By: Connor Sand
Covid-19 has changed the landscape of the sports world since March, and collegiate spring sports have been dramatically affected with the cancellation of their seasons. These cancellations have robbed these athletes, especially seniors, of their ability to complete their collegiate careers and in some cases dramatically hampered their ability to position themselves for a professional career. They are left to feel disappointed, frustrated, and most importantly uncertain of what the future holds.
The state of uncertainty is a mental state which comes from a lack of knowledge. This is not saying when you are uncertain you aren’t smart, but it’s explaining that uncertainty comes when someone isn’t familiar with, or understanding of the situation they are in. This could be in a job, a relationship, or any situation you may find yourself in. For Jake Mulholland, a lefthanded pitcher at Oregon State University, the uncertainty was around the future of his baseball career.
Jake detailed to me on the podcast how he found out his senior season was suspended and shortly after cancelled, along with all the questions and possibilities that came from that. It seemed like every situation that came up was then eliminated or changed quickly after. As someone who had excelled at the top level of college baseball for three years he wasn’t only facing uncertainty about his current season, he was facing uncertainty about the MLB draft, a minor league baseball season, and a possible return for a second senior season if granted eligibility. There was a lot of questions that for the time being, had zero answers.
Uncertainty
The Entropy Model of Uncertainty describes the challenges that uncertainty brings psychologically. In this case, it would be applied to the reality of a cancelled season. Four main themes of the Entropy Model of Uncertainty are (Anderson, 2019):
1. In general, uncertainty is a critical adaptive challenge.
2. Uncertainty can create conflict between how you perceive things and how you behave.
3. Concrete goals and belief structures can reduce the experience of uncertainty by reducing the possible perceptions and actions.
4. Uncertainty can be experienced as anxiety because uncertainty reflects the inability to perceive the world we know.
After going down the list of immediate concerns, Jake offered what I thought was about the best outlook he could have had regarding what he was going through. He pointed out this was a great example of not worrying about things you don’t have control over, and just focusing on what you CAN do. In a time where uncertainty can over take your mental state and play a debilitating role on your ability to move forward, Jake’s focused approach was his way to minimize the adaptive challenge this uncertainty was presenting him. When uncertainty presents itself as an adaptive challenge, it can then create conflict by someone perceiving the situation in a negative way and the behavioral response mirroring that. This is where the Modal Model of Emotions comes in. The Modal Model of Emotions is a four-step theory that offers a way for us to better understand how emotions are generated. It starts with the (1) Situation then moves to (2) how we attend to the situation, we then develop an (3) appraisal, which creates our (4) emotional response (Anderson, 2019).
1. Situation
2. How we attend to the situation (what we do about it)
3. Appraisal (developed opinion)
4. Emotional Response (How we react)
Jake was able to have a positive emotional response due to his appraisal of this situation being something he can’t control and shouldn’t worry about. Being able to separate this from what he can control, enabled him to avoid internal conflict created by the uncertainty. By relying on his friends for positive coping strategies such as outdoor activities, and teammates for motivation in continuing baseball workouts, they were able to keep each other in good spirits until it was announced they would be able to return to Oregon State for another season.
This opportunity to come back to Oregon State provided him with a concrete goal and ultimately was able to reduce the uncertainty, allowing him to move forward. Even with the confirmed decision to come back next year, the uncertainty of what that will look like doesn’t go away. But for someone who is getting another chance at his senior season and to improve his chances for a career in the game, that’s not something he’s choosing to worry about.
Anderson, E. C., Carleton, R. N., Diefenbach, M., & Han, P. K. (2019). The Relationship Between Uncertainty and Affect. Frontiers in Psychology,10. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2019.02504
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