The Effect of Competition on Running Performance

Most students can relate to the statement that university is stressful. As a coping mechanism, students choose to play sports. However, what may be less known is that sports can also be highly stressful. Research has shown that competition in sports can be stress inducing. Stress is defined as a type of response that commonly involves a state of unpleasantness. There are two different types of stress, either eustress or distress. Eustress is stress brought about in positive situations, whereas distress is stress caused by negative situations. Anticipation of these events can also result in the experience of one of these subtypes of stress. For example, in sports eustress can be experienced because of the excitement that one feels when looking forward to a game, while distress is experienced if there is a desire to win. Thus, stress can either be caused by positive or negative situations, also occurring in sports. (pages 447-449 GIP). Both subtypes of stress are involved in competition. In the current study competition is defined as an actual measurement of one’s actions and abilities with that of another person. According to the Yerkes-Dodson law (1908) people need arousal to a certain extent to perform at their best. With too little or too much arousal the performance is not at its best. However, the perfect amount of arousal leads to peak performance. Arousal is caused by drives. Drive to win, drive not to lose, drive to play their best game.

All these drives cause arousal. The distress, mentioned earlier experienced because of the desire to win, is also part of these drives. Arousal goes further than drives. According to Zajonc’s model of social facilitation, arousal is already caused by the mere presence of other people. (source) Earlier research into social facilitation (maybe state before this what social facilitation actually is) by Norman Triplett showed that bicyclists actually pedal faster when they ride with other people instead of riding alone. Triplett demonstrated the phenomenon called co-action effect. Meaning that people are faster when there is another person present doing the same task at the same time. (source) Competition also leads to social comparison. Social comparison, defined as an analysation of a person abilities, actions and beliefs compared with those of another person, is an essential source of competitive behaviour. Social comparison theory states that individuals are driven by an elementary drive to improve their performance and at the same time be better than their opponent. This makes for competitive behaviour in order to establish their superiority (Festinger, 1954).

The phenomenon of always wanting to be the best and constantly bettering yourself can turn into perfectionism. Perfectionism is defined as a personality characteristic of always wanting to be impeccable, always setting new and higher standards and afterwards being critical of the results (Frost, Marten, Lahart & Rosenblate, 1990; Flett & Hewitt, 2002). As athletes are prone to being critical of themselves and always trying to better their earlier performances it is common that they are perfectionistic. There are two aspects of competition (Frost, Heimberg, Holt, Mattia, & Neubauer, 1993; Stoeber & Otto). Perfectionistic striving and perfectionistic concerns. The first mentioned, perfectionistic striving, is concerned with striving for perfection and setting excessively high standards for performance. Whereas the second mentioned, perfectionistic concerns, is about the apprehension of making mistakes, negative evaluation by others and negative thoughts of possible imperfection. It is common if a person shows signs having one that there also signs that the other aspect is also present. Even though there has been extensive research conducted on competition and its effects, there is still little know about the effect of competition on sports that are normally considered to be individual sports.

Competition consists of winning or losing, being better than the competition or not. Both results have an effect on the self-esteem of the athlete. Self-esteem is characterised as an aspect of the self, an emotional response, concerned with feeling worthy or unworthy. Research has found that losing has a negative effect on the self-esteem whereas winning has a positive effect on self-esteem (source gip book(?)). As losing makes people feel unworthy and winning makes people feel worthy. Though results are very important for one’s self-esteem, there are other factors that are imperative to this aspect a well. Study shows that people’s self-esteem is based on their belief how others perceive them (source). Moet iets tussen The present study aimed to investigate if competition has an effect on running performance.

Based on The goal of the current study is on the one hand, for the athlete to acquire knowledge about whether or not it is beneficial for their results to train with a running partner. On the otGwendolyn Hermansher hand it is for trainers and coaches to implement the best possible training tactics for the athletes, more precisely if it would be better to train their running athletes on their one or with a partner. The present study is a between-subject design. Thus, the 49 participants, all students at Radboud University, were randomly assigned to either the individual or the competition group. Both condition groups had to run a distance of forty meters. The task was to run as fast as they could. In the competition group the task also included running faster than their opponent. The time it took for the participants to run these forty meters was measured and recorded. The prediction is that the participants will have a lower time in the competition group than in the individual group.