POINT FORM SUMMARY

Categorizing Emotions

Emotions are powerful, but not all bad. Positive emotions are just as powerful as negative emotions. As mentioned earlier, overall positive mood is good because it increases the overall efficiency of the nervous system; however, specific moods and emotions are usually not used by international level athletes because they are hard to replicate and they can distract from flow.

One should not confuse the tensing up of the body in a stressful situation with emotion. It is quite natural for the face to show strain when the body is in strain. Easterners call this the natural flow of energy. Many of their martial arts include making attack noises and faces in their movements, all without emotion.

Emotions are symptoms, not causes; so there are no good or bad emotions. If you do not like what you feel, see if there is anything you can do to change things for the better. If you do like what are feeling, see if you can figure out how you can make that continue.

Emotions tend to follow patterns. A common pattern in sport is the reaction after trying something your very hardest, and not achieving what you hoped. It always follows sequence anger → depression → acceptance and can last from a few seconds to forever, usually around an hour. It is best to let the cycle take its natural course and not intervene.

arousal:

· to awake from sleep (fully conscious, alert, aware)

· to rouse or stimulate to action

· to physiological readiness for activity

· activation: energy mobilization required for an organism to pursue its goals and meet its needs.

physical arousal/activation:

· is extent organism overall aroused and activated

· is activity of processes that provide energy for overt behavior (not actual overt behavior)

· is located in thalamus, hypothalamus, limbic system, RAS (reticular activating system)

· is measured by: muscle tension (electromyogram), skin conductance, brain activity (EEG), BP, pulse, body temp, blood volume in body parts.

metabolism:

· the chemical changes in living cells by which energy is provided for vital processes and activities and material is assimilated.

· metabolize: to perform metabolism

Comparing physical arousal versus mental awakeness and alertness

· can be very awake and physiologically quite (studying)

· can be very unalert and physiologically aroused (cocaine, trance state in distance running)

Goal:

decide on appropriate arousal or activation.

· Ask where occurring, how occurring. It is not overall increase or decrease of activation.

• Physical activation:
  • increase for gross or aggressive movements
  • decrease for fine movements
• Mental activation:
  • for high concentration events
    • decrease (dec metabolism in emotional areas - limbic, amygdala)
    • increase (metabolism in thinking area - frontal cortex)
  • for low concentration events
    • decrease attentional abilities (trance state)

example: ski racing: High physical activation, high concentration

• Many sport psych texts suggest moderate arousal.
      (high arousal for physical + low arousal for concentration = moderate arousal)
• Problem: Cannot expect to perform at best capacity if neither state, physical or mental, is ideally approached. (like putting bad fuel in jaguar)
• Solution: physiological frame of reference. Increase physiological arousal.
      decrease metabolism in emotional areas of cortex.
      increase metabolism in cognitive areas of cortex.
  

stressors: adjustment demands

stress: effects that stressors have on organism

eustress: positive stress

distress: negative stress

· both eustress and distress tax resources and coping skills

coping strategies: dealing with stress
· stress and coping strategies are integrated and dependent on each other

Sources of stressors:

frustrations, pressures, conflicts (approach-avoidance, double-approach, double-avoidance)

Vulnerability to stressors:

· Nature of stressor (cumulative, longer, quality, time to deal with → increase stress)

· Perception of threat (decrease with control, tolerance-idiosyncratic)

· External resources & social support

anxiety:

subjective feeling of apprehensiveness and heightened physiological arousal.

types: trait, state

• trait anxiety: inherent personal characteristics
• state anxiety: reactive...types:
  • cognitive state anxiety:
    • mental component of state anxiety caused by fear of negative self evaluation and threat to self-esteem.
  • somatic state anxiety:
    • physiological and affective aspects of anxiety. Is directly related to arousal.

Fear → amygdala activated

amygdala:

Narrow responses for fight and flight are wired in the amygdala. The starter motor for all body movements are straight from the amygdala, ignoring high-order movements in the frontal cortex.

ex Parkinson’s:

Cortical starter motor not working so difficult moving. If have to move to avoid danger → can.

Implication for sport:

If movements complicated and integrated, best to avoid innate fear. Rehearse in advance specific responses to difficult situations.

Fear → anxiety response to fear sets up blocks in unpredictable places in cortex

· do not have full use all capacities (cannot self-actualize)

· do not see reality properly (may not see real dangers, skewed judgement)

examples: desensitization, defensiveness, compulsiveness, obsessiveness..

Controlled aggression: being aggressive in a controlled, non-emotional way.

see “focus and flow”

Hostile aggression: being angry or mad.

If mad, response sets become very narrow and unpredictable, often ignoring the primed premotor cortical areas. If you achieved a good performance while mad, you can only achieve the same performance with exactly the same emotions (SAT).

Crazy aggression: being desensitized. “do or die”.

Can easily make mistakes because impulsive and not caring enough for self to be able to reality check.