Are Facilitating Emotions Really Facilitative? A Field Study of the Relationships between Discrete Emotions and Objective Performance during Competition

This study explored discrete emotions - objective performance relationship during competition using a video-assisted self-confrontation approach. Thirty self-confrontation interviews were conducted with national table tennis players. Quantitative analyses of interviews showed that participants: (a) experienced more pleasant and facilitating emotions and less unpleasant and debilitating emotions during winning vs. losing sets; (b) performed well during experience of multiple-point facilitating anxiety; (c) failed to perform up to their potential during experience of multiple point debilitating anger, anxiety, and discouragement. Overall, results of the present study expand knowledge base by highlighting: (a) the main role played by frequency of (facilitating and debilitating) discrete emotions on the emotion-objective performance relationship during competition; (b) the prominent role played by duration of discrete emotions on objective performance variability; (c) the influence of a wide range of discrete emotions experienced by athletes while competing on their objective levels of performance during competition; and (d) that athletes who rated discrete emotions as facilitating performed up to their potential and those who rated discrete emotions as debilitating really failed to perform up to their potential.