Problem of stress in sport psychology. Research review

Abstract

The main aim of this work is to illustrate the notion of stress in sport as well as to explain how and why stress mechanisms come into being in sport situations. The hitherto report contains both theoretical and empirical issues. The theoretical part is devoted to the explanation of stress and its relation to sport psychology. The practical one comprises of the review of works concerning the sources of stress and the moderators influencing its perception along with coping styles among various sportsmen. Attention has been drawn to the fact that sportspeople are exposed not only to stress connected with trainings and competitions but additionally to the natural stress connected with their lives. In this respect the researchers dealing with the causes that bring about stressful situations have imposed not only measures regarding training loads or trials but also school requirements, interpersonal relations, financial concerns etc. The pleaded research present a number of factors which influence the efficiency of the actions taken up in response to stress. Apart from the demographical variables (age, gender, race, nationality), factors like the impact of the advancement of contestants, their practice and their psychic functioning scheme (e.g. the way of attention directing, the type of the applied causal attribution) are also examined. Generally speaking, the analyzed works indicate the significance of individual and cultural differences to the perception of certain situations as stressful and to the undertaken preventive measures.