Sport/Exercise Psychology: Chapter 6 Competition and Cooperation

What makes competition a good thing?

• Exciting: brings out best in us/energize us

• Fostering Cooperation: working with others to achieve a common goal means cooperating with teammates and sharing responsibility 

• Emotional control: help with adversity, pressure, etc.

• Learning Physical skills

Why would competition be bad?

• foster aggressive behavior

• leads to dropping/burnout

• can pose a threat to self esteem

• can lead to injury

What is competition?

• a social process that occurs when rewards are given to people for how their performance compares with the performances of others during the same task when participating in the same event

Who are rewards limited to in competition? 

• limited to those who outperform others 

• success for one = failure of other 

What is cooperation?

• a social process through which performance is evaluated and rewarded in terms of the collective achievement of a group of people working together to reach a particular goal

What does cooperation require?

• mutual involvement of more than one participant

How are rewards given through cooperation?

• rewards are shared equally

For cooperation, what does group success depend on? 

• depends on the collective achievement of all participants 

What are the types of competition based off Orlick’s framework?

• partnership/true competition

• de-competition

What is partnership?

• the essence of competition

• opponents see each other as allies in the pursuit of excellence

What is the goal of partnership?

• pursuit of excellence - mutual growth, master and self-improvement

What is a true competitor? 

• value fairness and strive with each other to reach new levels of excellence 

• mutually beneficial process where both sides strive for growth 

What is de-competition?

• occurs when opponents see each other as enemies

• objective becomes defeating the other person at all costs

what emotions are associated with de-competition?

• often brings negative emotions

• hostility, anxiety, aggression

What are the stages of competition?

• Stage 1: objective competitive situation

• stage 2: subjective competitive situation

• Stage 3: response

• Stage 4: consequences

What is the objective competitive situation? 

• a situation in which performance is compared with some standard of excellence in the presence of at least one other person who is aware of the competition 

Examples of objective competitive situation

• running with a friend and tell her about your goal of running 3 miles in 21 minutes

For the objective competitive situation, who must know the criteria for competition?

• at least one person who is in a position to evaluate performance

What is the subjective competitive situation?

• how the person perceives, accepts, and appraises the objective competitive situation

What influences one’s perception of the objective competitive situation? 

• an individual’s background and attributes 

• personality factors (e.g. perceived ability, motivation, competitiveness) 

Does trait competitiveness predict the response to competitive situations?

• no

What is competitiveness?

• the personality characteristic that best predicts how people appraise the objective competitive situation

What are the three competitive orientations that represent subjective outcomes of a competitive situation?

1. Competitiveness - enjoyment and desire to strive for success

2. win orientation - interpersonal comparison and winning (winning>improvement)

3. Goal orientation - personal performance standards (improvement>winning)

What are the results of the sport orientation questionnaire? 

• athletes score higher than non-athletes on all 3 orientations 

• more athletes are goal oriented 

• can be higher on more than one orientation 

• increase competitiveness = increased performance on coactive task (running on track, swimming in different lanes) 

What is the response?

• whether a person approaches or avoids an objective competitive situation

• athletes can be in an avoidance state of mind, but still participates

What are the types of responses?

• Behavioral (actions)

• Physiological: increased HR, clammy hands

• Psychological: internal and external. Internal - motivation, confidence, perceived ability. External - facilities, weather, time, opponent ability

What are consequences?

• refer to whether a person approaches or avoids an objective competitive situation

• results with the athlete’s response with the standard of comparison

are consequences strictly (+) or (-)? 

• not necessarily positive or negative 

• athlete’s perception of the consequences is more important than the outcome (win/lose)….depends on their orientation 

Of the three stages of competition, which stage can a coach intervene and facilitate optimal performance?

• subjective competitive

• more positive the appraisal (subjective) the more potentially positive a response can be

Is competition inherently good or bad?

• no

Does competition always cause aggressive behavior?

• no

Is it better for a coach to create a training environment that is competitive or cooperative? Which will produce more team success? 

• cooperation 

• cooperation leads to increased team cohesion/chemistry which leads to increased performance 

How can competition be beneficial?

• voluntary

• task focused and competitive = increased drive to improve

• balance - lose too much, lose purpose. Win too much, improvement becomes pointless

Are the best teams both competitive and cooperative?

• yes

In both a cooperative and competitive environment, how is success defined?

• Cooperative - individual progress

• Competitive - doing better than others

In cooperative and competitive environments, what is valued? 

• cooperative - effort 

• competitive - ability 

In cooperative and competitive environments, how is a person evaluated?

• cooperative - progress, effort

• competitive - score, winning

How are mistakes view in a cooperative and competitive environment?

• cooperative - part of learning

• competitive - failure

based off the cooperative and competitive environments, why is activity engaged in?

• cooperative - challenge, personal best

• competitive - extrinsic rewards, recognition

What is a person focused on in a cooperative and competitive environment? 

• cooperative - personal progress, learning 

• competitive - comparison to others 

What is the leader focused on in cooperative and competitive environments?

• cooperative - developmental learning

• competitive - normative comparisons

What are the component structures of games?

• competitive means - competitive ends: king of the mountain, 100 yards dash

• cooperative means - competitive ends: soccer, basketball

• individual means - individual ends: calisthenics, cross-country skiing

• Cooperative means - individual ends: helping each other individually improve

• Cooperative means - cooperative ends: keeping a volleyball from hitting the ground

How do cooperative games enhance cooperation?

• emphasize both cooperative and competitive ends

• cooperation can be taught through cooperative games

• cooperative games can be devised by changing the rules of traditional games

General principles of cooperative games 

• maximize participation 

• maximize opportunities to learn sport and movement skills 

• do not keep score 

• maximize opportunities for success 

• give positive feedback 

• provide opportunities for young players to play different positions 

Guidelines for balancing competition and cooperation

• blend competition and cooperation when teaching and coaching physical skills

• individualize instruction to meet each person’s needs

• structure games for children to include both competitive and cooperative elements

• provide positive and authentic feedback regardless of the outcomes of the competition

• stress cooperation to produce trust and open communication

• provide opportunities for both the learning of sport skills and the practice of these skills in competition