عوامل پیش بینی کننده جهت اضطراب رقابتی در مردان تمرین کنندگان تکواندو: ترکیب اندیشه نگار / رویکرد تعاملی قانونمند چند سطحی

Method: A multilevel mixed idiographic/nomothetic approach. Intensity and direction of competitive anxiety and positive (PA) and negative affect (NA) were monitored in 22 male Tae Kwon Do practitioners across a week preceding a major competition using the experience sampling method (ESM). The participants were assessed on neuroticism and extraversion. Negative and positive affect and anxiety intensity and direction were measured at three random times a day across 1 week before the competition and 1 hour pre-competition. Results: Multilevel regression analyses revealed that cognitive anxiety intensity, positive affect, proximity to competition and extraversion were significant predictors of cognitive anxiety direction. Significant interaction effects of proximity to competition and neuroticism, and neuroticism and negative affect on cognitive anxiety direction were also observed. Somatic anxiety direction was a function of positive affect, somatic anxiety intensity, proximity to competition and the interaction effects of neuroticism and somatic anxiety intensity and neuroticism and proximity to competition. Conclusions: A multilevel mixed idiographic/nomothetic interactional approach may substantially assist in the explanation of intra- and inter-individual differences in anxiety direction.

Several attempts have been made to explain inter- and intra-individual variations in athletes’ perception of the effects of anxiety on performance (e.g. Cerin, Szabo, Hunt and Williams, 2000, Jones, 1995 and Kerr, 1989). The present paper focusses on Cerin et al.’s (2000) process-oriented interactional model of stress, which apart from integrating current theoretical trends and research on competitive affects, offers some possible explanations for the differential appraisal of anxiety in relation to performance. As a detailed description of the model is beyond the scope of this article, the interested reader is referred to the original paper by Cerin et al. (2000). The model assumptions that may help explain intra- and inter-variability in anxiety direction (i.e. whether anxiety is perceived as detrimental or facilitative to performance) are: (a) the experience of mixed affects is a common phenomenon; (b) competitive anxiety can be characterised by both avoidance and approach behaviour; (c) the actual and appraised effect of affects on performance is moderated by situational and personal factors; (d) athletes’ reaction to competition is a process that changes over time which needs to be examined at intra- and inter-individual levels.

In conclusion, the present study provided support for several of the formulated hypotheses. Support was found for the hypothesis that anxiety intensity, positive affect and extraversion would predict anxiety direction. Support was also found for the hypothesised interacting effects of neuroticism and proximity to competition and neuroticism and negative affects on anxiety direction. Finally, this study demonstrated that, for the sake of a better understanding of athletes’ affective behaviour, it is important to adopt a multilevel mixed idiographic/nomothetic interactional approach in which intra- and inter-individual differences in affective states are simultaneously studied across time.