Review
Coping with competitive situations in humans

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neubiorev.2004.07.004Get rights and content

Abstract

The analysis of effects of competitive situations in our species may contribute to acquiring deeper knowledge about the effects of social stress and its relationship with different pathologies. The latest studies indicate that the neuroendocrine response to competition depends more on subjective factors related to the cognitive evaluation of the situation than on the outcome itself. Findings suggest that when subjects cope with a competition, they assess it in such a way that it activates a psychobiological coping response. The pattern of this response may correspond to a predominant active or passive coping strategy, the choice ultimately depending on factors such as the importance of the competition for the subject, the subject's involvement or perceived possibilities of control of outcome or success (e.g. past experience in similar competitions, judge or rank of the opponent), among others. More important than winning or losing is the coping pattern displayed by the subject, which determines the hormonal changes experienced when facing competition and its outcome.

Introduction

The combination of diverse factors (genotype, perinatal environment, physical fitness, experience, social support, etc) ultimately determines the way each individual deals with everyday environmental challenges. Nowadays, current research aims to identify how these individual differences contribute to vulnerability or, on the contrary, to resistance to developing pathologies associated with stress.

From an evolutionary point of view, social stress (sometimes called social conflict) is a chronic, recurring factor in the lives of virtually all higher animal species [1]. Its pattern of effects may be qualitatively different from those motivated by other types of stressors, at both behavioral and physiological levels. Social stress may have important pathological repercussions for many species, not only for humans. For this reason, an important effort is being made to find adequate animal models to analyze this topic, which would make it possible to determine its underlying mechanisms and pharmacological treatments [2], in addition to obtaining deeper knowledge of the more convenient coping responses to stressors.

Confrontation among males is a very extended situation in nature. Competition implies that one or more individuals carry out some actions directed at achieving a goal, by confronting another individual or group of the same species motivated by the same goal (e.g. territory, social status). When one individual obtains the victory, the probabilities of success of the others diminish; in both cases, the outcome has consequences for all those involved. Victory in successive agonistic interactions leads to a dominant position, which includes certain behavioral patterns, as well as specific physiological characteristics at central and peripheral levels, whereas defeat leads to a subordinate status with a different pattern. Main differences among dominant and subordinate animals can be established at different levels: behavioral (social and non-social), physiological (weight and size of organs, cardiovascular parameters, temperature, etc), neuroendocrine (hormonal levels and responses), neurochemical (monoamines, amino-acids, receptors, etc), neurological (c-fos) and immunological [1], [2], [3], [4].

Agonistic interactions, as well as competition for food, water, or mating, have been employed to evaluate the dominant status of pairs or groups of animals in the laboratory. They include a sole, intermittent or chronic dyadic interaction of an individual with another co-specific, although colony or small group models have also been used. On many occasions, a male is confronted with another who is more or less aggressive by strain, weight or size, by specific manipulation (such as previous experience of victory) or by territoriality; the ‘resident–intruder’ model is very frequent in rodents. Another important dimension concerns the existence of direct or indirect contact during the interaction, that is, physical attack or threat of attack, a combination of both also being possible. Agonistic encounters are the most frequently employed model to analyze repercussions and mechanisms of social stress.

In addition to animal models, another important way to advance the knowledge about the role of individual differences in stress response is by studying appropriate competitive stress situations in humans. This approach is especially relevant from the evolutionary explanations of human depression, specifically from the social competition hypothesis of depression and other formulations related to social rank [5], [6], [7], [8]. However, studying human competitions, although outstanding, is not easy, in spite of the recognized competitiveness prevailing in our lives.

During the last 15 years, we have carried out a number of studies on this topic, whose results have allowed us to observe a great variability in the psychophysiological response to competition. In our studies, we have examined the role of different variables (involvement, physical condition, etc), which has contributed to a better understanding of the individual differences in the human response to a competitive situation. Most studies on this topic have been carried out with men; however, recently a few studies have included women. This review will present the main results obtained with these and other variables, and it will be argued that our knowledge about the psychobiological response to competition in humans will benefit from including the data obtained in a wider theoretical background on stress.

Section snippets

Effects of agonistic experience and its outcome, victory or defeat, on humans

In the last few decades, the evidence that has been accumulated indicates that a competitive encounter produces hormonal changes, which seem to be moderated by the outcome, victory or defeat, in several mammalian species [9], [10]. The relationships between hormones and aggressive or dominant behavior, initially believed to be unidirectional, began to be thought of as reciprocal and bi-directional. In this context, a biosocial status hypothesis was formulated by Mazur [11], [12], as a model of

Sports competitions in men

In an initial study, Mazur and Lamb [17] concluded that the pattern in T changes was different depending on the outcome, with winners showing significant T increases and losers displaying obvious decreases, when values obtained 1 to 2 h after tennis matches with a clear victory were compared (binomial test). Some time later, it was reported that subjects winning a wrestling match showed significantly greater increases than losers when percent changes between T levels seen 10 min before and 10 min

Team sports competitions: confrontation between groups

Competition in humans implies, on numerous occasions, the coordinated and cooperative work of members of a social group to cope with a conflict involving another social group for a common goal. Team sports are considered a good model for certain organizational formats. Among them, basketball is a model for the voluntary cooperation among the different parts [16], and although the outcome is based on team work, an individual contribution index can be obtained. This strategy, which had not been

Laboratory competitions

This topic has also been studied in laboratory settings. In one study, significantly higher salivary T levels in winners than in losers were reported during a time reaction task whose outcome was manipulated by the experimenter. Depression was higher in losers when the victory was clear, whereas anxiety was not sensitive to the outcome [33]. Again these authors [34] found greater T increases and more positive mood in winners than in losers when involved in a task entirely controlled by chance

Competitive stress in women

Just as animal models of social stress are based almost exclusively on males, studies on the effects of social stress and on aggressive, dominant or competitive behavior in humans have also been carried out mostly in men. However, women react to stressors, especially social stressors, in a different way from men [40], [41], [42]. The importance of considering gender differences in stress response, and the vulnerability to its noxious effects in different species, is increasingly emphasized, as

Anticipatory hormonal responses

An important point to underline is the anticipatory response to competition found in T and C. A clear response was found in a judo combat, comparing it with another session of equivalent physical effort but without competitiveness [23]. This has been confirmed by comparing C concentrations before the combat with mean C obtained in eight resting sessions carried out at the same time of day throughout an entire sports season. This anticipatory response did not appear in the whole group of judo

Intervening variables of the T and C response to competition

In summary, results on this topic do not reflect a clear, unanimous panorama, contrary to the conclusions drawn in some reviews, in which the first results published are cited, confirming findings obtained in other species e.g. [12], [15]. This inconsistency has given rise to several proposals about different variables that could intervene (moderating or mediating) between hormones and behavior.

Steptoe [55] classified the relevant factors that influence the psychophysiological response to

Concluding comments

From the studies reviewed, we obtain fragmentary information about a global psychophysiological response to a social stressor, which is, of course, affected by a great number of variables. Previous information about the hormonal response to outcome may be, in my opinion, better integrated, if we consider it as a part of the coping response to competition (Fig. 2). Winning or losing does not increase or decrease T concentrations. Instead, victory will be more likely if the subject appraises the

Acknowledgements

This research was supported by several grants from the Spanish Committee for Scientific and Technical Research (DEP89-0235; DEP90-874; SAF92-692), Sports Superior Council (770), and National Plan I+D+I for Scientific Research and Technological Development (BSO2000-1208).

References (81)

  • K.D. McCaul et al.

    Winning, losing, mood and testosterone

    Horm Behav

    (1992)
  • P.C. Bernhardt et al.

    Testosterone changes during vicarious experiences of winning and losing among fans at sporting events

    Physiol Behav

    (1998)
  • A. Mazur et al.

    Sex difference in testosterone response to a video game contest

    Evol Hum Behav

    (1997)
  • B.M. Kudielka et al.

    HPA axis responses to laboratory psychosocial stress in healthy elderly adults, younger adults, and children: impact of age and gender

    Psychoneuroendocrinology

    (2004)
  • M.M. Faraday

    Rat sex and strain differences in responses to stress

    Physiol Behav

    (2002)
  • P. Palanza et al.

    Social stress in mice: gender differences and effects of estrous cycle and social dominance

    Physiol Behav

    (2001)
  • H.S. Bateup et al.

    Testosterone, cortisol and women's competition

    Evol Hum Behav

    (2002)
  • V.J. Grant et al.

    Dominance and testosterone in women

    Biol Psychol

    (2001)
  • A. Troisi

    Gender differences in vulnerability to social stress. A darwinian perspective

    Physiol Behav

    (2001)
  • A. Salvador et al.

    Anticipatory cortisol, testosterone and psychological responses to judo competition in young men

    Psychoneuroendocrinology

    (2003)
  • A. Salvador et al.

    Correlating testosterone and fighting in male participants in judo contests

    Physiol Behav

    (1999)
  • O.C. Schultheiss et al.

    Implicit power motivation moderates men's testosterone responses to imagined and real dominance success

    Horm Behav

    (1999)
  • O.C. Schultheiss et al.

    Implicit power motivation predicts men's testosterone changes and implicit learning in a contest situation

    Horm Behav

    (2002)
  • O.C. Schultheiss et al.

    Effects of affiliation and power motivation arousal on salivary progesterone and testosterone

    Horm Behav

    (2004)
  • T.V. Sewards et al.

    Fear and power-dominance motivation: proposed contributions of peptide hormones present in cerebrospinal fluid and plasma

    Neurosci Biobehav Rev

    (2003)
  • J.P. Henry

    Neuroendocrine patterns of emotional response

  • J.M. Koolhaas et al.

    Coping styles in animals: Current status in behavior and stress-physiology

    Neurosci Biobehav Rev

    (1999)
  • R. Vaernes et al.

    Endocrine response patterns and psychological correlates

    J Psychosom Res

    (1982)
  • H. Ursin

    The psychology in psychoneuroendocrinology

    Psychoneuroendocrinology

    (1998)
  • H. Ursin et al.

    The cognitive activation theory of stress

    Psychoneuroendocrinology

    (2004)
  • M. Eubank et al.

    Individual temporal differences in precompetition anxiety and hormonal concentration

    Person Individ Diff

    (1997)
  • R.M. Sapolsky

    Testicular function, social rank and personality among wild baboons

    Psychoneuroendocrinology

    (1991)
  • M.T. Arnedo et al.

    Rewarding properties of testosterone in intact male mice: a pilot study

    Pharmacol Biochem Behav

    (2000)
  • M. Martínez et al.

    Social defeat and subordination as models of social stress in laboratory rodents: a review

    Aggressive Behav

    (1998)
  • N.N. Kudryavtseva et al.

    Behavioral and physiological markers of experimental depression induced by social conflicts (DISC)

    Aggressive Behav

    (1998)
  • J. Price et al.

    The social competition hypothesis of depression

    Br J Psychiatry

    (1994)
  • A. Troisi et al.

    Darwinian psychiatry and the concept of mental disorder

    Hum Ethol Evol Psych

    (2002)
  • J. Archer

    The behavioural biology of aggression

    (1988)
  • P.F. Brain

    Stress in agonistic contexts in rodents

  • Cited by (143)

    • Psychological and physiological stress in non-competitive and competitive esports settings: A systematic review

      2020, Psychology of Sport and Exercise
      Citation Excerpt :

      This pattern results in an increase in testosterone compared to baseline, sympathetic nervous system activation, and positive mood changes during competition, which in turn increase the probability of victory (transition from competition to post-competition phase). In contrast, cognitive appraisal of a situation as threatening would more likely result in a passive/reactive coping pattern response, insufficient activation of testosterone and the sympathetic nervous system, negative mood changes, and increases in cortisol compared to resting conditions (Salvador, 2005). Post-competition/during recovery, the cognitive appraisal of victory or defeat affects mood and satisfaction, which will be reappraised, and influence future competitions (Salvador, 2005; Salvador & Costa, 2009).

    View all citing articles on Scopus
    View full text