Psychological performance crisis in high arousal situations—diagnosticity of rule violations and performance in competitive team-handball

Abstract

A psychological performance crisis is considered a state in which one is expected to perform a task under physical and psychological arousal accompanied by anxiety. The present study was designed to estimate the relevance of task-related behavior (performance) and rule- and norm-related behavior (“fairness” and “sanctions”) to psychological crisis vulnerability during competitive situations. Forty-five team-handball experts estimated the probability (in percent) of such behaviors, namely, performance quality and rule- and norm-related categories of behavior, in anxiety-related crisis and non-crisis states. These estimates were used for calculating the components of diagnosticity (likelihood ratios) according to the Bayesian approach and later subjected to within subjects ANOVAs. The results revealed that crisis and non-crisis conditions can be differentiated significantly by all the variables as well as by their interactive impact. Vulnerability to crisis was associated mainly with unexpectedly poor performance, unexpected and unfair behavior, and finally, unexpected and sanctioned behavior. Expected behaviors were associated with non crisis vulnerability. The results are discussed in relation to theoretical concepts such as arousal, performance, crisis and cognitive anxiety.

Key Words:

• Psychological crisis
• arousal
• diagnosticity
• task-performance
• fairness
• sanctions