Good Anxiety And Stress Essay Example

Introduction

Sports psychology is an interdisciplinary science that gathers knowledge from different fields that are interconnected. The related fields may include physiology, kinesiology, biomechanics, as well as psychology. The science includes the study of the performance and participation of an individual in sports as well as exercise may affect the psychological and physical factors. Sports and Exercise Psychology stand on the pillars or foundations of anxiety and stress, stress, aggression, as well as ethics. Each of the foundations has a unique effect on how an individual would engage in a sports activity. Anxiety defines the existence of massive fear in an individual that would influence the activation of the body of a human being. Stress comes in as an inequality between the demands of the feelings of a person in connection with the ability to meet the demands with the failures that they involve. Aggression is any form of behavior directed toward the goal of harming or injuring another person who is motivated to avoid such treatment. Lastly, ethics as the standards or conditions that govern or control different physical activities have exclusive significance to sports psychology.

Anxiety is a bad emotional state that comes with the feelings of worry, nervousness, as well as apprehension that is connected to the activation of the body. On the other hand, stress, is an inequality between the demands of the feelings of an individual as well as his or her feelings of capability to meet the demands with the failures of such demands having crucial consequences (Psychology Campus, 2008).
The effects of stress and anxiety may be defined by various theories. The first theory is the drive theory, which states that the more arousal and anxiety an individual experiences, the higher the performance of an individual.
Inverted U Hypothesis is a theory that speculates the existence of a medium amount of stress as well as anxiety that leads an individual to perform better. Excessively little anxiety or stress, as well as excessive anxiety or stress, reduces the performance of a person.
The individual Zones of Optimal Functioning theory is the other theory that has a direct impact on the effects of stress and anxiety on the sports performance of an individual. The theory acknowledges that different people have different levels of anxiety and stress that make them perform in different ways. Some people perform well in low anxiety, some at a medium level, and others at high levels (Psychology Campus, 2008).
Multidimensional anxiety theory also has a direct effect to the effectiveness of anxiety in the physical performance of an individual. The theory dictates that people with anxious thoughts will always have poorer performance. It is the opposite of the Catastrophe Model, which posits that provided there are lower levels of anxiety in an individual, then performance will be outstanding at a medium level of physical activities. If the levels of worry are high performance will be better at a medium level of physical exercises. Lastly, how an individual views his or her anxiety is very important in determining their performance in various activities (Psychology Campus, 2008).
The theories are highly effective in defining the significance of anxiety and stress as psychological elements of a player. The theories act as stamps to the significance of psychological soberness in achieving exclusive performance in physical activities. Anxiety highly depends on the mind status of an individual, which has a direct impact on the effectiveness of an individual in a certain competition (Psychology Campus, 2008).

Stress

All stress is not harmful to one's performance. It may affect the performance of an individual in different ways. Stress may be significant in making one more alert, more motivated to practice, as well as assist the individual gain a competitive edge. Based on the stress level, it may help oneself to prepare, focus, as well as perform at his or her optimal level. However, excessive stress, which may the bad stress, may lead to performance anxiety. The stress hurts one’s health and does not allow an individual to participate in a physical activity as relaxed, confident, as well as focused on competition (Cohn, 2015).
Every physical competition engages some stress, which may be good or bad. Positive stress is usually helpful in stilling anxiety and trepidation. For example, in athletics, pregame jitters are common forms of stress that cause athletes not to sleep well the previous night before the competition (Cohn, 2015). The stress causes physical changes in the body of the athlete.
An individual may feel the excitement of thrill in expectancy for competition. Highly charged activation helps an individual in performing the best. However, the excitement within an individual may lead to negative or poor performance for the individual (Cohn, 2015).
Sometimes, too little or too much stress can lead to a reduction in performance. One has to possess the skills or ability to attract effective performance. The potential of a person to deal with the pregame nerves is critical or highly significant in dealing with the consistent peak performance. The stress that one develops in a game is highly sensitive in defining what an individual ought to do to define the level of performance that he or she may achieve at a certain level. Positive or good stress will ensure the individual achieves great in a physical exercise while negative or bad stress, attract poor performance (Cohn, 2015).

Aggression

Aggression refers to any form of behavior directed toward the goal of harming or injuring another lived individual who is motivated to avoid such treatment. In sports, aggression can have massively negative and positive effects on performance. Although, many people may view aggression as a negative psychological element, it may possess positive traits that may be significant in advancing the performance of an individual (TheSportInMind, 2013).
Aggression encourages assertive behavior. It is a point where a player plays within the rules of the sport at an extremely high intensity without the intention of harming the opponent. Aggression encourages exclusive performance on physical activities and aims at achieving or exploiting the maximum potential of an individual (sp1keeps, 2013).
Aggression may be categorized into hostile and instrumental classes. Hostile aggression refers to the time when one aims at causing harm or injury to an opponent. Instrumental aggression is driven by the aim of achieving a goal through aggression(TheSportInMind, 2013). For example, in rugby competition, the players will exert exclusive tackles that are not meant to hurt the opponent player but to help him win the ball.
Instrumental aggression is highly common among professional players. They pose every challenge with the aim of winning the game. Instrumental aggression comes with high levels of self-control, which help them in securing balanced or safe competitions that would help them in achieving the required levels of performance (TheSportInMind, 2013).
Situational and personal factors are also highly effective in making people behave aggressively. The personality of an individual is highly effective in determining whether certain individuals are aggressive or not. Sports stressors come with exclusive understanding of what causes an athlete to become frustrated (TheSportInMind, 2013). In most cases, frustrations can cause aggression as well as the decline in performance.
Since aggression seems to come from various sources, it is advisable to understand where the sources stem from. Sports stressors would be highly effective in understating what makes an athlete frustrated that may cause aggression as well as a decline in performance (sp1keeps, 2013).

Ethics

Ethics is the standards or conditions that govern or control different activities. In sports, ethics has extensive control on how the parties involved take charge of their duties. In this case, it is wise to understand the difference between gamesmanship and sportsmanship when it comes to the understanding of the effects of ethics in sports.
Gamesmanship highly depends on the principle that winning is everything. Therefore, the motivation for the athletes and coaches is winning. At such a point, every condition is encouraged provided it will help in winning a competition. Therefore, athletes and coaches may have to bend the rules to win a certain game. There are some individuals who have the gamesmanship character, which tells them that winning is everything (Hanson & Matt, 2012). They believe that if they win on a physical activity, they will have achieved every success that comes along.
Every physical activity should be fair. It means that cheating should not be part of a game. However, the sensitivity of fairness comes when cheating is defined as evident when one is caught. At some point, people may play with exclusive safety that hides them from the reality. They ensure they do everything to achieve positive results(Hanson & Matt, 2012). At such a moment, such people engage in cheating, and it is legal to them until they are caught.
Other people argue that the ends justify the means. They do not intend to follow a certain set of rules to define their take on a certain issue in a physical activity. People do not intend to follow certain standards to achieve the goals. Instead, they follow certain principles that show their selfish interest of gaining certain goals that are only favorable to them (Hanson & Matt, 2012). The results of an activity are the most paramount in defining the rules of a game or physical activity. In such a case, foul play is common.
Every physical activity should have certain rules that govern it. It means the ethics of a certain physical activity must be respected, and the necessary conditions must be satisfied. However, it is not usually the case as other people wish to define their own ways of achieving success in the activities.

Conclusion

Sports Psychology as an interdisciplinary science highly depends on various factors that act as its foundation. The main pillars are anxiety and stress, stress, aggression, as well as ethics. Each of them holds an exclusive role that defines why people behave the way they do in a competition. Anxiety may affect sports psychology in a negative way while stress may be good or bad affecting the behavior in a positive or negative way. Aggression is mainly attached to the goal as long as the standards are maintained. Lastly, ethics defines the conditions that must be satisfied before declaration of success in a physical activity.

References

Cohn, P., 2015., Peak Performance Sports. Retrieved 03 30, 2015, from How Stress Can Affect Sports Performance: http://www.peaksports.com/sports_psychology_blog/?p=1718
Hanson, K. O., & Matt, S., 2012, 08 01., Santa Clara Univeristy. Retrieved 03 30, 2015, from What Role Does Ethics Play in Sports?: http://www.scu.edu/ethics/publications/submitted/sports-ethics.html
Psychology Campus., 2008, 02 03., Retrieved 05 30, 2015, from Arousal, Stress & Anxiety: http://www.psychologycampus.com/sports-psychology/arousal-anxiety.html
sp1keeps., 2013, 11 28., Sports Psychology. Retrieved 03 30, 2015, from Aggression and its effect on Sports Performance: https://sp1keeps.wordpress.com/2013/11/28/aggression-and-its-effect-on-sports-performance/
TheSportInMind., 2013, 05 23., The Sport in Mind. Retrieved 03 30, 2015, from Aggression in Sport: http://www.thesportinmind.com/articles/aggression-in-sport-2/