Anxiety: Somatic, cognitive, competitive trait and competitive state.

The idea

Anxiety in sport is classified along two dimensions. The first is content: somatic anxiety is the physical response, including raised heart rate, sweating, trembling, muscle tension and butterflies; cognitive anxiety is the mental response, including worry, negative thoughts, fear of failure and narrowed attention. The second is duration and stability: competitive trait anxiety is a stable personality tendency to perceive competitive situations as threatening, so a performer high in it tends to feel anxious across many competitions; competitive state anxiety is the temporary emotional reaction to a particular moment, such as the minutes before a specific final. A performer can be high in trait anxiety yet experience low state anxiety on a given day, and the four labels combine, for example cognitive state anxiety before one match.

What earns the marks

• Somatic anxiety is the physical response, such as raised heart rate, sweating, trembling and muscle tension.
• Cognitive anxiety is the mental response, such as worry, negative thoughts, fear of failure and narrowed attention.
• Competitive trait anxiety is a stable personality tendency to perceive competitive situations as threatening.
• Competitive state anxiety is a temporary emotional reaction to a specific competitive situation.
• Trait anxiety raises the likelihood of state anxiety, but the two do not always rise and fall together.
• The content and duration dimensions combine, so a performer can show cognitive state anxiety before one particular match.

Common mistakes and how to put them right

• Reversing the somatic and cognitive labels.

  Put it right: Somatic refers to the physical signs, while cognitive refers to the worrying thoughts.

• Confusing trait and state anxiety.

  Put it right: Trait anxiety is a stable personality tendency, whereas state anxiety is a temporary reaction to a specific situation.

• Assuming a highly trait-anxious performer must always be state-anxious.

  Put it right: Trait anxiety raises the likelihood but does not fix the reaction on a given day.

• Treating the four labels as mutually exclusive.

  Put it right: They combine, so cognitive state anxiety is a valid and common description.

Exam tips

• Use a two-step check: first decide whether the sign is physical or mental, then decide whether it is a lasting tendency or a reaction to this event.
• Attach each label to a concrete moment, such as a gymnast's trembling hands on the beam for somatic state anxiety.
• In multiple-choice questions, eliminate options that swap the somatic and cognitive terms before comparing the trait and state options.