Emotional Regulation Under Pressure: What Performance Research Tells Us
Executive Summary
Performance under pressure is not determined by the absence of emotion, but by how emotional responses are regulated in demanding conditions. Across elite sport and healthcare settings, research shows that unmanaged emotional load may not immediately impair performance, but it significantly increases the risk of fatigue, burnout, and longer-term performance decline. Sustainable performance depends on emotional regulation that is proportionate, responsive, and context-aware.
Pressure as a Constant in Performance Environments
Pressure is a defining feature of high-performance environments. In elite sport, frontline healthcare, and senior leadership roles, individuals are required to make decisions, execute skills, and sustain attention under conditions where outcomes matter and scrutiny is high. These environments do not allow for the removal of pressure; instead, they require individuals to function effectively within it.
Research consistently shows that pressure itself is not inherently damaging to performance. Rather, performance outcomes are shaped by the emotional responses pressure evokes and the individual’s capacity to regulate those responses. Emotional reactions act as signals of perceived demand. When these signals are ignored or overridden, they do not disappear. Instead, they accumulate, often emerging later as fatigue, impaired concentration, or emotional exhaustion.
Emotional Fluctuation and Performance Quality
Research in professional rugby provides a clear illustration of how emotions fluctuate during performance. Athletes reported experiencing intense emotional states immediately before key performance moments, including anxiety, anger, excitement, and enjoyment. When performance at these moments was independently assessed, higher levels of anxiety and anger were consistently associated with poorer execution. In contrast, excitement and enjoyment were more frequently linked with stronger performance outcomes.
Crucially, emotions were shown to fluctuate throughout the course of a match rather than remaining stable. Emotional states shifted in response to timing, competitive context, and unfolding events. This challenges the assumption that performance can be optimised through maintaining a fixed emotional state. Instead, performance emerges as a dynamic process, shaped by moment-to-moment emotional calibration rather than emotional suppression.
Stress, Coping Profiles, and Sustained Performance
Longitudinal research tracking athletes across an entire competitive season further reinforces this dynamic view of emotional regulation. Athletes were found to cluster into distinct stress and coping profiles. Those experiencing moderate stress combined with task-oriented coping strategies demonstrated the most adaptive emotional patterns and the highest perceived performance across the season.
In contrast, athletes reporting low stress with minimal coping engagement, or moderate stress combined with indiscriminate use of coping strategies, showed less favourable emotional states and weaker performance outcomes. These findings suggest that sustainable performance does not emerge from eliminating stress or applying coping strategies indiscriminately. Instead, it depends on matching emotional and behavioural responses to situational demand.
Emotional Load and Physical Cost in Healthcare
Healthcare research conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic provides further insight into emotional regulation under sustained pressure. Nurses reported high levels of emotional strain, including anxiety, fatigue, physical symptoms, and disrupted sleep. Despite these challenges, job performance remained competent across the sample.
The critical distinction identified is that performance can be maintained in the short term despite emotional strain. However, the longer-term cost includes increased risk of burnout, emotional exhaustion, and compromised physical health. Emotional regulation therefore becomes a performance sustainability issue, not simply a wellbeing concern. Where emotional load remains unmanaged, performance is maintained at the expense of recovery capacity.
Connection to your own Balancing Act
This body of evidence aligns directly with the Balancing Act focus on mental-emotional and physical health as foundations of sustainable performance. Emotional responses under pressure are not signs of weakness; they are signals of demand. When recognised and regulated, they support sustained execution under load. When ignored or overridden, they accumulate into fatigue, disengagement, and declining performance capacity.
References
- Campo, M., Champely, S., Lane, A.M., Rosnet, E., Ferrand, C. and Louvet, B. (2019) ‘Emotions and performance in rugby’, Journal of Sport and Health Science, 8(6), pp. 595–600.
- Elshahat Hamed, W. and Abd Elsalam Ahmed Eldeeb, G. (2021) ‘Effect of emotion management on nurses’ job performance during pandemic COVID-19’, Egyptian Journal of Health Care, 12(2), pp. 998–1018
- Lepers, E., Levillain, G., Martinent, G. and Nicolas, M. (2025) ‘Can stress and coping profiles predict athletes’ emotions and performance in competition?’, International Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology.
