Document Text Contents
Page 51
43
and included the following: active coping, seeking social support for instrumental
reasons, planning, seeking social support for emotional reasons, denial, humor,
behavioral disengagement, venting of emotion, and suppression of competing activities.
The other three scales consisted of self-blame, wishful thinking and increasing effort.
Each of the 12 scales consisted of four items, each item being scored on a 5-point Likert
scale with 1 standing for used not at all/very little and 5 meaning used very much. Some
of the scales were rewritten to adjust them to a sport environment as well as to a 5th grade
reading level to make them understandable to all participants.
Crocker and Graham (1995) used performance goal incongruence as a measure of
stress, which was defined as whether an athlete was (a) able to perform as well as wanted,
or, (b) did not reach the performance goal, or (c) was unable to reach the performance
goal. Affect was assessed using the Positive Affect and Negative Affect Schedule
(PANAS: Watson, Clark, & Tellegen, 1988), which consists of two scales: positive affect
reflecting the level of pleasurable engagement with the environment and negative affect
representing general negative valence associated with subjective distress. Each scale was
made up of 10 items, scored on a 5-point scale with 1 being not at all and 5 meaning
extremely.
The results indicated that problem-focused coping and avoidance coping strategies
were employed most often by this sample. Moreover, younger athletes seemed to use
more avoidance coping while older athletes appeared to employ more problem-focused
coping. Furthermore athletes reported the use of self-blame and social support. Moreover
the findings indicated that male and female athletes appraised and coped differently with
performance related stress. Females sought more emotional support and showed higher
Page 52
44
levels of increased effort. Furthermore, it was implied by the data that positive affect was
positively related to problem-focused coping. On the other hand negative affect was
positively related to emotion-based coping.
However, certain limitations apply to this data: As mentioned by the authors
"emotion is a reaction to meaning, and if the meaning is changed there will also be a
change in the subsequent emotion". The ever-changing nature of stress and emotion
makes it difficult to determine the effects of coping on emotion in certain situations,
especially with using a retrospective measure, which requires athletes to recall
experiences and strategies.
Anshel and Delany (1998) conducted a study to identify the sources of acute stress
of male and female child athletes. They also attempted to assess the athletes' cognitive
appraisals and coping strategies used during competitive sport events. A total of 52 field
hockey players, 36 males and 16 females aged 10-12, participated in the study. A
structured personal interview technique was used for researching child stress and coping
to facilitate recall of events. Furthermore, each structured interview consisted of
determining the athlete's sources of acute stress that they encountered during the game,
and the cognitive appraisal and coping strategies used in response to each stressor. The
majority of the interviews were conducted in person, while a few of them were done over
the phone.
Overall, the results suggested that receiving a bad call from the umpire and making
a physical game error were the two most often cited sources of stress for athletes.
Furthermore, the findings indicated that sources of stress were either appraised as
positive or negative, where both males and females appraised stress as negative.
Page 101
93
Thompson, M. (1989). The development of a sport aggression questionnaire for the study
of acts of aggression (abstract). Proceedings of the Association for the
Advancement of Applied Sport Psychology (p. 104). Seattle, WA.
Tulloch, R. (1990). Cognitive perspectives on anger control training. In W. Dryden & M.
Scott (Eds.), An introduction to cognitive-behaviour therapy: Theory and
applications (pp. 79-98). Loughton, Essex: Gale Centre Publications.
Vallerand, R. (1983). On emotion in sport: Theoretical and social psychological
perspectives. Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology, 5, 197-215.
Watson, D., Clark, L. A. & Tellegen, A. (1988) Development and validation of brief
measures of positive and negative affect. The PANAS scales. Journal of
Personality and Social Psychology, 54, 1063-1070.
Weiner, B. (1986). An attributional theory of motivation and emotion. New York:
Springer Verlag.
Williams, J. M. (1999). Applied sport psychology: Personal growth to peak performance
(4th ed.). Mountain View, CA: Mayfield Publishing Company.
Yerkes, R., & Dodson, J. (1908). The relationship of strength of stimulus to rapidity of
habit formation. Journal of Comparative Neurology and Psychology, 18, 459-482.
43
and included the following: active coping, seeking social support for instrumental
reasons, planning, seeking social support for emotional reasons, denial, humor,
behavioral disengagement, venting of emotion, and suppression of competing activities.
The other three scales consisted of self-blame, wishful thinking and increasing effort.
Each of the 12 scales consisted of four items, each item being scored on a 5-point Likert
scale with 1 standing for used not at all/very little and 5 meaning used very much. Some
of the scales were rewritten to adjust them to a sport environment as well as to a 5th grade
reading level to make them understandable to all participants.
Crocker and Graham (1995) used performance goal incongruence as a measure of
stress, which was defined as whether an athlete was (a) able to perform as well as wanted,
or, (b) did not reach the performance goal, or (c) was unable to reach the performance
goal. Affect was assessed using the Positive Affect and Negative Affect Schedule
(PANAS: Watson, Clark, & Tellegen, 1988), which consists of two scales: positive affect
reflecting the level of pleasurable engagement with the environment and negative affect
representing general negative valence associated with subjective distress. Each scale was
made up of 10 items, scored on a 5-point scale with 1 being not at all and 5 meaning
extremely.
The results indicated that problem-focused coping and avoidance coping strategies
were employed most often by this sample. Moreover, younger athletes seemed to use
more avoidance coping while older athletes appeared to employ more problem-focused
coping. Furthermore athletes reported the use of self-blame and social support. Moreover
the findings indicated that male and female athletes appraised and coped differently with
performance related stress. Females sought more emotional support and showed higher
Page 52
44
levels of increased effort. Furthermore, it was implied by the data that positive affect was
positively related to problem-focused coping. On the other hand negative affect was
positively related to emotion-based coping.
However, certain limitations apply to this data: As mentioned by the authors
"emotion is a reaction to meaning, and if the meaning is changed there will also be a
change in the subsequent emotion". The ever-changing nature of stress and emotion
makes it difficult to determine the effects of coping on emotion in certain situations,
especially with using a retrospective measure, which requires athletes to recall
experiences and strategies.
Anshel and Delany (1998) conducted a study to identify the sources of acute stress
of male and female child athletes. They also attempted to assess the athletes' cognitive
appraisals and coping strategies used during competitive sport events. A total of 52 field
hockey players, 36 males and 16 females aged 10-12, participated in the study. A
structured personal interview technique was used for researching child stress and coping
to facilitate recall of events. Furthermore, each structured interview consisted of
determining the athlete's sources of acute stress that they encountered during the game,
and the cognitive appraisal and coping strategies used in response to each stressor. The
majority of the interviews were conducted in person, while a few of them were done over
the phone.
Overall, the results suggested that receiving a bad call from the umpire and making
a physical game error were the two most often cited sources of stress for athletes.
Furthermore, the findings indicated that sources of stress were either appraised as
positive or negative, where both males and females appraised stress as negative.
Page 101
93
Thompson, M. (1989). The development of a sport aggression questionnaire for the study
of acts of aggression (abstract). Proceedings of the Association for the
Advancement of Applied Sport Psychology (p. 104). Seattle, WA.
Tulloch, R. (1990). Cognitive perspectives on anger control training. In W. Dryden & M.
Scott (Eds.), An introduction to cognitive-behaviour therapy: Theory and
applications (pp. 79-98). Loughton, Essex: Gale Centre Publications.
Vallerand, R. (1983). On emotion in sport: Theoretical and social psychological
perspectives. Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology, 5, 197-215.
Watson, D., Clark, L. A. & Tellegen, A. (1988) Development and validation of brief
measures of positive and negative affect. The PANAS scales. Journal of
Personality and Social Psychology, 54, 1063-1070.
Weiner, B. (1986). An attributional theory of motivation and emotion. New York:
Springer Verlag.
Williams, J. M. (1999). Applied sport psychology: Personal growth to peak performance
(4th ed.). Mountain View, CA: Mayfield Publishing Company.
Yerkes, R., & Dodson, J. (1908). The relationship of strength of stimulus to rapidity of
habit formation. Journal of Comparative Neurology and Psychology, 18, 459-482.
