Catastrophe Theory Essay

Common factors that can contribute to performance anxiety include; fear of performance failure, negative social evaluation and/or physical harm, as well as disruption of a well learned routine (Cox, p.201, 2007). The effects of these factors can be further heightened in correlation with importance of an event, or the level of competition. These fears and feelings of anxiety may affect the athlete’s perception of their abilities and hinder their self-confidence, which can be detrimental to their performance. Patterns of perfectionism can also lead to sport-related anxiety, mainly involving setting exceptionally high performance standards of oneself (Cox, p.202, 2007). Setting high standards can often be beneficial to a performance, but athletes that succumb to unrealistic thoughts, that nothing but a perfect/ideal performance is good enough, are more likely to experience negative emotions and heightened levels of anxiety due to the discrepancy between ideal and current self/situation (Koivula, Hassmén, Fallby, 2001).

Sports—which involve emotion, competition, cooperation, achievement, and play—provide a rich area for psychological study. People involved in sports attempt to master very difficult skills, often subjecting themselves to intense physical stress as well as social pressure. research has expanded into numerous areas such as imagery training, hypnosis, relaxation training, motivation, socialization, conflict and competition, counseling, and coaching. Specific sports and recreational specialties studied include baseball, basketball, soccer,

In the book “A Magnificent Catastrophe” the author, Edward J. Larson, writes about all of the little details that has occurred in the First Presidential Campaign in the 1800s. He begins his book with how the two parties, the Republicans (Jefferson) and Federalists (Adams), were going to compete in who will govern the United States now that it is a free country and no longer under Britain’s rule. Although they had at first been friends they soon became enemies because of how they believed the government should be. Jefferson believed that the government should be a populist government that trusted popular rule. While Adams believed that America should have a strong government and that al

A pitcher is either glorified or criticized, depending on the game’s outcome. The more I played, the more I learned to ignore noise, doubt, and the past to focus on the immediate. To pitch well, I live in the moment while simultaneously knowing what is happening behind me. I developed a keen sense of intuition in order to quickly stop a player from stealing second base or bunt. Learning to trust my intuition has assisted me in other areas of my life: by paying attention to the study guide, I get a sense of the upcoming test, assessing how my brother closes the door when he comes home, helps me determine his mood, trusting my first answer choice during tests, has improved my

Ever since I was a kid baseball has been a big part of my life. Whether I’m watching it with my dad on tv, or I’m suiting up to play under the lights on a friday night. Nerves had always played a huge part when it came to just an hour before game time. My whole body would tense up and I would feel anxious. This, of course, is a serious problem for any athlete who wants to compete at the best of their abilities. My biggest issue was always playing in the “big game”, or any game that would put an excessive amount of pressure on me. Which, when it came to me, was basically every game I played in.

A psychological response to common sports injuries is anxiety. This can be felt during a match if the player thinks that they might get hurt and can cause injury. When returning form a sports injury the player may have anxiety of the injury reoccurring, or be worried about not being as good at the sport as they were before or less fit.

Today I’m working with an expeditious and powerful pitcher. As she begins to pitch, I can visualize the possibility of being hurt even with the protective gear on. As I watch the majestic pitcher swiftly wind up for the next throw I focus on the red stitches of the yellow softball. For just a moment I close my eyes and imagine the pain I will receive in a second.

​The game of baseball is a rich part of the American culture that has helped this country thrive in its darkest of hours. There has always been something captivating about the match-up of a flame-throwing pitcher and a homerun hitting machine. Since 1869, when Major League baseball (MLB) was founded, fans all over North America have traveled near and far to see such marquee match-ups. Much of the pressure is on the pitcher, as it is regularly the batter who experiences the failure. Much of the responsibility therefore falls on the person who warms up the pitcher to let him know what pitches are the most effective and deceptive. Professional bullpen catchers have the same role as the bullpen catchers in college. Being a part of a relatively

Throughout my life, I have been apart of America’s pastime--baseball. My career started in the dog days of the ‘03 season and I have not stopped playing since. Looking back, I can see the horrid field where I first started playing, and if I shift gears and look forward, I can see the shimmering astro turf I will be playing on in college. The steps taken to learn the skills, positions, and history it takes to play the game of baseball have been stored in the very core of my being, but I was launched into this learning process. I never got to play teeball like most young players do, so I did not learn the game in the same manner as most ball players have before me. The speedy progression would discourage most from ever playing again, but I fed on the opportunity and thrived. Time and time again, the game of baseball has tried to knock me out with an array of assailants, but it has not succeeded to this point, for I have gotten back up each time stronger than before. One could say baseball was the mold that made me into who I am today.

The pitcher is the point of convergence during the game. Every play has the pitcher at its core. And alas this is why the pitcher gets the blame Because he supposedly allows a solitary team to score.

Many athletes would agree that they have felt butterflies in their stomach or a sudden rush of adrenaline before an important game. This feeling can either translate into legendary performances or monumental failures. According to Sharon D. Hoar (2007), to fully comprehend anxiety’s effect on performance, one must understand the discrimination between two unique sets of sources: trait and state anxiety, and cognitive and somatic anxiety. Anxiety symptoms are numerous and unique to every athlete. Hoar suggests that athletes might report cognitive symptoms (eg. Inability to focus), somatic symptoms (eg. Sweaty palms), or both. The author discusses a variety of sources of anxiety and argues that it can have both positive and negative effects

On March 11, 2011 two catastrophic disaster struck Japan; a natural disaster in the form of a tsunami that followed an earthquake resulting in a man-made disaster, a nuclear power plant meltdown. The Fukishima nuclear power plant meltdown resulted from multiple system failures. When the tsunami waves struck it was double the size of the height of the plants seawall, which flooded the plant (Edge, 2011). Water ended up in the basement of the power plant rendering the backup diesel generators inoperable and unable to cool the reactors (Edge, 2011). The entire Fukishma plant lost power, causing malfunctioning of the plant and a nuclear meltdown. Initially, the Japanese government ordered an evacuation of everyone within two miles of Fukishima, but after an explosion shook the plant, the government widened the areas to 12 miles forcing more than 100,00 people to flee (Edge, 2011). Interestingly, the United State government advised American in Japan to stay at least 50 miles away from the Fukishima plant (Davis, 2011).

Men and women experience stress and anxiety in many different ways in everyday life and in their respective sport. Anxiety is described as, “a negative response to a stimulus that includes both physiological (somatic) and psychological (cognitive) components”, while stress is described as, “a substantial imbalance between demand and response capability, under conditions where failure to meet the demand has important consequences” (Weinberg & Gould, 2011, p. 20). Taking a look into what are some of those differences and why they effect women and men differently is a key aspect of this review. This literature review examines relevant studies in the psychological field by reviewing the empirical studies conducted on the relationships among stress, anxiety and performance in a variety of contexts, with a specific focus on men and women and how they differ. Anxiety and stress represent the psychological and physiological notation and what they represent in society. There is ample amount of research to support the notation that women experience more stress and anxiety than men due to gender roles and what society deems as acceptable and unacceptable (Caballo, Salazar, Irurtia, Arias & Hofmann, 2014). This paper will examine what are some contributing factors of stress and anxiety between men and women, as well as, the effects that such stress and anxiety have on both parties. Likewise, taking a look into some different coping technique that work better for men and

While natural disasters such as floods, drought and hurricanes are commonly thought to occur due to environmental forces such as weather, climate and tectonic movements; a deeper investigation into the ‘disaster’ displays other contributing forces. Human factors have a large, if not equal, contribution to the occurrance and outcome of such disasters (Pelling, 2001). As Pelling (2001) argues, there is both a physical and human dimension to ‘natural disasters’. The extent to which the natural occurrence of a physical process, such as a flood or earthquake, impacts on society is constructed by that society, creating a ‘disaster’ as measured by a

There has been a large increase in natural disasters in the U.S and in the entire world recently, these natural disasters include Earthquakes, Floods, Hurricanes, Tornadoes, Tsunamis, and Wildfires 4.4 billion people have been affected by natural disasters, and 1.3 million people have been killed from them, according to Childfund.org. The countries that have been most affected by these natural disasters recently have been Zimbabwe, China, Peru, Afghanistan, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Sri Lanka, Mexico, Columbia, Sierra Leone and South Asia. In just the past year, floods devastated Thailand and food shortages struck East Africa. The current food crisis has put about 18 million people in Africa’s region at risk of deeper starvation. And extreme weather will likely increase in the next few years, according to recent reports from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.