Much research has been done exploring the relationship between the benefits of reappraisal as a coping strategy for anxiety. Research has shown that the reappraisal of anxiety as excitement, has yielded increased performance on a variety of tasks including public speaking and math performance, but this relationship has not been proven experimentally specifically for athletic performance. This study aims to experimentally explain the advantage of reappraising anxiety as excitement rather than calmness for better athletic performance. Participants were Union College Students who were given an anxiety-induction task, in which they were told they would have to give a speech that would be recorded and evaluated, and then they were told to reappraise their anxiety as either calmness or excitement via self-talk. All participants completed a cornhole hand-eye coordination task, and two reaction time tests on a computer to measure athletic performance. Results indicated that participants in both the excitement reappraisal and calmness reappraisal groups did equally well on all three athletic performance tests. Participants in the calmness reappraisal condition reported higher calmness after reappraisal, and those in the excitement group reported higher excitement after reappraisal. However, the calmness reappraisal appeared to be more effective at helping participants reappraise their emotions than the excitement condition. Differences might be observed if the study was redone with a stronger excitement reappraisal manipulation. The study also presents a simple, but effective breakdown of athletic performance as a measurable variable which is an improvement from prior studies as athletic performance has been a subjectively measured variable in the lab.
Acknowledgements: I would like to thank Professors Walker, Buchin, and Burns for help on this project as well as all members of the BIWED lab.