Emotions and Sport Performance: An Exploration of Happiness, Hope, and Anger
in Journal of Sport and Exercise PsychologyClick name to view affiliation
We conducted three experiments to examine the relationships between emotions and subcomponents of performance. Experiment 1 revealed that anger was associated with enhanced gross muscular peak force performance but that happiness did not influence grammatical reasoning performance. Following Lazarus (1991, 2000a), we examined hope rather than happiness in Experiment 2. As hypothesized, hope yielded faster soccer-related reaction times in soccer players. Experiment 3 was an examination of extraversion as a moderator of the anger-performance relationship. When angry, extraverts’ peak force increased more than introverts’. Results are discussed and future research directions are offered in relation to Lazarus’s framework.
The authors are with the School of Sport, Health, and Exercise Sciences, Bangor University, Bangor, U.K. A copy of all scripts is available from the first author on request.
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