The stress response: Is it always that bad?

This talk will cover the broad topic of stress and apply it to the sport and wider performance domain.

We will treat stress as a situation-specific, state-like response to an individually meaningful and personally important scenario to the individual evaluating it.

We shall overview the emotional, behavioural and cognitive consequences of an individual’s experience of stress, ascertain the contrasting impact of experiencing stress on sports performance and apply to this to the wider performance domain (e.g., education, aviation and the military).

Next, we shall unpick some of the sources of stress experienced by sports people and consider the application of these sources to other performance environments.

Finally, we shall outline the usefulness of interventions and strategies which may help an individual manage their emotional, behavioural and cognitive responses to the experience of stress to facilitate a more adaptive outcome.

This talk is part of our Psychology Master Class series running in March and April 2023.