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Arousal and Athletic Performance Understanding how arousal (activation, excitement) of varying intensity affects athletic performance is important for effective coping with stress-related emotional experiences in sports. What is emotional arousal? How is it manifested and measured? How is it related to the performance process and its outcomes? How can the optimal and dysfunctional effects of emotional arousal on athletic performance be explained? The sections below provide research-based answers to some of these questions. Traditionally, arousal describes the intensity of the physiological functions of an organism as a reaction to personenvironment (PE) relationships. However, the definition of arousal as a bodily reaction captures only one aspect of PE relationships. According to Lev Vygotsky, to study something as indivisible unity, it is necessary to find a construct that would capture the characteristics of both interacting elements. In psychology, such a construct to study PE interactions is experience, reflecting a person's attitude this ...