear of failure is that it can impede an athlete from achieving their full physical potential. A psychological risk of fear of failure is that it can inhibit an athlete from never reaching their full potential (Conroy,

2001). Physical adverse consequences include clinical headaches, disorders and male sexual dysfunction (Passchier, Van der Helm, & Orlebeke, 1984; Bruce & Barlow,

1990). Sam (2009) summarized the affect of fear of failure on athletes by stating that

76 it affects the athletes in four ways, their wellbeing, their interpersonal behavior, their sporting performance and finally their academic work.

Jeyavelmurugan et al. (2012) studied the gender differences in fear of failure among inter colligate volleyball players using Performance fear appraisal inventory. A total of 60 players were included in the study with equal representation from both the genders. Results indicated that male athletes exhibited higher general fear as compared to female. Male athletes had mean score of 32.50 while female athletes had a mean score of 12.17. They further reported that male athletes scored higher on fear of shame and embarrassment and fear of devaluing one‟s self esteem which are also consistent with our results (table, 09).

Krista (2013) conducted a study to evaluate the gender differences in fear of failure among university level engineering students. The initial sample consisted of 250 participants but 220 students completed the survey and their results were retained for analysis. There were 158 male and 62 female participants. The authors used performance fear appraisal inventory as the measurement tool. Multivariate analysis of variance showed that females had a higher level of fear of failure as compared to male students. Comparison of subscales of the fear appraisal inventory showed that female students were significantly more likely to experience embarrassment or shame in front of others, lower believes regarding their skills and abilities. However the female students did not show more concern that important loved ones in their life have lost interest in them or greater fear that significant others would be angry or upset at them than their male counterparts. Our results also showed that female had lower fear of important other losing interest and lower fear of upsetting important others as compared to males. Our results proved that females had greater fear of

77 having an uncertain future this finding was also supported by Krista (2013) who also reported higher fear of uncertain future among females.

Sagar, Boardley and Kavussanu (2011) studied fear of failure in student athletes with respect to interpersonal antisocial behavior in education and sports. The participants consisted of British university student athletes. Out of the total 331 respondents there were 176 male athletes and 155 female athletes. Female athletes reported higher fear of devaluing of self-esteem as compared to their male counterparts. This may be related to their lower competence level. Male athletes on the contrary registered higher threat to their social standing and more fear of significant others losing interest.

Partridge and Elison (2012) conducted a research and results revealed that females report fear of shame and embarrassment along with fear of devaluing one's self esteem to a greater degree than males.

In the present study it was hypothesized that “high competition anxiety will be positively correlated with the fear of failure.” Statistical analysis of the data revealed a correlation ranging from 0.84 to 0.98 between the two variables (table, 7). This shows that there is a strong positive correlation between competition anxiety and fear of failure, which is in line with previous findings.

Conroy (2001) reported a positive association between fear of failure and sports anxiety. Conroy, Willow and Metzler (2002) utilized performance fear appraisal inventory while studying multi-dimensional fear of failure. For this purpose a total of

544 college students were enrolled in the study and they completed the performance fear appraisal inventory. The PFAI scores were reduced to 25 items. The sub scales for fear of failure included fear of upsetting important others, fear of an uncertain future, shame and embarrassment, devaluing one‟s self esteem and fear of important

78 others losing interest. Results showed that there is an association between competition anxiety and fear of failure. Furthermore it was noted that fear of failure is also associated with somatic anxiety, cognitive disruption and higher levels of worry.

Bakhtiary, Arabameri and Shojaei (2015) studied the relationship between fear of failure and experience with competitive state anxiety in Iranian Taekwondo premier league. Since a total of 08 teams participated in the 2013 league and each team had 08 athletes, the total number of athletes in the tournament was 64 out of which 48 completed the survey. Performance fear appraisal inventory was utilized to measure fear of failure while competitive state anxiety inventory-2 was used for measuring competitive state anxiety. Results indicated positive correlation between fear of failure and competitive state anxiety both somatic as well as cognitive aspects.

Gould, Horn and Speerman (1983) had described fear of failure as an important factor contributing to state anxiety. The other dimension of competition anxiety namely its cognitive aspect has been described to have a similar effect. They noted that 11 percent of the athletes were concerned over evaluation by others and this was a source of stress for them. In other words this study showed that the athletes demonstrated a type of fear of failure that is measured by the performance fear appraisal inventory as a source of stress.

Gould, Petlichkoff and Weinberg (1984) showed that individuals who had a history of failing demonstrated higher levels of cognitive anxiety. This finding was reported after studying the relationship between competitive state anxiety inventory 2 subscales and performance. A total of 39 officers from a police training institute were assessed for pistol shooting performance. Another study showed that wrestlers who were more successful showed lower level of competition anxiety as compared to those

79 who had experienced more failure (Moorgan & Johnson, 1977). More recently the work of McGregor and Abrahamson (2000) showed us that the negative and positive influences of failure and success in sports accumulated to build up competitive trait anxiety over the course of an athletic career.

Elizabeth (2007) conducted a study consisting of (N=145) epee fencers. Results indicated that athletes who had higher general fear of failure were more likely to experience high cognitive anxiety before the fencing tournament. In other words fencers who had high fear of failure also had elevated cognitive anxiety prior to start of competition. Multiple regression analysis revealed fear of failure as a predictor of cognitive anxiety (β = .44, p< .001). On the other hand regression analysis failed to show fear of failure as a predictor of somatic anxiety.

The fourth hypothesis of this study was that “Sportswomen will show higher number of emotional indicators on Human Figure Drawing Test as compare to sportsmen.”

Our results showed that sportswomen had higher number of indicators as compared to sportsmen, hence proving our hypothesis (table, 10). Detailed analysis proved that the difference is statistically significant (t=-09.05, p=<0.0010). This finding is consistent with those reported by Picard (2015), who stated that girls perform better than boys in human figure drawing test.

Dov (1989) studies young long distance runners, for their psychological profiling human figure drawing test was utilized. The authors reported distortion of body image in seven subjects, two developed anorexia nervosa and another girl committed suicide.

The study of emotional indicators of athletes is of utmost importance. It has both theoretical as well as practical implications. Emotions affects athletic performance

80 and secondly they convey indispensable information on the athlete-environment relationship with respect to subjective importance attributed to the event, ability to cope with it and the action tendencies associated with it (i.e. approach, avoidance, reflective self-focused, or interacting externally focused behavior). This information is helpful for planning and implementing performance enhancement. It is also vital for psychological wellbeing of athletes. The major chunk of sports psychology literature dealing with athlete‟s emotions has remained focused on anxiety rather than exploring a wider range of emotions. The applied sports psychology also deals mainly with anxiety of the athlete and not the whole range of emotions. The instruments utilized for measuring emotional wellbeing of an athlete have been those which primarily confound anxiety with other emotions. The use of human figure drawing test in psychology is time tested and well known but its application in sports is not well studied. We believe that further assessment of this test in the field of sports may prove to be very fruitful. This test may provide a tool for selection of emotionally well suited athletes which may translate into better performances.

The fifth hypothesis of the current study was that “Sportsmen and women receiving psychological intervention i.e. Progressive muscle relaxation technique will show improvement in the level of competition anxiety as compared to control group.” Our results indicated that athletes who were exposed to PMR showed a significant reduction in competition anxiety as compared to control group (table, 11). This difference proved to be statistically significant (p<0.001), with an average drop of 19 points on SCAT scores. This finding is well supported by other studies. Maynard

(1995) conducted a field study to evaluate the effects of cognitive intervention on anxiety performance relationship in semi-professional soccer players. Participants were divided into two experimental groups, one suffering from debilitative cognitive

81 anxiety and other suffering from debilitative somatic anxiety. Each group consisted of

08 athletes. Both groups undertook a 12 weeks cognitive intervention program.

Results indicated that relaxation technique was effective in decreasing competition anxiety.

Navaneethan (2010) carried out a study to evaluate the effectiveness of PMR on competition anxiety in male intercollegiate volleyball players. The study consisted of

24 male volleyball players who were randomly assigned to intervention or control group. PMR sessions were conducted 3 days a week for a total of 6 weeks. Results demonstrated that the group which received PMR as intervention showed a significant reduction in cognitive and somatic anxiety whereas the control group failed to show any statistically significant difference in the pretest and posttest competition anxiety, hence supporting our findings.

While studying the stress management interventions for female athletes, Haney

(2004) verified that PMR significantly reduced trait anxiety hence favoring our results.

Maynard (1993) investigated two stress management techniques in field setting. The participants consisted of 20 collegiate field hockey players. They responded to competitive state anxiety inventory-2 (CSAI-2) on four occasions prior to an event.

The participants were divided into three groups. The first group consisted of athletes who reported high somatic anxiety and received intervention in the form of applied relaxation. The second group had athletes with elevated cognitive anxiety; they were exposed to positive thought control as intervention. The last group was designated as control. Results suggested that reducing anxiety with a method directed to athlete‟s dominant anxiety type is more efficacious.

82 Smith, Hancoc and Kerena (2006) carried out a randomized control trial of PMR and yoga to reduce stress and anxiety. He reported that results of both yoga and PMR were equally effective in reducing stress, anxiety and improving health status of the participants.

Gill, Kolt and Keating (2004) evaluated the multi-process theory while examining the effects of two relaxation techniques. A total of 76 participants were assessed on

CSAI-2 and results were compiled while comparing PMR with Benson‟s relaxation technique. The authors noted that both relaxation techniques were effective in reducing cognitive and somatic anxiety, and elevating self-confidence.

Perna et al. (2003) conducted a single blind randomized controlled clinical trial in order to assess the effects of cognitive behavioral stress management (CBSM) on injury and illness among competitive athletes. The CBSM consists of muscle relaxation, imagery, and cognitive restructuring. The authors reported that CBSM intervention designed specifically for an athlete population is effective in reducing injury and illness among athletes.

Patrick and Hrycaiko (1998) reported improvement in performance of athletes who received a mental training package. One of the components of the mental training package was progressive muscle relaxation. Butler (1996) recommended PMR for athletes who had difficulty sleeping the night before the competition due to higher anxiety levels. Jorm et al. (2004) conducted a meta-analysis of more than 60 research papers. Their aim was to scrutinize the effectiveness of relaxation treatment for reduction in anxiety. They included all the appropriate randomized control trials that were published on this topic up till 2003. With this major meta-analysis Jorm et al.

(2004) concluded that relaxation therapy was effective in combating anxiety. The

83 effect of relaxation was equal to other treatment modalities such as cognitive therapies, pharmacological treatments and interventions based on exposure. These findings and findings of this research proved the significant role of PMR in reducing anxiety. Therefore PMR needs to be incorporated into existing treatment modalities.

84 CONCLUSION

This study draws attention to the role of psychology in sports. The psychological dimension of sports is complex and multifaceted. Understanding and coping with the mental aspects of sports can prove to be very fruitful. It can not only improve the mental health of athletes but can also bring improvement in sporting performance.

The main purpose of this study was assessment and treatment of competition anxiety among sportsmen and sportswomen. This study was aimed to evaluate any gender differences in competition anxiety and fear of failure among athletes. Furthermore the emotional indicators of athletes were also assessed using Human Figure Drawing

Test. The study also measured the impact of Progressive Muscle Relaxation in lowering high competition anxiety.

The findings suggest that sportsmen exhibited higher level of competition as compared to their female counterparts. This is an important finding since it is contradictory to most of the literature reported by the western authors. This finding gives us an insight into the sporting culture of our own society where sportswomen have been plagued by the patriarchal society. The systematic gender subordination that we find in our society is also prevalent in the sporting culture of our country. The sporting activity of female athletes is not given the same importance and media coverage, as compared to male athletes. This may put them at a less demanding situation which may lead to lower competition anxiety. It was also concluded that sportsmen had higher fear of failure as compared to sportswomen, a finding that seems synchronized with higher competition anxiety in sportsmen. This leads us to answering yet another importance question i.e., whether there is any correlation

85 between competition anxiety and fear of failure. This study concluded that there is a strong positive correlation between these two variables.

This study also proved that sportswomen showed higher number of emotional indicators as compared to sportsmen. This finding provides us a glimpse into the emotions of an athlete. The study also confirmed that progressive muscle relaxation is an effective method of lowering high competition. This technique is simple yet effective. It can easily be taught to coaches and athletes at college/university level as well as at professional level.

This study addressed some vital questions pertaining to sports psychology. It will bring into light the long neglected role of psychology in sports and provide an impetus for further research in this respect.

86 LIMITATIONS

It is only prudent to accept limitations of the present study. The time constrains and limited resources available to conduct the study were the main factors adding to limitations.

First of all the sample size was small considering the magnitude of the problem. The current security and economic situation lead to limited sporting events during the study period hence limiting the sample size considerably. Furthermore the sample belonged only to Khyber Pukhtoon Khawa. More resources are needed to carry out a nationwide study. The benefits of such a study cannot be under estimated since it would considerably diversify the sample and include athletes from all ethnicities and cultural backgrounds hence eliminating selection bias. The psychology behind athletes is complex and multi-faceted. The current study only explored few dimensions of it. Probing into the select few in isolation, without considering the effects of other factors on competition anxiety and fear of failure may well be a major limitation of this study.

Another limitation of the current study was that competition anxiety was evaluated as a whole without digging into different aspects of it such as trait anxiety, state anxiety or somatic and cognitive anxiety. Studying the different subtypes of competition anxiety remained unexplored in the present study.

This study assessed the emotional indicators among athletes using human figure drawing test which has rarely been utilized for this purpose among athletes. Further studies are needed for the validation of Human Figure Drawing Test in sports setting.

87 Whether Human Figure Drawing Test is better than other scales such as Differential

Emotions Scale in sports psychology was also not addressed in the current study.

The current study only showed that sports women had greater number of emotional indicators than sportsmen. The nature and depth of these indicators and there implications on athletic performance was not studied. Further studies are needed in this respect. The effectiveness of behavioral therapy in reducing competition anxiety was evaluated but only Progressive Muscle Relaxation was included in the study.

Further research is needed into other techniques as well. The present study showed that Progressive Muscle Relaxation technique is an effective in reducing competition anxiety but whether this reduction in competition anxiety translates into improvement of athletic performance remains unanswered. The effectiveness of PMR on reducing competition anxiety was proven in this study but whether it is more effective in decreasing trait or stat anxiety was not addressed.

Yet another limitation of this study was that on one hand it proved that high competition anxiety is positively correlated with fear of failure but it did not explore the fact that whether lowering competition anxiety with PMR leads to decreasing fear of failure as well or not.

The psychological understanding of sports is very complex involving a wide range of personality traits, behavior and emotions of an athlete. The sports psychology literature is overwhelmed mainly with exploring the anxiety aspect only. The present study added the dimension of fear of failure as well but a more holistic approach is needed to fully scrutinize all the aspects of sports psychology.

88 SUGGESTIONS

Based on the outcome of this study we propose the following suggestions to further enrich the knowledge of sports psychology.

The sample of this study comprised of athletes from KPK only. A nationwide study is recommended to diversify the sample in order to come up with findings at national level. Further studies are suggested to incorporate athletes from different age groups, professional as well as amateur athletes. This study consisted of athletes involved in team sports, studies of similar nature are suggested to explore the problems of athletes involved in individual sports as well.

The gender differences of competition anxiety were addressed in this study but its different dimensions remained unexplored. Further studies are suggested to delve in to individual aspects of competition anxiety in order to appreciate whether one particular aspects of completion anxiety varies between the two genders or the variation occurs as whole.

We concluded that competition anxiety is higher in male athletes as compare to females and as previously stated this finding contradicts the work of western authors.

It is suggested that further studies should probe this important finding and explore it in further detail.

The role of coaches is critical in any sports. It is recommended that close cooperation between coaches and sports psychologists should be carried out in order to improve their abilities in understanding and coping with different stressors faced by the athlete.

89 The psychological understanding of competition anxiety and fear of failure in team sports was addressed in the present study. It is recommended that similar study designs should evaluate the same factors in individual sports as well.

Our athletes while playing at international level fails to cope with stressful situation hence there is fall in their performance. It is suggested that coping strategies be introduced and practiced from university/college level athletes so that when they perform at international level they are equally prepared to face stressful athletic situations as their counterparts.

The role of sports psychology has long been neglected in our set up and this has been one of the factors for fall in performance of sportsmen/women from our country. It is suggested that regular visits or team meetings be arranged between athletes and psychologists to bridge this gap.

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