The term performance anxiety is used for defining anxious and self-consciousness about the of an individual?s performance, which actually decreases his/her performance quality. This type of anxiety is experienced by several people while speaking or performing on stage or in front of an audience. They undergo a frightening experience and feel uncomfortable, and they prefer to avoid it. Performance anxiety can also be commonly termed as stagefright ? a state of intense anxiety happening before or during a performance.
This fear or anxiety may take place while giving a conference presentation, going for a job interview, performing a piece of music, or in any other situation where a particular activity brings the presenter before the audience. At times, this anxiety is not entirely personal, but also depends on the performance?s context. Moreover, it may also depend on the situation?s cultural context. So, performance anxiety or stagefright can never be fully understood without taking into account the situation, values, norms, and expectations of that particular culture.
Types of Performance Anxiety
Besides the common performance anxiety suffered during facing the attention of the audience, there are also two major types of this anxiety. The musician performance anxiety can be an intensely personal subject for musicians who face it while presented to the audience, under certain situations or culture. Another type of this anxiety is mainly faced by men, known as the sexual performance anxiety. This is more prevalent in men when they face anxiety regarding getting engaged in sexual activity. It takes the shape of a dominant block to the spontaneous flow of sexual thoughts and feelings. They suffer from the anxiety of not being able to give their best performance during intercourse.
Symptoms of Performance Anxiety
It is very important to differentiate the three major ways when people can suffer from performance anxiety, they are:
The first type is commonly experienced by most people intensely, when they undergo transient anxiety, fluttery sensations, typically prior or during giving a performance. This is short-lived, and gives rise to energy for improving the performance.
The second type is a ?reactive anxiety?, occurring due to lack of performance skills, insufficient preparation, or lack of performance experience from the presenter.
Finally, usually performance anxiety is associated with physical and emotional discomfort signs like voice quivering, sweating, fast heart beating and feelings of fear, shaking, panic, and dead.
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