STRESS MANAGEMENT

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STRESS MANAGEMENT

• Damon Burton
• Vandal Sport Psychology Services
• University of Idaho

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MISCONCEPTION 1 STRESS IS HIGH SITUATIONAL DEMAND

• Situations are not inherently stressful because
  competitive demands exceed performers response
  capabilities such as shooting a free throw or
  taking a penalty kick with the game on the line,
  playing a tiebreaker in a tennis match, having a
  sudden death playoff in golf, or batting with the
  game tied in the ninth in baseball.
• Olympic Finals, Superbowls, seventh games of NBA,
  NHL or Major League Baseball Championship Series,
  the final holes of the Masters or a tie breaker
  at Wimbleton are not innately stressful.

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STRESSFUL LIFE EVENTS RESEARCH

• Individuals who experience stressful life events
  such as taking a new job, moving, getting married
  or divorced, having a baby, losing a loved one,
  dealing with serious medical problems report
  higher stress levels than those with mundane
  lives.
• Sport has many competitive experiences that can
  be stressful such as playing for a new team,
  having a new coach, moving up or down in
  competitive level, going through a slump,
  experiencing lengthy winning or losing streaks or
  getting benched or starting unexpectedly.

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STRESS ACCUMULATION OF DAILY HASSLES

• Lifes daily hassles include the alarm not going
  off, being late for class, missing an
  appointment, breaking a shoestring, fighting with
  a friend, forgetting an assignment or burning
  dinner.
• Sport hassles include equipment malfunctions,
  weather problems, your coach is in a bad mood, a
  teammate repeatedly makes the same mistake, and
  you feel tired and a step slow.

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MISCONCEPTION 2 STRESS IS AN EMOTIONAL RESPONSE

• Heightened activation of the autonomic nervous
  system due to perceived threat doesnt always
  create stress.
• No matter how great the environmental demand, you
  will not be stressed as long as you believe you
  have the response capabilities to deal with it.

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WHAT IS STRESS?

• Stress is a substantial imbalance between
  environmental demand (i.e., what you perceive is
  being demanded of you) and response capabilities
  (i.e., what you perceive your capabilities are
  for meeting those demands), when you perceive
  success to be important (McGrath, 1970).

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LAZARUS MODELOF STRESS

• primary appraisal
• secondary appraisal
• coping resources

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PRIMARY APPRAISAL

• Performers evaluate the impact of the upcoming
  situation on their physical and psychological
  well-being.
• They ask the question, Whats at stake in this
  situation for me?

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COMPONENTS OF PRIMARY APPRAISAL

• goal importance the degree to which the
  situation will impact attainment of valued
  personal goals.
• ego identity the extent that you identify with
  or are committed to attaining your goals,
• goal uncertainty the degree to which you are
  unsure of whether you can attain your personal
  goals.

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SECONDARY APPRAISAL

• When primary appraisal confirms that something
  meaningful is at stake in the situation,
  secondary appraisal assesses how well competitors
  can manage the demands of the situation.
• They ask the question, What can be done?
• Performers evaluate how much personal control
  they have over preventing or overcoming harm and
  maximizing their chances for achieving positive
  outcomes.

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COMPONENTS OF SECONDARY APPRAISAL

• perceived control assesses whether personal
  coping efforts can reduce or eliminate the source
  of uncertainty in the situation.
• How much control do I have over eliminating my
  anxiety about playing poorly in tonights big
  game?
• coping potential If the source of stress is
  controllable, coping potential is your evaluation
  of whether you have the necessary coping
  resources to actually reduce or eliminate the
  source of uncertainty in this situation.
• Do I have the skills/strategies to manage this?
• Can I make them work in this situation?

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OVERALL APPRAISAL

• Whether overall appraisal of the situation is
  viewed positively as a challenge or benefit or
  negatively as a threat or harm/loss depends on
  ones responses to two critical secondary
  appraisal questions
• How much control do I have to reduce or
  eliminate the source of stress?
• What is my potential ability to cope with these
  sources of stress, both the options available to
  me and the potential effectiveness of those
  options?

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CHALLENGE APPRAISALS

• Challenge appraisals put a positive spin on
  competition, focusing on the opportunity to
  overcome obstacles and achieve success.
• Challenge appraisals normally prompt
• optimistic emotions,
• constructive coping strategies, and
• effective performance.

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THREAT APPRAISALS

• Threat appraisals occur when performers appraise
  control over sources of stress as low and/or
  perceive low coping potential.
• Threat appraisal highlights the negatives of a
  specific situation, emphasizing the threat of
  failure due to the inability to overcome
  obstacles.
• Threat appraisals prompt
• pessimistic emotions,
• ineffective problem-solving strategies, and
• subpar performance.

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COPING RESOURCES

• Coping strategies are the actual cognitive and
  behavioral techniques that athletes employ to
  deal with problems and to improve emotional
  well-being.
• Two major categories of coping strategies have
  been identified
• problem-management and
• emotion-management.

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PROBLEM-MANAGEMENT

• Cognitive and behavioral strategies that focus on
  changing the source of stress and encompass a
  host of strategies such as
• self-monitoring
• planning,
• reducing competing activities,
• increasing effort,
• informational social support,
• self talk, and
• active coping.

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EMOTION-MANAGEMENT

• Cognitive and behavioral techniques designed to
  decrease emotional distress, even if the source
  of threat remains unchanged, boosting morale
  through . . .
• emotional social support,
• relaxation,
• reappraisal and positive thinking,
• wishful thinking,
• self blame and isolation, and
• mental and behavioral withdrawal.

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POSITIVE APPRAISAL EMOTIONS

• self-confidence a positive belief or
  expectation of success
• excitement/readiness physical activation of the
  autonomic nervous system that is interpreted as
  effective physical preparation.

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NEGATIVE APPRAISAL EMOTIONS

• cognitive anxiety a negative belief or
  expectation of success or worrying about the
  negative consequences of failure.
• somatic anxiety physiological and affective
  component of anxiety that develops directly from
  activation of the autonomic nervous system that
  is interpreted negatively.

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Model of Competitive Emotions
Facilitative

• excitement
• readiness

• self-confidence

Physical
Mental

• somatic anxiety

• cognitive anxiety

Debilitative
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WHAT IS STRESS MANAGEMENT?

• Stress Management is a process designed to
  reduce or eliminate the negative consequences of
  stress, particularly mental and physical anxiety,
  in order to help performers feel better
  emotionally and perform up to their capabilities.
  

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PROBLEM-MANAGEMENT STRATEGIES

• Proactive Problem Management
• competitive engineering
• personal engineering
• Reactive Problem Management
• problem-solving
• mental plans

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PROACTIVE PROBLEM MANAGEMENT GOALS

• Competitive Engineering --reduce excessive
  competitive demand (primary appraisal)
• Personal Engineering -- enhance personal control
  (secondary appraisal)

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COMPETITIVE ENGINEERING

• reducing unnecessary uncertainty
• removing excessive importance dont
  overemphasize winning

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PERSONAL ENGINEERING

• increasing personal control focus on process
  goals
• enhance performance capabilities (e.g.,
  conditioning, skills strategies)

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REACTIVE PROBLEM MANAGEMENT GOALS

• Problem-Solving enhance ability to effectively
  solve problems in competition
• Mental Plans develop highly automated routines
  to attain, maintain and regain a Flow mindset and
  achieve your goals.

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DEVELOP PROBLEM-SOLVING SKILLS

• use personal science approach
• break situations down into parts, and
• constantly critique problem-solving efforts.

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CONSTRUCT MENTAL PLANS

• systematic approach to handling
  frequently-encountered problem situations,
• game plan for dealing with problems,
• Mental Plans deal with problems before, during
  and after practice and competition.

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EMOTION MANAGEMENT MODEL

• arousal-triggered stress
• thought-triggered stress.

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TOTAL EMOTION MANAGEMENT PACKAGES

• rapid relaxation is combined with self talk
  using a systematic process to develop an
  integrated coping response.

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TOTAL EMOTION MANAGEMENT PACKAGES

• Stress Management Training (SMT) and
• Stress Inoculation Training (SIT)

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TOTAL EMOTION MANAGEMENT PACKAGES

• Common rationale combination of relaxation and
  self talk copes with all types of stress,
• Systematic approach chunks situations into
  parts, sets process goals, helps to create Flow
  mindset, and provides a backup plan to deal with
  problems.
• Automate component skills
• Develops an Integrated Coping Response (ICR)
  

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INTEGRATED COPING RESPONSE
so
counterargument to combat negative thoughts
relaxation cue word
inhale
exhale
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TEMPs PRACTICE STRATEGIES

• Total Immersion practices managing maximum
  stress.
• Gradual Exposure -- rehearses handling gradually
  increasing stress levels

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The End