Ebook Sources Of Stress, Stress Reactions And Coping Strategies Used By Elite Female Golfers
Athletes who are involved in competitive sport can expect to be placed regularly under intense physical and psychological demands. These demands require athletes to use not only the technical and tactical skills that they have developed but also cognitive and behavioral coping skills, in order to achieve performance success and satisfaction (Crocker, Alderman, & Smith, 1988). Anyone who has been a sport participant or observer has certainly observed certain athletes who tend to "peak" during competition and, at the same time, other athletes who tend to falter or "choke" in the same competitive situations. Research on how athletes cope with sport-related stress has been recognized for both its practical and its theoretical importance because of the debilitating effects that stress may have on athletic performance (Smith, 1986). Stress can affect athletes in ways other than their sport performance. Some drop out of sport because they find athletic competition to be threatening rather than enjoyable (Gould, Feltz, Horn & Weiss, 1982). Sports medicine practitioners and athletic trainers have found that athletes who find competitive situations stressful or anxiety producing appear injury prone and/or seem to take longer to return to activity following injury (Nash, 1987).
Sport is an arena of achievement in which ability is publicly tested, scrutinized, and evaluated. Because of the debilitating effects that stress can have on performance, athletes must learn to cope with the demands and pressures of competition if they are to enjoy and succeed in sports. Research has been conducted to discover or identify the sources of stress in various competitive sports, including basketball (Madden, Summers, & Brown, 1990), figure skating (Scanlan, Ravizza, & Stein, 1989), college baseball (Anshel, 1996), golf (Cohn, 1990), and wrestling (Gould, Eklund, & Jackson, 1983). According to Anshel and Delaney (2001), two limitations of these studies have been their lack of differentiation between acute and chronic sources of stress, and their failure to link sources of stress to athletes' appraisal and coping strategies (p. 333).
Athletes have identified several sources of acute stress in team activities: receiving unpleasant input from peers, fans, coaches, experiencing pain or injury, making a physical or mental error, receiving a "bad" call from an official, and receiving negative feedback from the coach (Anshel, 1996; Anshel & Kaissidis, 1997). However, the association between cognitive appraisal and the subsequent use of coping strategies as a function or result of the cognitive appraisal has been overlooked in the sport psychology literature (Anshel & Delaney, 2001).
An athlete's appraisal of an event may be closely linked to his or her subsequent use of coping strategies - or, if the event is not perceived as stressful, to not having to cope at all. For example, if an athlete interprets an event as not stressful or only slightly stressful, a coping strategy may not be required. If, however, the event is appraised as highly stressful, then the content of the appraisal will partially determine the athlete's selection of a coping strategy or set of strategies (Anshel & Delany, 2001).
Contents
Dedication
Abstract
Acknowledgements
Table of Contents
List of Tables
List of Figures
Chapter 1. Introduction
- Research Method
Research Questions
Significance of the Research
Overview of Study
Chapter 2. Literature Review
- Stress
The Stress Reaction
Self-Efficacy
Coping with Stress
Stress and Sport Performance
Coping Strategies in Sport
Chapter 3. Method
- Structure of Competitive Golf
Participants
Interviews with Professional Golfers
Interviews with Elite Amateur Golfers
Data Saturation
Data Analysis
Researcher Integrity
Maintenance of Confidentiality
Chapter 4. Results
- Timing of Stress
Sources of Stress
Stress Reactions
Coping Strategies
Behavioral Stress Management Strategies
Cognitive Stress Management Strategies
Differences Between the Elite Amateurs and the Professionals
Chapter 5. Discussion and Conclusion
- Professionalism of Elite Amateurs
Stress, an Idiosyncratic Reaction
Sources of Stress
Stress Reactions and Coping Strategies
Implications for Counselling Elite Athletes
Implications for Counselling Elite Golfers
Limitations of the Research
Implications for Future Research
Conclusion
References
Appendix A. Interview Questions
Appendix B. Volunteer Recruitment Letter
Appendix C. Consent For Research Participation
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