In sport, there is an important link between motivation and performance known as arousal. Arousal is the level of psychological and physiological readiness. Arousal is a function of the autonomic nervous system and is a response which has evolved into our central nervous system. When danger threatened our primitive ancestors, they had to be immediately ready to fight or run. Motivation will directly affect the level of arousal we experience in sport. This is due to the fact that motivation leads to a state of arousal, depending on the levels of adrenaline produced which can be affected by both external and internal factors. The level to which we are aroused can affect us immensely. If we are aroused to our optimum level, we will perform and learn at our best. However the varying theories of motivation have different ideas of when this optimum level is achieved.
One view of the relationship between motivation and performance claims that as motivation increases, so does performance. This is because the motivation is converted psychological and physiological arousal. This particular theory is known as ‘drive theory’. Drive theory proposes that as arousal increases to meet perceived demands of the task, so is performance more likely to reflect the most usual behaviour (dominant response). In more simple terms: the higher the arousal the more the dominant response occurs. For example, if a performer has failed to learn a skill well, the dominant response is full of mistakes and as arousal increases, so will the number of mistakes the performer makes. On the other hand, for an expert at a particular skill the dominant habit is correct, with effective technique, so performance will increase with the increase of arousal. The drive theory can be displayed visually on the graph below.
This graph presents ‘drive theory’ visually and shows that the higher the arousal the more the dominant response occurs. In other words a performer of low ability or in the early stages of learning will perform worse when pressure is perceived, whereas an able performer would improve in similar circumstances.
Drive theory has one problem, which is that it does not explain fluctuations in performance. This was questioned by behavioural psychologists who eventually developed a theory which could put reasoning behind fluctuations of the quality of a participant’s performance. This theory is widely quoted and is known as the ‘inverted – U theory’ or the ‘inverted – U hypothesis’. This suggests that up to a certain point arousal levels are too low for the performer to perform at an optimum level. There is also a certain point where arousal turns to anxiety which causes a deterioration in performance. Between these two points is the area of optimum arousal, at which performers are at their best. The ‘inverted – U theory’ can also be displayed visually in the form of a graph like the one below.
This graph shows that there is an area in which optimum performance is obtained, between points A and B. If the performer’s arousal levels are either side of this area then they are under-aroused if their level is to the left of point A, or over-aroused if their arousal level is to the right of the point B.
Although this is a rational theory concerning arousal it has been critisised by psychologists as being too simplistic to explain the complexity of the arousal-performance relationship, and some variations have been developed. This includes the ‘catastrophe theory’ developed by Fazey and Hardy. The theory is multi-dimensional and is perhaps the most widely used approach to arousal. The theory recognises a non-linear relationship between anxiety and performance. It acknowledges that mistakes lead to anxiety which leads to more mistakes, and that a small increase in arousal can often lead to a dramatic or catastrophic decline in performance. For example a place kicker in rugby who fails to convert from directly in front of the posts will then kick poorly for the remainder of the game. No matter what he does he will not return to previous performance quality even if his arousal levels are returned to previous levels.
It has been generally agreed that these theories all have one factor affecting them all which effects the accuracy of their claims. This factor is the personal differences in personality of different performers.
