Recent developments in competitive anxiety direction and competition stress research

Abstract

The area of competitive anxiety continues to be extensively researched with considerable attention focused on the notion of ‘direction’. The purpose of this review is to demonstrate how the study of direction has advanced our understanding of the competitive anxiety response through providing an overview of the existing research, and emphasizing why sport psychologists investigated the underlying mechanisms of performers’ facilitative interpretations of anxiety symptoms. Finally, we discuss how direction has been integrated into Lazarus (1990, 1991a); Lazarus & Folkman, 1984) transactional perspective of stress, and how this may be used to inform future research into the broader area of competition stress.

Keywords:

• stress
• anxiety
• direction

Notes

1. Association for the Advancement of Applied Sport Psychology, known as the Association for Applied Sport Psychology (AASP) since 2007.