KIN 311K Challenge 2

What are the symptoms of an activated sympathetic nervous system (SAM)?

SAM activates the sympathetic branch of the autonomic nervous system, which in turns triggers the adrenal medulla to release the hormone adrenaline and noradrenaline. This instigates the fight or flight response characterized by increased heart rate, breathing rate, sweating, pupils dilate and digestion slows.

Which stress response system is designed for the immediate release of energy to overcome an acute stressor?

SAM

Which stress response system is associated with chronic stress and the release of the stress hormone cortisol?

PFC

Define Allostatic Load.

- "The wear and tear that results from either too much stress or from inefficient management of allostasis."
- Consequences of prolonged exposure to stress hormones or the cumulative toll on the body due to chronic over activation of stress response systems.
- Makes the body more susceptible to infection.

Acute Stress:

Short term stress

Chronic Stress:

Long term stress

Deprivational Stress:

Low motivation, lack of stimulation, or boredom

Anticipatory Stress:

What's going to happen in the future?

Secondary Stress:

What happened in the past (Should have)

Primary Stress:

What's happening right now

What is the function of the parasympathetic system?

- Initiates the relaxation response (rest, recover, and digest)
- Anabolic processes - Restoring, Rebuilding, Growth

Arousal:

Physiological activation of the autonomic nervous system

Arousal and Performance Theories:

- Tenets Drive Theory: Proposed a positive linear relationship between arousal and performance. As arousal increases, so will the likelihood of an individual responding with their dominant response.
- Tenets of the Inverted U hypothesis: The relationship between arousal and performance is curvilinear - Moderate arousal is optimal for performance
- Catastrophic Cusp: Suggest an inverted U relationship between psychological arousal and performance but varies along another dimension that is defined as a splitting factor which they arbitrarily identified as cognitive anxiety.

According to the Cue Utilization Theory, what happens to an individual's visual field when arousal increases?

- Cue Utilization Theory: Disruptions to performance occurs because the performer fails to attend to and utilize information necessary for the performance.
- The disruption to performance is due to the narrowing of attention (specifically visual attention)

How is performance impaired by arousal according to the Searchlight Metaphor?

- Having too broad of a searchlight: Failure to limit focus to the essential performance relevant cues
- Searchlight pointed in the wrong direction: Focusing on task irrelevant cues
- Searchlight too narrow or unable to rapidly shift from one cue to another: Inability to divide attention between concurrent relevant cues

What are the different forms of anxiety according to Multidimensional Anxiety theory?

Cognitive Anxiety:
- Has a negative linear relationship with performance
- Remains high and stable prior to competitions
Somatic Anxiety:
- Has an inverted U relationship with performance
- Peaks prior to the arrival of competition then subsides during performance

What are the principles of Reversal Theory? How does an individual's interpretations of their physiological response affect their emotional experience?

Reversal Theory: Used to explain how interpretations of arousal are related to an individual's personal experience.
- High arousal may be interpreted as excitement or anxiety

How does a coach influence the achievement motivations of athletes?

Coaches can create a mastery-focused environment by emphasizing working hard, developing skills, showing improvement over time, and valuing each athlete's role.

How would they create a task oriented environment or an Ego oriented environment?

Task Environment:
- Focus on building individual and team skills relative to previous abilities
- Focus on developing strengths
Ego Environment:
- May use potential threat (opponents) as motivation
- "They are better than you right now"
- "Practice is where you beat the other guy"

Understand the differences in how an optimist explains success or failure compared to a pessimist according to Seligman.

Among Seligman's findings: pessimists assume failure is persistent, while optimists believe it's temporary. Pessimists believe that failure in one area of life means failure in other areas while optimists compartmentalize them.

Self-talk:

An inner discourse that reflects and influences out cognitions about ourselves, outcomes and subsequent behaviors.

What are the different kinds of self-talk and what are they used for?

- Instructional self-talk: Used to direct attention and focus.
- Motivational: Used to increase energy of psyching up, maximize effort, and increase self-efficacy/confidence

Define Choking in sports.

Process whereby the individual perceives their resources are insufficient to meet the demands of the situation, and concludes with a significant drop in performance.

Paradoxical performance?

A theory that defines the performance conditions that qualify as a choke.

What conditions must be present for a choke to occur?

- The athlete is capable of performing better, the athlete is highly skilled
- The athlete is motivated to perform well
-The athlete perceives situation to be important

Why does choking occur?

- Athletes choke due to being distracted
- Involves attending to task-irrelevant cues
- Inability to filter out distracting irrelevant cues
- Inability to utilize information necessary for performance

What are the choking theories?

Cue Utilization Theory:
- Heightened arousal causes peripheral narrowing of visual attention
- Leads to an overly narrow focus that may omit task relevant information
Processing Efficiency Theory:
- Inefficient processing of task-relevant information
Choking attentional theories
- Some attention theories propose that performance is disrupted because the athlete's attention is turned inward and subsequently becomes more self-conscious and they are concerned with what's at stake in regard to their ego.

According to the Processing Efficiency Theory, which tasks are negatively affected by stress? Why? How does this theory explain how stress hinders performance?

Our Working Memory is affected negatively. Performance goes down because worry and effort increase but we are distracted and cannot see the goal in mind. (think of a point guard overstressed and unable to pass it properly).

According to the ABC's of Rational Emotive Behavior Theory your beliefs about an activating event will lead to?

The ABC's of Rational Behavior Theory include: A. Activating the event, B. Beliefs, and C. Consequences (Emotional and Behavioral).
- People consider their situation in light of their beliefs about that situation and then act accordingly. If those beliefs are irrational, the behavior will be irrational/dysfunctional. These are supported by secondary irrational beliefs as well

Define Self Serving bias.

- The tendency for people to take personal credit for success but blame failure on external factors.
- This bias allows for people to protect their self-esteem and maintain a positive self-image.

According to the Biopsychological model, what are two physiological states resulting in individuals/s appraisal of or beliefs about their ability to complete a task?

- Challenge Appraisal: They believe they possess the capabilities/resources to successfully meet the demands
- Threat Appraisal: When they believe the demands of the stress exceed their capabilities/resources.

According to Crum's Ted talk on mindsets, how do beliefs and expectations affect a person's experience or behavior?

A simple presentation changing one's beliefs can affect how one views their actions and make their behaviors seem more enjoyable. If we can shift our mindset from things that are fixed to something that's changeable. Is the power of mindset limitless? We can change quite simply any facet of our life by changing our mindset.

What happened in the Something to Gain Something to Lose studies? What were the differences in physiological responses based on how individuals frame the task?

In the Something to gain and Something to lose study those who felt like they had something to lose were more likely to have increased total peripheral resistance (less blood flow) and low cardiac output.

What happened in the study of Self-presentational efficacy? How did their confidence in their ability to form favorable impressions affect the level of anxiety?

One group was filmed in skimpy clothing and another was filmed in moderate clothing. The decisions were made for them to have their confidence undermined and those who were in the skimpy clothing had higher anxiety.

Cognitive Evaluative Theory?

Cognitive Evaluative Theory: The motivational impact of feedback, rewards or other communications relevant to an activity will depend on its functional significance.

What are the two ways to perceive/interpret external rewards or sources of motivation, according to the Cognitive Evaluative Theory? How do they affect long term motivation?

Informational:
- When the reward or instruction is seen as providing performance related feedback. *Individual perceives the feedback as confrontations of one's abilities or as useful information that will help them improve.
Controlling:
- When the rewards or instruction is perceived to create demands for meeting a specific standard
- When the individual is performing merely for or there is a great need for the reward
- Undermine intrinsic motivation

Define Self-Presentational Stress.

Self-Presentation stress is similar to social anxiety but occurs in the context of sports performance and when an individual is concerned with managing the impressions in other forms.

Define Self-Handicapping and know when it occurs and the behaviors that are used to create the handicap. Why do individuals self-handicap? What psychological constructs/variables are they trying to maintain?

- Self-Handicapping is any action or choice of performance setting that enhances the opportunity to externalize failure and to internalize success. Used to influence others to blame external issues as well.
- Self-handicapping provides an excuse for poor performances and protects one's self-esteem
- More likely to try maintain/preserve a higher self-esteem or protecting "what little self-esteem they have"

What is intra-psychic regulation? Who is the source?

"intra psychic" means demands are coming from within the individual so I assume regulation is from the person and the source is oneself.

Know the difference between intrinsic/internal and extrinsic/external sources of motivation and how they influence the sustainability of motivation.

Intrinsic:
- (Authentic Living) Goals are more sustainable and foster psychological well-being and personal Growth
Extrinsic :
- (Try to be what you think others want) Goals come for other sources than you. Money, Fame, Ego Can lead to undermine performance and lead to burnout

Organismic Integration Theory

Individuals adapt to external sources of motivation, such that they internalize the behaviors. As such this theory explains how individuals begin to value the behavior to such an extent that they see it as part of their identity. When this identification occurs motivation is more likely to persist.

Understand the different stages within Organismic Integration Theory. Know how an individual progresses from perceiving having no autonomy to experiencing having full autonomy.

- External Regulation: Athletes do weight training because their coach is making them.
- Introjection Regulation: Athletes do weight training because their coach told them to, but not longer needs the coach to be there and make them do it.
- Identified Regulation: Athletes begin to like weight training and will now attend voluntary workouts because they now see value in weight training.
- Integrated Regulation: Weight training has become a part of the athletes identity. It is a valuable way in which they define themselves.

What are the three components of the Basic Need Theory? How do the components affect motivation? What is needed for an individual to thrive or flourish?

The three basic components of the Basic Need Theory are: Autonomy (ability to choose), Competence (feelings of mastery), and Relatedness(feelings of being connected to others).
- These are needed to support motivated behaviors, energy, and optimal functioning (socially, physically, and psychologically)

What does a coach providing a clear rational for a behavior or task do? How does it affect motivation?

Clear rational thinking for a behavior that allows for athletes to feel intrinsically motivated because they are making a choice and feel like what they are doing is helping them/able to see why it is helping them.

What is social facilitation? How can concerns about how others perceive you have a positive influence on performance?

Separate but related from self-preservation, being observed facilitates your performance. People will try harder. People will act or work harder when people are watching to make favorable impressions, more effort, etc.

Define Emergent motivation as described in the lecture and how it relates to being in a flow state. What is happening?

- Emergent Motivation in which proximal goals emerge as a result of moment-to-moment interaction taking place between the person-environment relationship
- The steps come as you become immersed in the activities, becoming clearer in the ideas and present itself.

What cognitive psychology strategies can be used to change or stop negative self-talk?

- Reframing, Thought Stopping, Countering the validity or truthfulness of the thought
- Development greater awareness of one's self talk: Journaling or Self Talk logs