ABSTRACT
The areas of competitive stress and anxiety have received considerable attention within the sport psychology literature, and are often cited as one of the most prominent topics of the discipline (Biddle, 1997; Hanton et al., 2008; Jones, 1995a; Mellalieu et al., 2006a; Woodman and Hardy, 2001). This interest is undoubtedly associated with the stressful nature of elite sport, and the numerous demands placed upon performers as a consequence of the pressurised environment within which they operate (Hardy et al., 1996; Jones, 1995a, b; Woodman and Hardy, 2001). Indeed, several reviews have been published addressing: the measurement and design developments within competitive anxiety research (Burton, 1998; Jones, 1995a); the re-conceptualisation of trait anxiety in sport (Smith et al., 1998); the cognitive aspects of the anxiety-performance relationship (Woodman and Hardy, 2001); an integrated overview of the measurement of arousal, activation, anxiety and performance (Gould et al., 2002); the mechanisms by which competitive anxiety responses may positively impact on performance (Mellalieu et al., 2006a); and how the study of directional interpretations has advanced understanding of the competitive anxiety response (Hanton et al., 2008).
