De l'anxiété aux émotions compétitives: Etat de la recherche sur les états affectifs en psychologie du sport

Abstract

This paper presents a synthesis relative to contributions and limits of traditional research developped in sport psychology on precompetitive anxiety. It especially describes the individual zone of optimal functioning (IZOF) model developped by Hanin (1986), the catastrophe model initiated by Hardy and Fazey (1987), and the directional interpretation model suggested by Jones (1991). Then, the paper moves toward research developed on precompetitive emotions using the POMS, the PANAS and idiosyncratic measures suggested in the ZOF model. This state of the art contributes to demonstrate how inconsistant results observed in studies on precompetitive anxiety induce the scientific community to gradually turn towards new research perspectives, focused on an amplier set of affects including in particular positive emotions.