The Effect of Anxiety on Athletic Performance
Start Date
April 2020
End Date
April 2020
Major Field of Study
Psychology
Student Type
Undergraduate
Faculty Mentor(s)
Afshin Gharib, PhD
Presentation Format
Poster Presentation
Abstract/Description
Previous research reports that college athletes may be especially susceptible to the detrimental effects of anxiety because they face pressures not only in the classroom but also on the athletic field. Khan et al. (2017) showed how anxiety negatively affects the overall physiological, psychological, and behavioral performance of an athlete. The objective of the present study is to determine whether higher levels of anxiety affect a college athlete’s athletic performance more negatively than lower levels of anxiety. The participants for this study will be comprised of 20 women’s soccer players from a small university in Northern California. The researcher will use the Three-Dimensional Performance Anxiety Inventory (Cheng, Hardy, & Markland, 2009), along with multiple demographic questions regarding the participant’s age, race/ethnicity, class, and personal information, to determine the participants’ levels of anxiety and the possible factors contributing to their anxiety. The volunteers will be sent a link through email containing the Three-Dimensional Performance Anxiety Inventory (Cheng, Hardy, & Markland, 2009) and the demographic questions for them to complete on their cell phones before one practice and one game. The researcher will then assess their performance during practice and during a game one month later. The researcher will assess each participant’s performance using a game statistics form to track the amount of passes, shots, goals, assists, and saves of each participant. The researcher hypothesizes that the participants with higher levels of anxiety will have a poorer performance during practice and the game than the participants with lower levels of anxiety.
The Effect of Anxiety on Athletic Performance
Previous research reports that college athletes may be especially susceptible to the detrimental effects of anxiety because they face pressures not only in the classroom but also on the athletic field. Khan et al. (2017) showed how anxiety negatively affects the overall physiological, psychological, and behavioral performance of an athlete. The objective of the present study is to determine whether higher levels of anxiety affect a college athlete’s athletic performance more negatively than lower levels of anxiety. The participants for this study will be comprised of 20 women’s soccer players from a small university in Northern California. The researcher will use the Three-Dimensional Performance Anxiety Inventory (Cheng, Hardy, & Markland, 2009), along with multiple demographic questions regarding the participant’s age, race/ethnicity, class, and personal information, to determine the participants’ levels of anxiety and the possible factors contributing to their anxiety. The volunteers will be sent a link through email containing the Three-Dimensional Performance Anxiety Inventory (Cheng, Hardy, & Markland, 2009) and the demographic questions for them to complete on their cell phones before one practice and one game. The researcher will then assess their performance during practice and during a game one month later. The researcher will assess each participant’s performance using a game statistics form to track the amount of passes, shots, goals, assists, and saves of each participant. The researcher hypothesizes that the participants with higher levels of anxiety will have a poorer performance during practice and the game than the participants with lower levels of anxiety.
Comments
This presentation was accepted for the Scholarly and Creative Works Conference at Dominican University of California. The Conference was canceled due to the Covid-19 Pandemic