Graduation Year

2016

Date of Submission

11-2015

Document Type

Open Access Senior Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelor of Arts

Department

Psychology

Reader 1

Mark Costanzo

Rights Information

© 2015 Lestter Yeh

Abstract

The first part of this literature review goes over the biological and psychological aspects of stress. The cause of stress can be linked back to a primitive instinct known as “fight or flight.” The “fight or flight” instinct is triggered by several chemical reactions in the body starting from a signal from the amygdala to the sympathetic nervous system. Stress can also be categorized into internal and external stress. Further research links stress to sports. Many studies show that stress coping techniques such as meditation, self-talk, rituals, etc. are beneficial to athletes during competition. Suggested avenues of further research are to develop a standardized way to incorporate practicing stress coping techniques into a younger athlete’s routine, discover whether the same stress coping techniques can be used throughout all sports, and whether certain stress coping techniques will benefit people of different personality types equally. Keywords: Stress, Coping, Sports, Psychology, Athlete

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