Quick questions on Motivation, anxiety, arousal and psychological strategies: HSC PDHPE Core 2

The relationship between arousal and performance is described by the inverted-U hypothesis (Yerkes-Dodson Law): performance rises with arousal up to an optimal point, then declines as arousal continues to rise.

The ability to direct and sustain attention on task-relevant cues. The syllabus uses concentration to cover attentional focus, pre-performance routines, and the ability to refocus after distractions.

The athlete imagines the performance in vivid sensory detail before doing it. Effective mental rehearsal includes:

Strategies to lower physiological arousal when it is too high.

Specific, structured goals direct effort and provide intermediate measures of progress. The SMART framework (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound) is the dominant model.

The drive comes from within the activity itself - love of the sport, the satisfaction of mastering a skill, the enjoyment of competition. Intrinsically motivated athletes train when no one is watching, persist through plateaus, and stay in the sport longer.

The drive comes from external rewards - medals, prize money, scholarships, social recognition, parental approval, school selection. Extrinsic motivation is powerful in the short term but unstable: if the reward disappears (the athlete misses selection, the prize money dries up, the parents stop watching), the motivation collapses.

The athlete is drawn toward a desired outcome - winning, improving a personal best, qualifying for a final. Positive motivation typically produces more sustainable effort and better performance than negative motivation.

The athlete is driven by fear of an undesired outcome - losing, being dropped, being shamed, disappointing a coach. Negative motivation can spike performance in the short term (athletes often perform well when scared of consequences) but corrodes long-term commitment and increases burnout and dropout.

Internal (self-doubt, perceived skill gap, fear of failure, fear of letting teammates down) and external (the importance of the event, the crowd, the opponent, the weather, equipment problems, parental or coach pressure).