My Stressful Life
Professor Sheldon Hanton
Cardiff School of Sport
Date: 31 January 2007
Time: 5.45pm for 6pm start
Venue: Main Hall, UWIC, Llandaff Campus
It was this question that stimulated his doctoral work examining the notion that elite performers appear to rationalize their feelings of anxiety and interpret the accompanying symptoms as beneficial towards performance.
For the past decade, Professor Hanton has focused the majority of his research efforts on identifying the individual differences that determine the direction with which performers interpret their competitive anxiety and, in the course of summarising this work, he takes this opportunity to discuss the developmental and cognitive processes which underpin this area of elite performance psychology.
He then proceeds to describe how in his consultancy capacity he has successfully applied his research findings to help British international swimmers prepare for and achieve in world and Olympic competition.
The lecture draws to a close with Professor Hanton reflecting on the importance of being able to handle stress in any performance environment and concludes by arguing that rather than being a hindrance, it is the very experience of stress that allows humans to attain the highest possible levels of achievement in their lives.
Cardiff School of Sport
Date: 31 January 2007
Time: 5.45pm for 6pm start
Venue: Main Hall, UWIC, Llandaff Campus
Summary
In his inaugural lecture, Professor Sheldon Hanton reflects upon key experiences in his sporting and academic life and how the consistent theme of stress has heavily influenced his work as a sport psychologist. The lecture begins with a brief insight into the pressures he faced as a competitive swimmer and how as an emerging scholar he became intrigued as to why some sports performers thrive in the most stressful conditions while others underachieve.It was this question that stimulated his doctoral work examining the notion that elite performers appear to rationalize their feelings of anxiety and interpret the accompanying symptoms as beneficial towards performance.
For the past decade, Professor Hanton has focused the majority of his research efforts on identifying the individual differences that determine the direction with which performers interpret their competitive anxiety and, in the course of summarising this work, he takes this opportunity to discuss the developmental and cognitive processes which underpin this area of elite performance psychology.
He then proceeds to describe how in his consultancy capacity he has successfully applied his research findings to help British international swimmers prepare for and achieve in world and Olympic competition.
The lecture draws to a close with Professor Hanton reflecting on the importance of being able to handle stress in any performance environment and concludes by arguing that rather than being a hindrance, it is the very experience of stress that allows humans to attain the highest possible levels of achievement in their lives.