The Effect of Stress Coping Techniques in Sports

• Main Author: Yeh, Lestter
• Format: Others
• Published: Scholarship @ Claremont 2016
• Subjects: Sports; Psychology; Stress; Coping; Athlete; Applied Behavior Analysis; Health Psychology
• Online Access: http://scholarship.claremont.edu/cmc_theses/1240; http://scholarship.claremont.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2319&context=cmc_theses

The first part of this literature review goes over the biological and psychological aspects of stress. The cause of stress can be linked back to a primitive instinct known as “fight or flight.” The “fight or flight” instinct is triggered by several chemical reactions in the body starting from a signal from the amygdala to the sympathetic nervous system. Stress can also be categorized into internal and external stress. Further research links stress to sports. Many studies show that stress coping techniques such as meditation, self-talk, rituals, etc. are beneficial to athletes during competition. Suggested avenues of further research are to develop a standardized way to incorporate practicing stress coping techniques into a younger athlete’s routine, discover whether the same stress coping techniques can be used throughout all sports, and whether certain stress coping techniques will benefit people of different personality types equally. Keywords: Stress, Coping, Sports, Psychology, Athlete