Somatic anxiety, physiological arousal and performance: differential effects upon high anaerobic, low memory demand tasks.

Two studies are reported which used 16 basketball and volleyball players to investigate three hypotheses: (1) somatic anxiety is positively related to Sargent jump performance while cognitive anxiety is not; (2) physiological arousal is also positively related to Sargent jump performance; and (3) physiological arousal is more strongly related to Sargent jump performance than somatic anxiety. Multidimensional anxiety was measured on three occasions using the Competitive State Anxiety Inventory - 2 (CSAI-2; Martens, Burton, Vealey, Bump & Smith; 1982, 1990), physiological arousal was measured using heart rate, and Sargent jump performance was measured as height jumped. The results from both studies supported the three hypotheses, and indicate that for this particular task, increased somatic anxiety positively affects height jumped, cognitive anxiety does not affect performance, increased physiological arousal positively affects height jumped, and physiological arousal is more strongly related to performance than somatic anxiety. These results are discussed in terms of future research, as are the implications for the coach and practising sport psychologist.