The Study of the Relationship between Flow and Cortisol Release under Stressful Situations
Journal Title: International Journal of Humanities and Social Science Invention - Year 2017, Vol 6, Issue 6
Abstract
Flow is an enjoyable experience and occurs when individual fully immersed in an activity. Based on Stress Exchange Model, if individuals evaluate situational challenges as threats and beyond their skill levels, stress will occur. But if the task is assessed as challenge, flow can also be experienced in stressful situations. Flow is between the fatigue and anxiety spectrum. Therefore, when people are experiencing flow, they can also experience moderate arousal. Recent studies have shown a positive relationship between flow and physiological arousal, but no research has been conducted to examine the relationship betweenflow and high arousal in response tostressful situations of team sports yet. Therefore, the aim of the present study is to answer this question: ‘Is flow related to the physiological response of cortisol release in stressful situations of team sports? To this aim, 24 students of physical education were divided into 4 teams, based on their performance level and according to the research purpose, and each team competed with the other three teams. Before and after each competition, salivary cortisol samples of the athletes were taken and at the end of eachcompetition, the athletes completed theflow scale. The collected data has been analyzed by Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA). The results show that there is an Inverted-U relationship betweenflow andcortisol release, and the average cortisol concentration facilitates the experience of flow, while more or lesscortisol release interferes with the experience of flow. Using the literature of Stress Exchange Model (such asLazarus and Folkman, 1984) and in parallel withCsikszentmihalyi (1990), it can be said that if situational demands are assessed as challenges, they can lead to the flow experience [2]. As a result, flow is associated with the moderate level of arousal that is experienced as a challenge and reminds moderate and positive forms of stress, such as good stress.
Authors and Affiliations
Hassan Sabzaligol, Hadi Nojavan
Keywords
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