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Advanced psychological strategies and competitive anxiety responses in sport

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posted on 2022-05-06, 14:47 authored by Sheldon Hanton, Ross Wadey, Stephen MellalieuStephen Mellalieu

 This study examined the use of four advanced psychological strategies (i.e., simulation training, cognitive restructuring, preperformance routines, and overlearning of skills) and subsequent competitive anxiety responses. Semistructured interviews were employed with eight highly elite athletes from a number of team and individual sports. Participants reported using each strategy to enable them to interpret their anxiety-response as facilitative to performance. Only cognitive restructuring and overlearning of skills were perceived by the participants to exert an influence over the intensity of cognitive symptoms experienced. The perceived causal mechanisms responsible for these effects included heightened attentional focus, increased effort and motivation, and perceived control over anxiety-related symptoms. These findings have implications for the practice of sport psychology with athletes debilitated by competitive anxiety in stressful situations. 

History

Published in

The Sport Psychologist

Publisher

Human Kinetics

Publication Year

2008

Version

  • VoR (Version of Record)

Citation

Hanton, S., Wadey, R. and Mellalieu, S.D. (2008) 'Advanced psychological strategies and competitive anxiety responses in sport', The Sport Psychologist, 22 (4), pp. 472-490

Print ISSN

0888-4781

Cardiff Met Affiliation

  • Cardiff School of Sport and Health Sciences

Cardiff Met Authors

Sheldon Hanton Stephen Mellalieu

Cardiff Met Research Centre/Group

  • Mental Health and Wellbeing in Demanding Environments

Copyright Holder

  • © The Publisher

Publisher Rights Statement

Publisher's PDF made available in accordance with the publisher's self-archiving policy [as at May 2013]

Language

  • en

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