Final Exam: Clinical Sport Psychology

Concentration

is best described as the ability to maintain focus on relevant environment cues.

Crowd noise

is not an internal distractor (it’s external).

Self-talk takes many forms…

and self-talk can be categorized as instructional, motivational, or negative. 

Thought-stopping

means that whatever the athlete realizes they’re having a negative thought, the athlete stops the negative thought by replacing the negative thought with a constructive thought. 

This ____ means the athlete uses a trigger word to stop the thought and to clear the athlete’s mind.

Thought-stopping

Exercise non-judgmental thinking

by having the athlete focus on improvement of athletic skills and not waste their time thinking about past mistakes and errors. Otherwise judgmental thinking tends to elicit personal ego-involved reactions.

Develop competition plans 

by having the athlete design a detailed plan of action to facilitate their attentional focus. 

Use simulation training and practice.

This means the athlete should put themselves under the same types of pressures and circumstances they will most likely encounter in competition.

Overlain skills 

by instructing the athlete to overlain different mental skills so that performance of the skill becomes automatic to the athlete. 

Broad attentional focus

allows an athlete to perceive several occurrences simultaneously. For example, when a basketball player dribbles the basketball to the left side of the court, the player is using their narrow attentional focus to dribble the ball to the left side of the court, and the player is assessing the position of the other players on the basketball court at the same time.

Narrow attentional focus

occurs when an athlete responds to only one or two cues.

External attentional

focus directs attention outward to an object. 

Internal attentional

Focus is directed inward to thoughts and feelings

Periodized training 

is the deliberate strategy of exposing athletes to high-volume and high0intensity training loads that are followed by the rest or taper stage, lower training loads. 

Overtraining

is a short cycle of training lasting only a few days to a few weeks and not lasting for months, and the athlete is exposed to excessive training loads.

Staleness

is defined as a physiological state of overtraining, which manifests as deteriorated, athletic readiness.

Burnout

is defined as an exhaustive, psychophysiological response exhibited as a result of frequent, sometimes extreme, and generally ineffective efforts to meet excessive training and competitive demands. 

In general, burnout

is characterized by exhaustion, both physical and emotional, depersonalization, and feelings of low personal accomplishment, low self-esteem, failure, depression, and perhaps physical withdrawal from a sport that the athlete formally pursued and enjoyed as an athlete.

The negative training stress response model (Sylva)

Sylva’s model of burnout focuses more on responses to physical training although it recognizes the importance of psychological factors.

According to this model, the key component to producing burnout is the potential negative adaptations of too much training.

The Smith model of burnout

is the cognitive-affective stress model of burnout. It’s a four-stage stress-based of burnout in sport:

Stage 1: Situational Demands

Stage 2: Cognitive Appraisal

Stage 3: Physiological Responses

Stage 4: Behavioral Reponses 

Stage 2 of Smith’s Model

A cognitive appraisal is made of the objective demands being placed on the athlete.

Empowerment or unidimensional identity development and external control model of burnout is associated with…

Coakley

Coakley’s model of burnout 

is more sociological in orientation 

The Maslach burnout inventory is the most widely used inventory to measure the three components of burnout.

The first component is emotional exhaustion. Emotional exhaustion is characterized by feelings of emotional exhaustion and emotional overextension.

The second component is depersonalization. Depersonalization is characterized as unfeeling and impersonal responses to other people where the athlete’s feelings toward other people are detached, and there is a sense of just going through the motions.

The third component is a low sense of personal accomplishment. A low sense of personal accomplishment is characterized by a decreased feeling of competence and achievement in the athlete’s work with other people and a perceived lack of ability to control situations.

True or false: It might be advisable for the athlete to take some time away from the sport, which is called a relaxation break from the sport.

True

1. Vignette: Very short, 1 paragraph. Hypothetical. Respond to some questions in connection.
Know the difference between burnout, overtraining, and staleness.
Burnout: Let's say I'm a baseball player. In a few short days, showing signs of overtraining, staleness, or burnout. Burnout takes time to show up. Signs and symptoms don't show up until much later. Will underline important information relevant to the questions.

Burnout: has received more attention than overtraining or staleness. physical, emotional, and social withdrawal from a formerly enjoyable sport activity. This withdrawal is characterized by emotional and physical exhaustion, reduced sense of accomplishments, and sport devaluation. Burnout takes time to show up so it won't show up until later.

One of the questions on the vignette has a very ridiculous response. More than 3 days, more than 5 days, and more than that is burnout.
Overtraining: short cycle of training (few days to a few weeks) during which an athlete exposes themselves to excessive raining loads that are near or at maximal capacity.

Staleness: physiological state of overtraining which manifests as deteriorated athletic readiness. End result or outcome of overtraining when the athlete has difficulty maintaining standard training regimens and can no longer achieve previous performance results

Burnout (STUDY GUIDE)

Gould and Witney define it as: a physical, emotional, and social withdrawal from a formerly enjoyable sport activity. This withdrawal is characterized by emotional and physical exhaustion, reduced sense of accomplishments, and sport devaluation.

Moreover, burnout occurs as a result of chronic stress (a perceived or actual imbalance between what is expected of an athlete physically, psychologically, and socially and his or her response capabilities) and motivational orientations and changes in the athlete.

What is not a characteristic of burnout?

Characteristics include: Exhaustion, both physical and emotional. Feelings of low personal accomplishment, low self-esteem failure, and depression. Depersonalization and devaluation.

Know what the key component is to producing burnout to Sylva's negative training stress-model of burnout.

The research has revealed that physical training is certainly involved in the burnout process, supporting the general prediction of the negative training stress model.

However the intensity of training, along with a variety of psychological and social stressors and recovery facts, must be considered.

True/false: Commitment and entrapment theory of burnout.

Athletes who are prone to burnout feel "entrapped" by sport when they do not really want to participate in it but believe they must maintain their involvement.
Burnout occurs when athletes become entrapped in sport and lose motivation but continue to participate

The Unidimensional Identity Development and External Control Model: Coakley's model of burnout is more ____________ in orientation.

Sociological

What is a principle psychological symptom of staleness?

Mood disturbance and increases in perceptual effort during exercise
80% of athletes are clinically depressed

What is a helpful treatment for burnout?

relaxation break

Look at the lecture notes about Maslach's burnout inventory. Which is not a component of burnout?

Components: Emotional exhaustion; depersonalization; low sense of personal accomplishmen

Which of the following is not a symptom of overtraining?

Physical: Sleep disturbance, weight loss, decreased or poor performance, elevated resting heart rate, muscle soreness, appetite loss, overuse injuries and increased vulnerability to injuries, increased illness resulting from immune system deficiency, elevated resting blood pressure, gastrointestinal disturbances, physical complaints, retarded recovery from physical exertion, substance abuse, greater fatigue and tiredness

Psychosocial: emotional exhaustion, apathy; low vigor; lower self-confidence or efficacy; lower perceived control; increased tension; feeling or a lock of or inadequate accomplishments; sport devaluation and lack of caring; low motivation or desire to play; greater dejection; mood changes or negative affect; lack of energy or lethargy; lack of perceived control; concentration loss or problems; heightened anxiety and stress; lowered self-esteem; restlessness, irritability, anger; changes in values and beliefs; antisocial behavior and emotional isolation; feelings of depression

What is periodized training?

The deliberate strategy of exposing athletes to high volume and high-intensity training loads that are followed by a lower training load, known as the rest or taper stage.

The differences between overtraining and periodized training depend largely on individual differences and ________.

capabilities

True/False: Common Symptoms of Burnout

Physiological responses: Tension, anger, anxiety, depression; insomnia, fatigue; illness, susceptibility

Behavioral response: rigid, inappropriate behavior; decreased performance; interpersonal difficulties; withdrawal from activities

If a pole vaulter shifts attention from imagining the approach to the landing sand pit to focusing on actually seeing the runway, their attentional focus has changed from ______________ to ______________.

Internal attentional focus

External attentional focus 

About golfers shifting their attention before a T-shot. How the attention is shifted from ___________ to ________.

Internal to external?

Thinking to doing

Which of the following is not a component of Smith's model of burnout (also known as the cognitive-affective stress model of burnout)?

Burnout is a process involving physiological, psychological, and behavioral components that progress in predictable stages.

1. Situational demands: high demands outweigh potential resources = burnout
2. Cognitive appraisal: individual interpret and appraise situation; some interpret it as more threatening
3. Physiological responses: stress produces canes such as increases in tension, irritability and fatigue. burnout= emotionally depleted and having little positive emotion, develop a susceptibility to illness and lethargy
4. Behavioral responses: decreased performance, interpersonal difficulties, and withdrawal from activity

True/false: Common symptoms of overtraining. 

Physical
Sleep disturbance
Weight loss
Decreased or poor performance
Elevated resting heart rate
Muscle soreness
Appetite loss
Overuse injuries and increased vulnerability to injuries
Increased illness resulting from immune system
deficiency
Elevated resting blood pressure
Gastrointestinal disturbances
Physical complaints
Retarded recovery from physical exertion
Substance abuse
Greater fatigue and tiredness

Psychosocial
Emotional exhaustion, apathy
Low vigor
Lower self-confidence or efficacy
Lower perceived control
Increased tension
Feelings of a lack of or inadequate accomplishments
Sport devaluation and lack of caring
Low motivation or desire to play
Greater dejection
Mood changes or negative affect
Lack of energy or lethargy
Lack of perceived control
Concentration loss or problems
Heightened anxiety and stress
Lowered self-esteem
Restlessness, irritability, anger
Changes in values and beliefs
Antisocial behavior and emotional isolation
feelings of depression

Which of _____ is not a symptom of burnout? (P557 Chart) Mock ?: Weight gain, lower motivation, substance abuse

Weight gain ( real answer is weight loss)

True/false: Self-talk.

Three Types
Positive (motivational): increasing energy, effort, and positive attitude with no task
Instructional: helps individuals focus on the technical or task-related aspects of the performance to improve execution
Negative: critical and self-demeaning as it gets in the way of a person reaching their goals, anxiety producing

True/false: Motivational self-talk and instructional self-talk. 

Motivational self talk improved performance of an accuracy task significantly more than instructional self-talk but only for highly skilled athletes performing a well-learned task

They did not need specific instructional cues; in fact, instructional cues could impair performance that at this level was on autopilot

Motivational self-talk seems, especially effective for endurance events as demonstrated by using swimming endurance

The buzzwords are personal and ego-involved reactions. What is that known as?

Evaluating and judging what you do on the athletic field or in exercise class hinders performance

The biggest obstacle athletes face in maintaining concentration is the tendency to evaluate performance and classify as good or bad. These judgements elicit personal and ego-involved reactions.

What is a risk of trying to maintain concentration throughout competition?

There are visual distractors: environment competes for attention; coaches, crowd, performers, teammates

There are auditory distractors: crowd noise, airplanes flying, announcements, phones, loud conversations

Read about using a trigger word to stop negative self-statements.

Thought-stopping involves concentrating on the undesired thought briefly then using a cue or trigger to stop the thought and clear your mind.

Say stop out loud; focus on a task-related cue; then try saying "stop" quietly in a particular situation that produce negative self-talk

Overlearning the skills involved in sport helps an athlete to ____.

Make the skill automatic

Frees up one's attention to concentrate on other aspects of the performance environment

Which of the following would not be classified as an internal distractor?

What Is: Attending to past events- focusing on past mistakes; attending to future events- fortune telling in negative way; choking under pressure-poor performance under pressure; overanalyzing body mechanics- focusing too much on body movements

Elite athletes like to structure their own training to put themselves under the same sort of pressure encountered during actual competition. What is that an example of?

Simulation (training)- prepare yourself to cope with distractions and the environmental conditions to systematically practicing the situations. 

Know the definitions: (Lecture notes as test prompts and also in course textbook)

Staleness: a physiological state of overtraining which manifests as deteriorated athletic readiness

Effective attenders: People who concentrate well
Internal attentional focus: is directed inward to thoughts and feelings, as when a coach analyzes plays without having to physically perform, a high jumper prepares to start her run-up, or a bowler readies his approach

Situation awareness: an athlete's ability to understand what is going on around him

Burnout: a physical, emotional, and social withdrawal from a formerly enjoyable sport activity. This withdrawal is characterized by emotional and physical exhaustion, reduced sense of accomplishments, and sport devaluation. Moreover, burnout occurs as a result of chronic stress (a perceived or actual imbalance between what is expected of an athlete physically, psychologically, and socially and his or her response capabilities) and motivational orientations and changes in the athlete.

Read about Sylva's negative training stress-response model. Fill in two blanks. Sylva's negative training stress-response model focuses on several things, and those things are going to be the answer to that question.

Physical training stresses the athlete physically and psychologically and that it can have both positive and negative effects.

Positive adaptions is a desirable outcome- athlete overloads the body by doing lots of sprint work to be faster

Negative adaption is overtraining and staleness which leads to burnout

Focuses on responses to physical training and it recognizes importance of psychological factors

Concentration 

contains four parts-

1. focusing on the relevant cues in the environment (selective attention)

2. Maintaining that attentional focus over time

3. Having awareness of the situation and performance errors

4. Shifting attentional focus when necessary

Overtraining

a short cycle of training lasting only a few days to a few weeks and not lasting for months, and the athlete is exposed to excessive training loads.

Broad Attentional Focus

allows an athlete to perceive several occurrences simultaneously. For example, when a basketball player dribbles the basketball to the left side of the court, the player is using their narrow attentional focus to dribble the ball to the left side of the court, and the player is assessing the position of the other players on the basketball court at the same time

True/false: Look at the Hardy article titled "A note on athlete's use of self-talk".

individual sport athletes used more self-talk than team athletes. Skilled athletes were more consistent in competition self talk, more pre-planned self talk. Advanced athletes treat self talk as trainable

Athletes self talk increases as competition approaches and is used more often in individual sports, and becomes more planned and consistent with skill level.

True/false: Read about external distractors.

external distractors: stimuli from the environment that divert people's attention from the cues relevant to their performance.

Examples are: visual and auditory

True/false: People who concentrate well = effective attenders. Question about their focus.

Effective attenders can concentrate on several stimuli without getting overloaded and can narrow attentional focus without leaving out important information. Can focus on broad external and internal effectively. Low on the three measures of ineffective attention

True/false: Read about attentional internal distractors.

Attentional internal distractors: distractions come from within ourselves—our thoughts, worries, and concerns.

EXAMPLES: Attending past events (past mistakes), Attending to future events (what if i lose?), choking under pressure, overanalyzing body mechanics (focusing too hard on how to move rather than letting it become natural), fatigue, inadequate motivation.

Ex. a bowler reading his approach; jumper prepares to start run-up

True/false: Are successful athletes less likely to become distracted by irrelevant stimuli?

YES

True/false: Talks about marathon runners about the strategy they use during a race.

They use associative attentional strategy (monitoring bodily functions and feelings, Such as heart rate, muscle tension, and breathing rate. whereas non-elite runners tended to use dissociative attentional Strategy (distraction and tuning out) during race

Kontos Article —SPC Roles

SPCs help with concussion care by using baselines testing, symptom evaluation, and referrals

Associative Strategy (Running)

Elite runners monitor body sensations (pace, breathing, tension)

Dissociative Strategy (Running)

Non-elite runers distract themselves (daydreaming music)

Silva’s Negative Training Stress Model

Burnout is caused by negative adaptation to too much training, emphasizing physical training load plus psychological factors.