ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on to feelings and emotions, positive and negative, and looks at how what we feel can change our behaviour. The nature of emotion has been a key question for psychologists for over a century, and just like the problems encountered in defining motivation, despite all this attention there is no real consensus as to what emotion is and how it should be defined. The chapter highlights the importance of emotion and emotional regulation in sport. For the vast majority of sport performers, at every level, emotions are heightened. There is considerable debate about the ordering of what causes what in terms of thinking, feeling and behaviour. Some theorists argue that it is the emotion that prompts the thought. Physiologically, emotional responses are closely related to the operation of the autonomic nervous system. Physiological arousal is a general term to indicate the level of activity in the central nervous system.
