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Sport and Exercise Psychology

Fazey and Hardy (1988) catastrophe model: criticisms of the inverted-U and the cusp model

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  • Component 03

Overview

Recall questions on the purpose and method of Fazey and Hardy's 1988 paper, the origin of the inverted-U hypothesis, their criticisms of it, arousal as more than one construct, the catastrophe model's mathematical basis, and the cusp model when cognitive anxiety is low.

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Answer each one before you reveal it.

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Key term

In the cusp catastrophe model, what roles are given to cognitive anxiety and to physiological arousal?

Questions from this subtopic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

  1. 1

    What was the purpose of Fazey and Hardy's work?

    Model answer

    They set out to expose the weaknesses of the inverted-U hypothesis as an account of the stress and performance relationship and to offer catastrophe models as a better alternative.

  2. 2

    What research method did Fazey and Hardy use?

    Model answer

    They produced a monograph, a specialist written review of one subject, in which they analysed existing theory and evidence and then proposed a mathematical model rather than collecting data from participants.

  3. 3

    Where did the inverted-U hypothesis originally come from, and who applied it to sport?

    Model answer

    It grew out of Yerkes and Dodson's 1908 work on habit formation in mice under punishment, and Oxendine extended it in 1970 to the relationship between arousal and motor performance.

  4. 4

    What three major criticisms did Fazey and Hardy make of the inverted-U hypothesis?

    Model answer

    They argued that it ignores the multidimensional nature of arousal and anxiety, that sound experimental support for its detailed predictions is lacking, and that it has little predictive validity in real performance settings.

  5. 5

    Why did Fazey and Hardy object to treating arousal as a single unified construct?

    Model answer

    They argued that physiological arousal must be separated from activation, and that cognitive anxiety and somatic anxiety behave differently, so a one-dimensional measure cannot capture what happens to a stressed performer.

  6. 6

    What had Fazey and Hardy observed in athletes that the inverted-U could not explain?

    Model answer

    They had seen that when an athlete went past the optimum the drop in performance was sudden and dramatic rather than gradual, and that small reductions in stress afterwards did nothing to restore performance.

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