Perception of Anxiety and Expectations of Performance

The purpose of this study was to examine expectations of performance and the directionality of anxiety. Directionality refers to the facilitative or debilitative aspects of anxiety. Subjects were 91 athletes competing in soccer, swimming, and track and field. The Competitive State Anxiety Inventory-2 with an added Facilitative/Debilitative scale and Expectation of Performance scale was employed. Analysis showed that athletes with lower scores on cognitive and somatic anxiety, and higher scores on self-confidence perceived their anxiety as more facilitative of performance. These athletes also had significantly higher scores on the Expectation of Performance scale.