Somatic anxiety

Somatic anxiety is the physical symptoms of anxiety, such as butterflies in the stomach. It is commonly contrasted with cognitive anxiety, which is the mental manifestations of anxiety, or the specific thought processes that occur during anxiety, such as concern or worry. These different components of anxiety are especially studied in sports psychology, specifically relating to how the anxiety symptoms affect athletic performance.

The Drive Theory (Zajonc 1965) says that if an athlete is both skilled and driven (by somatic and cognitive anxiety) then the athlete will perform well.

The Inverted-U Hypothesis (Yerkes and Dodson, 1908), also known as the Yerkes-Dodson law (Yerkes 1908) hypothesizes that as somatic and cognitive anxiety (the arousal) increase, performance will increase until a certain point. Once the arousal has increased past this point, performance will decrease.

The Multi-dimensional Theory of Anxiety (Martens, 1990) is based on the distinction between somatic and cognitive anxiety. The theory predicts that there is a negative, linear relationship between somatic and cognitive anxiety, that there will be an Inverted-U relationship between somatic anxiety and performance, and that somatic anxiety should decline once performance begins although cognitive anxiety may remain high, if confidence is low.

The Catastrophe Theory (Hardy, 1987) suggests that stress, combined with both somatic and cognitive anxiety, influences performance, that somatic anxiety will affect each athlete differently, and that performance will be effected uniquely, which will make it difficult to predict an outcome using general rules.

The Optimum Arousal Theory (Hanin, 1997) states that each athlete will perform at their best if their level of anxiety falls within an "optimum functioning zone".

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