sport excluding cog

what is arousal?

a physiological state which increases when the environment places demand upon us causes increased heart rate, increased breathing rate and level of oxygen in the bloodstream increases.

what is anxiety?

a negative emotional state of apprehension that we experience when we perceive a situation as threatening to us, increases heart rate, breathing rate and sweating.

what is stress?

your body's way of responding to any kind of demand or threat when you are stressed your nervous system releases stress hormones including adrenaline and cortisol which rouse the body for emergency action

what does the inverted u tell us?

- as arousal increases so does performance up to a point
- the optimum level of arousal for best performance is moderate level
- if athlete becomes over aroused, they will have a steady decline in performance.

what are some limitations of inverted u hypothesis

· fails to consider individual differences (introvert/extrovert)
· fails to consider different arousal levels best for different sports e.g., golf vs weightlifting
· only considers the relationship of arousal and performance under low cognitive anxiety.

What is state anxiety?

temporary emotional state (linked to mood) which varies from one moment to the next

what is cognitive anxiety?

performers thoughts and worries concerning their perceiving lack of ability to complete task successfully. Often feeling nervousness and have difficulty concentrating before and during competition

key factors of cognitive anxiety?

- cognitive anxiety increases in the days before competition
- no steep rise before competition
- fluctuates during competition depending on events (successful/failure)

what is somatic anxiety?

performers physiological responses when placed in a situation where they perceive an ability to complete the task successfully. (Measured with CSAI-2)

what is trait anxiety?

personality trait or disposition to be anxious, some may perceive a situation as threatening some may not (measured with SCAT)

What is the CSAI-2 test?

measures state anxiety, 9 item measuring cognitive, 9 items measuring self-confidence and 9 somatic anxiety so high construct validity measuring all facets of state anxiety.

What is the SCAT test?

measures trait anxiety gives a score /30

what is fazey and hardy's aim's?

1. identify limitations with the inverted U model of arousal and performance
2. making use of the distinction between somatic and cognitive anxiety
3. to propose an alternative model explaining the relationship between anxiety and performance.

what is fazey and hardy's procedure?

- monograph - one topic specific
- problem one is the difficulties with the basic constructs involved in the hypothesis were arousal, stress and anxiety are operationalised to be the same when not
- problem 2 is there is no convincing evidence for the validity of the predicted relationship between stress and performance
- problem 3 difficulties of application as the model predicts that when stress exceeds the optimum performance will decline slightly but that reducing stress slightly brings back the optimum performance, but this is not the case
After reviewing the problems with the inverted U hypothesis of arousal and performance the authors then reviewed other models of stress on behaviour such as Zeeman's and considered whether Zeeman's model of stress and catastrophe could be applied to failure in sporting performance from this, they propose the catastrophe model.

what does the catastrophe model consider?

- considers the difference between cognitive and somatic anxiety when considering the relationship between anxiety and performance

what did the catastrophe model agree?

They agreed that as arousal increases so does performance up to a point but then performance declines sharply once the optimum is exceeded

what did fazey and hardy propose/say in relation to the catastrophe model?

- Fazey and hardy proposed the catastrophe model hypothesis that physiological arousal (somatic) is not necessarily detrimental to performance but will be associated with catastrophic effects when cognitive anxiety is also high.
- If both cognitive and somatic are both high catastrophe will occur
- If arousal levels reduce after catastrophe performance can be improved but most likely not back to optimum levels.

what did fazey and hardy conclude?

fazey and hardy believed that the inverted U hypothesis is flawed, and catastrophe models of performance have much better predicative validity for on the day performance.

how is fazey and hardy useful?

enhances our knowledge of the relationship between anxiety and performance, as it shows how arousal can steadily improve performance up to a point but if anxiety causes over arousal, then catastrophe will occur and performance plummets. Once performance has plummeted the athlete must attempt to lower arousal levels In order to try and return to optimum performance levels.

how is fazey and hardy limited in usefulness?

However, this may not be as easy as the arousal path must be followed to help this return and because the decline in performance was catastrophic and not slow and steady this can take time which the athlete may not have. This is extremely useful as coaches can use measures such as the CSAI which measures state anxiety and then work with their athletes to help them control somatic and cognitive anxiety overload to prevent catastrophe or indeed recover from catastrophe if this should happen.

how is arousal and anxiety internally valid?

Quantitative data gathered from questionnaires (scat out of 30) objective not open to bias

how is arousal and anxiety reliable

Questionnaires used to allow for replication

how is arousal and anxiety low in validity

Measures used and studies of sporting anxiety have tended to use a limited number of anxiety measures, based on self-report (questionnaires about sport related anxiety) all self-report measures are limited by their validity because of SDB and interpretation of the question etc. this concern over sport anxiety questionnaires is a problem for this area or research we may also have low population validity as much of the research in this area into effective strategies to control arousal have low sample sizes (turner and barker CBT 4 cricket players)

how is arousal and anxiety individual?

Firmly rooted in individual differences approach. The emphasis is on the individual for having a level of vulnerability influenced by genetic factors and acquiring anxiety responses through experiences. For example, in fazey and hardy's model the emphasis is on individual levels of physiological arousal and cognitive anxiety

how is arousal and anxiety situational?

factors have a profound effect on sporting anxiety, team dynamic, leadership, and spectator support all impact on anxiety levels

how is arousal and anxiety limited in usefulness

Limited knowledge as inverted u fails to consider individual differences/different sports.

how is arousal and anxiety useful?

enhanced knowledge and understand with catastrophe model as fazey and hardy's model predicts that regulating both cognitive and physiological arousal can improve performance and supporting research for the effectiveness of the strategies implemented also provide further support for the model
Practical applications: CBT, PMR, energising imagery.

how is arousal and anxiety nature?

Arousal and anxiety are influenced by both nature and nurture. we might inherit a more reactive nervous system (nature) which will mean we respond to anxiety provoking situations with higher arousal.

how is arousal and anxiety nurture?

Nurture can also play a part in sporting anxiety such as having a parent that puts you under pressure to win which leads to high levels of cognitive anxiety and sporting catastrophes it's important not to focus on losing as a negative as a child may feel humiliated when they lose which will have a very negative effect on developing athlete.

what is part C structure?

WHAT - what the strategy is in context of the scenario
HOW - detailed and replicable strategy in context of the scenario
WHY - backed up with the psychological research from the topic

what are the 3 strategies used in arousal and anxiety

- motivational imagery
-PMR
-CBT

what is motivational imagery?

The athlete could be trained as a part of their training regime in the use of motivational imagery. This is a skill that has to be practised, just as physical skills have to be practised, possibly twice a day for 20 minutes over several weeks. This might include running through previous successful performance or recall feelings that success arouses or visualise what success would feel like, lifting the trophy or standing on the gold podium. This is done to promote arousal and get the athlete in the zone of optimal arousal where we know from the inverted U and catastrophe models is best for performance.

what is PMR?

Progressive muscular relaxation in order to perform specific sporting skills (motor skills like a penalty kick/golf) an athlete might need to find a way to turn down their arousal in order to perform at optimal level. PMR is teaching the athlete to progressively relax all the different sets of muscles on the body. They do this one set of muscles at a time by first tensing the muscles to relax and then releasing them.

What is CBT?

You could use CBT for individuals who have high levels of trait anxiety/cognitive anxiety (turner and barker - 4 elite cricketers)

what is exercise?

activity requiring physical effort carried out to sustain or improve health and fitness. Anything that increases heart rate and breathing.

what is mental health?

a state of wellbeing in which every individual realises their own potential, can cope with the normal stresses of life, can work productively and fruitfully and is able to contribute to their community.

what is mood? (MCNAIR)

MCNAIR ET AL. identify six dimensions of moon: tension-anxiety, depression-dejection, anger-hostility, fatigue, inertia, and confusion measured by the POMS, a popular test in sport psychology to obtain a total mood disturbance (TMD) score and analysis of your tension, depression, anger, vigour, fatigue and confusion.

What was the endorphin hypothesis? (stienburg and Sykes)

STIENBURG AND SYKES, sustained physical activity such as aerobic exercise triggers the release of endorphins, a natural opioid or pain reliever in the brain and this produces a feel-good effect and leads to an improvement in mood

what did henning boecker do?

took advantage of advancement in technology and used brain scanning technology to provide evidence for the endorphin hypothesis using PET scans to scan the brains of 10 distance runners before and after a 2-hour run and results did confirm that endorphins did indeed increase during the run.

what is the monoamine hypothesis?

- The idea that exercise boosts levels of the monoamine neurotransmitter serotonin, noradrenaline and dopamine known to be associated with depression and anxiety.

what is the distraction hypothesis?

the idea that exercise shifts attention away from symptoms and their origins allowing the patient relief from the cognitive aspects of mental illness.

what is the self efficacy hypothesis?

the idea that exercise provides a challenge for the patient who can successfully take this on and therefore feel better about themselves.

what is the social interaction hypothesis?

the idea that social interaction and likelihood of improved social support and developing new positive relationships through joint engagement with exercise improves coping capability.

what 3 explanations did peluso and de Andrades identify to explain how exercise might be beneficial to mental health

- distraction hypothesis
-self efficacy hypothesis
-social interaction hypothesis

what's some supporting research for benefiting mental health?

* de moor
* Kennedy and newton

what was de moors research?

gave 19000 Dutch adults a questionnaire about their mental health and exercise patterns, exercise was significantly lower in symptoms of anxiety and depression

what is Kennedy and newtons research?

assessed mood with the profile of mood states in people taking aerobics class of differing intensity and found that mood did improve regardless of intensity

what was lewis' aim?

to examine the moderating effect of dance on mood in the elderly and more specifically in a group of people with PD across a long cycle of 12 weeks and short cycles of 1 hour.

what was lewis' sample?

37 participants took part in the study of these 22 were diagnosed with PD and were all rated as having mild to moderate PD by trained physiotherapists, the remaining 15 were aged matched for controls.

what was lewis' method?

- participants were recruited through local advertisements and through local contact with local PD support groups
- Independent variable was whether participants were suffers of PD or whether participants didn't suffer with PD (control group). The second independent variable which was manipulated by the researchers was the time cycle: long cycle (12 weeks) short cycle (9 weeks)
- Measurement of mood for the long cycle was achieved using the profile of mood states questionnaire given in (1 week then 12)
- Ppts then attended a weekly dance class, run by a qualified dance instructor for a period of 10 weeks. Dance classes lasted for 50 minutes, each class was based on rhythmic dancing to a strong beat, the style of dancing changed every 2 weeks and consisted of Bollywood, tango, cheerleading, old time music hall, party dancing based on the Charleston and Saturday night fever.
- In the 9th week ppts were asked to complete the BRUMS, according to how they felt 'right now' before and after dance class (short cycle)

what are lewis' findings?

-After 10 weeks if dance classes, TMD scores were significantly lower all groups
- hanges in each POMS subscale were also analysed, anger declined most significantly with anxiety tension and declining significantly
- After one dance class, all participants in both classes reported improved mood
- Additionally, TMD scores improved significantly from baseline and BRUMS subscales of tension anxiety and vigour were significantly improved.

what did lewis conclude?

- This research clearly highlights the benefits of dance on mood as the researchers concluded that taking part in weekly dance classes can significantly improve mood in the elderly, with or without PD

how is lewis' research useful?

can greatly improve mood of people suffering with Parkinson's disease especially with psychological disorders most linked to Parkinson's such as depression and anxiety. This may be because the social interaction of dance can help people get socialising again or because of endorphins released during exercise meaning exercise in the form of dance should be highly encouraged to the elderly and those with Parkinson's

what are 2 strategies for exercise and mental health?

- weekly dance classes
- any exercise (individual/group)

what is the dance strategy?

dance is one popular exercise used to improve mood and mental health. The key research Is great evidence that weekly dance classes improve mood in older people and in clients with mild to moderate PD. Its therefore feasible that such an intervention would also benefit other groups of people. Therefore, a series of dance lessons of Argentinean tango for example to reduce symptoms of depression and stress.

what is the exercise strategy?

You can suggest any exercise here, some individual/solo routines such as running and back it up with biological explanations/studies or situational such a group classes and back up with psychological explanations.

what is team cohesion?

Team cohesion is the strength of the bonds between each individual team member and the team.

what is tuckmans 4 stage model for group cohesion?

1. Forming - team meet and establish ground rules
2. Storming - members start to communicate but see themselves as individuals, resist control
3. Norming - work together and feel part of a team
4. Performing - work together trusting atmosphere
5. Adjourning - recognise member contributions.

what does an effective leader do?

- An effective leader organises team members and takes a key role in regulating the emotional and motivational climate in which the team operates.

what is coaching?

- Coaches is a special form of leadership largely orientated towards improving athletic performance. This can be achieved through direct technique-oriented instruction or through enhancing motivation and teamwork.

what was jowett and cockerill's 3 variables for the quality of coach/athlete relationship?

1. Closeness: the emotional bond between coach and athlete.
2. co-orientation: shared views, priorities, and concerns
3. complementarily: co-operative behaviour between coach and athlete.

what did the research of jowett and cockerill show?

Research has shown that in the majority of cases athletes placed the strongest emphasis on closeness and that their motivation and confidence was linked to their experiences of being cared for, liked, trusted and respected by their coaches.

what is smith and smolls aim?

smith aimed to test the effectiveness of a training programme for baseball coaches working with children

what was smith and smolls sample

an initial sample of 34 male little league baseball coaches from Seattle were recruited from the sample of coaches who had taken part in the preliminary study. 18 randomly allocated to an experimental group and participated in the CET programme and 16 were assigned to a control group and had no training

what is smith and smolls procedure

coaches were phoned and invited to an evening training session, ensuring the session the authors fed back findings from the preliminary study and stressed the desirability of reinforcement encouragement and technical instruction and further modelled this by demonstrating examples of desirable and undesirable behaviour. Behavioural feedback was given after observing experimental coaches in the first 2 weeks of the season and for all coaches the feedback included the aim of raising their rate of reinforcement to 25% of their responses. In addition, the coaches completed a self-monitoring form indicating approximately what percentage of their time they spent using the desirable behaviours.

what did smith and smoll find?

a number of things were measured to see the effectiveness of CET including behaviours of the coaches during games include reactive and spontaneous behaviours where it was found the coaches who underwent training did use positive reinforcement more frequently.

what did smith and smoll conclude?

This research clearly shows that the training programme for coaches had a significant impact on their behaviours towards their players and that these behavioural differences impacted on players attitudes to the coach and other aspects of their sporting experiences

how is smith and smoll useful?

This does highlight the benefits that the CET training had on those teams by improving their sport performance with others as many of the player's attitudes towards their coach and teammates was much more positive reflecting a positive performance. It is clear that by providing coaching with training based on behavioural principles and using positive reinforcement to praise the process and the effort a child puts into their performance then their psychosocial development is much healthier. This in essence improves sport performance with others as by praising the process and effort the sports performance is much more relaxed and enjoyable allowing winning to take care of itself.

how is performing with others invalid?

-Could leads to socially desirable answers
-Coaches could respond with demand characteristics when being observed

how is performing with others reliable?

Questionnaires used to measure CET and self-esteem are replicable

how is performing with others unethical?

No serious ethical issues in key research as no deception or lack of informed consent

how is performing with others nature/nurture

Highly charismatic coaches tend to be more successful and personalities largely down to nature, or could be influenced by environmental factors too which is nurture

how is performing with other individual/situational?

Style of teamwork or coaching success can be adapted so situational factors, but some people are not open to being coached or work well in a team by disposition

how is performing with others scientific?

Standardised experimental protocols in Smiths key research so could be argued scientific but there are limitations too

how is performing with others useful?

Sport is a multi-billion-pound industry so anything we can do to improve coaching and team building is highly useful, even for recreation level for the health of the nation

what are the 3 strategies for performing with others?

- making CET a compulsory requirement or reviewing the content coaches must cover when they obtain their coaching certificates
- team building
-team rewards/presentation evenings

what is the making CET compulsory strategy?

making CET a compulsory requirement or reviewing the content coaches must cover when they obtain their coaching certificates e.g., a psychology unit is covered that emphasises the importance of positive reinforcement. Based on Smith et al who showed that the practice of coaches can be improved by means of training programmes (CET)

what is the team building strategy?

Based on Tuckman's development of group cohesion teams should attend team building days to help them work together and progress through the 4 stages to achieve group cohesion

what is the team sports awards/presentations strategy?

Based on the principles of operant conditioning - rewards can be used encourage a team to improve on their performance.
For example, if a team achieves together this positive reinforcement in the form of praise and recognition may motivate them to continue to strive for success in the next season.
This also supports Tuckman's stage of 'adjourning'.

what is being watched mean?

whether by spectators or other athletes - can have a profound effect on our performance, making it better or worse depending on the circumstances

what is social facilitation?

Positive effects other people present have on a person's performance of task. Facilitated if task is easy or we an expert

What is Zajonc's drive theory?

: The effect of those present occurs as a result of increased arousal in the performer enhancing performance BUT can also have a negative effect on the person's performance because it is arousal that explains why we perform differently on what he called a dominant task (tasks that are familiar, simple or well learned so arousal levels should be high for social facilitation) and what he called non-dominant tasks (tasks that are unfamiliar, complex or novel where arousal levels need to be low).

how did Michaels support drive theory?

tested audience effects on pool players in a university bar. By observation, the researchers assessed the skill level of players, and then assessed the skill level of players. The four researchers approached tables where the players were firstly of below-average skill, and secondly of above-average skill. Their results were as predicted by the drive theory: the presence of the audience improved the performance of the above average players (social facilitation) and impaired the performance of the below-average players (social inhibition).

what is cotteralls apprehension theory?

Suggested that the social inhibition effects could be explained by the level of anxiety experience by the performer. The performer knows that the audience has the power to either reward them, to approve them and praise them, or the power to punish them with disapproval. The performer experiences a high level of anxiety as a result of evaluation apprehension - the fear of being judged negatively by the audience - and that this anxiety has a negative effect on their performance.

what is home team advantage?

simply suggests that if a team is playing 'at home' rather than 'away' that they have a greater chance of winning. Schwartz and Barsky (1977) analysed data from several sports including baseball, basketball, ice hockey and football. The strongest effect was in basketball, and they suggested that the reason was attributable to teams playing better offensive rather than better defensive games on their home ground. This would support the concept of the drive theory as it suggests that the home team have the easier task (dominant) and the away team have a harder task (non-dominant).

what is home team disadvantage?

A concept to also consider is how the home team may perform worse when playing at home. This may be because the expectations of the fans is that their team will win at home; a crowd can be very vocal in their support and encouragement, so much so that the home crowd could induce arousal overload in their home team players and thereby have a negative effect on their team's performance.

what is Zajonc's aim?

to provide evidence for drive theory using cockroaches

what is Zajonc's sample?

72 female cockroaches studied for one week before the study, kept in the dark at a temperature of 75 degrees and fed a diet of apples.

what is Zajonc's procedure?

The cockroaches either had to complete an easy task which was a straight runway running from a start box to a goal box and a complex task which was to traverse through a maze to the goal box. A light was shone in order to frighten the cockroach into running and escaping from it, the task they were being tested on was in response to the light being turned on and timed how long it took them to run from the start box to the goal box. Some of the cockroaches ran the maze/runway alone which provided a baseline measure of task performance. To test drive theory some of the cockroaches were tested in pairs (co-action), alone and others in front of an audience. For the runway task, the simpler of the two, cockroaches started their run and completed it more quickly when in the presence of an audience or a fellow cockroach. For the more difficult maze task in which the cockroaches have to work a route to their goal as well as run it, the effect was different

what was Zajonc's findings?

n the co-action condition cockroaches took longer to run the maze than when alone. However, they ran the maze faster when in the presence of an audience than when alone. Results were reasonably consistent with drive theory, where the task was simple i.e., the runway, participants performed better in the presence of others but when the task was more complicated, they performed better without co-actors.

what did zajonc conclude?

This research could explain how the presence of others affects sport performance as the above findings clearly show that when a dominant task is undertaken which is learned and familiar (runway) the presence of a co-actor facilitates performance.

how is zajonc's research useful?

This is explained by Drive theory to be a result of how the presence of others can increase arousal and lead to social facilitation but when the task was non-dominant and novel (maze) the presence of others (co-actor) inhibited performance as this led to over arousal as it was adding to the already high levels of arousal present when facing a novel task. This understanding could be used to improve performance by getting athletes to train with co-actors until the task becomes classed as dominant and automatic which would then help the athlete to use the presence of others such as an audience or competitor to facilitate their performance as opposed to inhibiting it.

how is zajoncs research valid?

-The DV was the time taken to complete the maze, high face validity.
-Independent measures design used was justifiable as the participants growing familiarity with the mazes might have affected their performance if they had taken part in more than one condition.
-High controls - situational factors e.g., same environment they were taken from - allow us to establish a cause and effect with regards to audience effects and performance.

how is zajonc's research reliable

-High internal reliability as a standardised procedure was used, each cockroach was placed in a mason jar and fed a diet of apples for a week, all ran the task 10 times etc. The procedure can be replicated.
-Use of an objective measuring tool such as time that produces quantitative data means the study also has high external reliability as the results can be checked for consistency.

how is audience effects individual/situational?

-Situational - presence of others does have a profound effect on performance e.g., an audience/co-actor.
-Individual - still could argue that personality plays a role as in

How is audience effects scientific?

DV measured through time taken to complete the maze/runway - objective tool and quantifiable. High controls e.g., taken from dark mason jars 1 week before.
Allows a cause and effect to be established IV (alone, co-action or audience) caused the DV (time taken to complete).

what are the 3 strategies for audience effects?

- automatic processing through practice
- biofeedback
-context dependant memory

what is automatic processing through practice?

According to Zajonc's drive theory experts performs better in the presence of audiences and novices perform worse. This suggests that our athletes need to become experts. A key feature of expert performance is automatic processing for motor skills. Training that involves repetition of skills performance until they can be performed without conscious attention will thus equip athletes to perform in front of audiences. This could also be done with a teammate acting as a competitor

what is biofeedback?

As shown by Zajonc's drive theory when performing in front of others our arousal/anxiety levels increase Biofeedback can help athletes learn to regulate their own physiological arousal levels in the presence of spectators. This technique for suggests that providing feedback to a person about their biological reaction to stress can help us learn to manage and control it. Technical equipment is used to monitor physiological responses such as increased heart rate and muscle tension and immediately reports this back to the person.

what is context dependant memory?

dependent memory refers to improved recall of specific information when the context present at encoding and retrieval are the same. This was shown in Grant's research when participants learned in a noisy or silent condition and were tested in matched or mismatched conditions. The matched condition had enhanced performance. This can be applied in a sport setting by creating the environment that an athlete will perform in during training. This could be environmental stimulus such as having an audience present during training, listening to music before a game etc.