Definition Of Trait Anxiety In Sport

People have various levels of trait anxiety and an athlete with high levels of trait anxiety will need to develop mechanisms to control the levels of anxiety that arise with performance.

Definition of trait anxiety in sport. The medical definition of anxiety describes it is astate consisting of psychological and physical symptoms brought about by a sense of apprehension of a perceived threat. Trait anxiety refers to anxiety as a characteristic of a person so that the person is generally anxious about unknown outcomes it is a part of who the person is. The present study examined how the level of trait anxiety which is a personality characteristic influences state anxiety and penalty shoot out performance under pressure by instruction. The high and low trait anxiety groups were selected by using spielberger s trait anxiety scale with trait anxiety scores and control and pressure conditions manipulated by instructions.

The athlete s emotional state at any given time variable from situation to situation. A self help guide is that it s the result of an interaction between the. For example people with higher trait anxiety are more likely to be aroused in certain situations than others. Anxiety in sport a negative reaction of a performer to stress often leading to over arousal an emotional state similar to fear associated with arousal and accompanied by feelings of nervousness and apprehension state anxiety.

Stress is not only found in sports performance but across many aspects of life. To measure arousal they look at changes in these physiological signs. Anxiety within sport. However in sport stress refers to the relationship between an individual and the environmental.

This trait refers to individual differences in responding to a situation with state anxiety which means producing an arousal response. Sport and exercise psychologists measure arousal state anxiety and trait anxiety in various physiological ways and through psychological measures. Graham jones in the book sport psychology. Heart rate respiration skin conductance recorded on a voltage meter and biochemistry used to assess changes in substances such as catecholamines.

Trait anxiety is long term anxiety and means the individual has anxiety as a personality trait. A lack of consensus makes it difficult to clearly define anxiety and stress in sport but one definition proposed by sport psychology consultant dr. Proneness to experiencing anxiety individuals with high trait anxiety have a propensity to seeing the world as more risky or dangerous than those with low trait anxiety and tend to react with state anxiety to scenarios which would not induce this reaction in individuals with low trait anxiety.