Ch 9- Psychological Foundations of Performance

What is sport psychology?

multifaceted discipline that draws on constructs of exercise science and psychological principles

what are the three goals of sport psychology?

1. measure psychological phenomena

2. investigate relationships between psych variables/performance

3. apply theories to improve performance

what are included as the tenets of the “ideal performance state”?

• absence of fear

• no performance analysis

• narrow focus of attention on activity

• sense of effortlessness

• personal control

• time seems to slow down/control of time

what are emotions?

temporary states that occur in response to events, have both physiological and psychological components

what is arousal?

a blend of phys/psych activation (also refers to intensity of motivation at any given moment)

what is anxiety?

a subcategory of arousal, also known as negatively perceived emotional state

what feelings are characterized by anxiety?

nervousness, worry, apprehension, or fear

cognitive anxiety versus somatic anxiety?

cognitive is the part in your brain, somatic is the physical symptoms like tense muscles/increase HR

state anxiety

subjective experience of apprehension and uncertainty, comes with elevated autonomic/voluntary neural outflow as well as increased endocrine activity

trait anxiety

personality variable/disposition relating to probability that one will perceive an environment as threatening

like a primer for state anxiety

what are the three factors that are usually present when there is lack of physical/psych efficiency?

• high degree of ego involvement, athlete may feel hit to self esteem

• perceived discrepancy between skill they have and skill needed

• fear of consequences of failure

distress vs eustress

distress is negative stress, eustress is positive stress

drive theory

as an individual’s arousal/state anxiety increases, so does performance

the more skill an athlete has developed, the better they can perform during states of what?

less than or greater than optimal arousal

Inverted-U theory

arousal facilitates performance up to an optimal level, beyond which performance is reduced

Individual zones of optimal functioning theory

different people, in different types of performances, will perform best with very different levels of arousal

How are inverted-U and IZOF theories different?

1. ideal performance does not always seem to occur at midpoint of continuum

2. best performance can occur within small range of arousal level

catastrophe theory

somatic arousal has a curvilinear, inverted-U relationship to performance, while cognitive anxiety shows a steady negative relationship to performance

reversal theory

the way in which arousal and anxiety affect performance depends on individual’s interpretation of that arousal, meaning they have the power to reverse their interpretation of the arousal

intrinsic motivation

driven from internal love of the game and inherent reward that is felt

extrinsic motivation

comes from some external source as opposed to internal source, usually awards, trophies, praise, social approval, fear of punishment

motive to achieve success (MAS)

capacity to experience pride in one’s accomplishments, characterized by desire to challenge oneself/evaluate their abilities

motive to avoid failure (MAF)

desire to protect one’s ego/self esteem, more about avoiding perception of shame that comes with failure than the failure itself

self controlled practice

involves athletes in decisions related to practice structure, including when to receive feedback or which skill to practice

positive reinforcement

increasing probability of occurrence of behavior by following it with a positive action, object, or praise, decals on helmet, prizes

negative reinforcement

increasing probability of occurrence of behavior by removing an object, an act, or event that is typically aversive

positive punishment

presentation of an object, act, or event following behavior that would decrease that behavior’s occurrence

negative punishment

removal of something valued to decrease that ugly behavior

cognitive stage

effortful and conscious regulation of the movement, thinking about the details of the task

associative stage

athlete must focus on the task but is less concerned with the details of the movement

automaticity

mind is relaxed and the skill is executed automatically

broad external

athlete assesses the situation by looking at the environment and various elements within it

broad internal

athlete processes info and develops a strategy

narrow internal

athlete mentally rehearses the upcoming action

narrow external

athlete specifically focuses on one or two external cues to generate action

autogenic training

focuses on sense of warmth and heaviness for particular limb or muscle group

what word is used interchangeably with systematic desensitization?

counterconditioning

self efficacy

perception of one’s ability to perform a given task in a specific situation

bandura’s theory of self efficacy, SE is derived from?

• performance accomplishments

• vicarious experiences

• verbal persuasion

• imaginal experience

• physiological states

• emotional states

why is it proposed that goal setting affects performance?

• goals prioritize efforts

• increase effort b/c of contingency of success on goal achievement

• increase positive reinforcement through feedback to athletes

process goals vs outcome goals?

athlete has control over process goals, while outcome goals are contingent on both individual effort and teammate effort

general guidelines for goal setting

• long term/short term are interdependent

• provide a sense of meaningfulness/direction for pursuing STGs

• attainment of STG provides sense of mastery and builds confidence

• process goals should focus on elements within one’s control

Williams and Andersen model of stress and injury: what influences athlete’s stress response?

1. state/trait anxiety levels, mood states, perceived locus of control of events

2. history of stressors, academic stressors, daily hassles, previous injury history

3. coping resources like social support, stress mgmt techniques, mental skills, nutritional habits

whole practice

addresses skill in its entirety

part practice

separates skill into a series of subcomponents

challenging but lowly interrelated skills are best learned with what?

part practice

segmentation

breaks down the task into a series of subcomponents that have clear breaks between them

fractionalization

breaks the task into subcomponents that occur simultaneously

simplification

adjusts difficulty of the tasks by changing task characteristics like speed or equipment used

pure part training (aka part whole method)

the athlete practices each subcomponent of the skill multiple times independently, then after are practiced in entirety

progressive part training

athlete practices first two parts in isolation before practicing them both together. then athlete practices third subcomponent before practicing all three together

repetitive part training

athlete only practices the first part in isolation, then each subsequent part is added until the whole task is reintegrated

random practice

multiple skills are practiced in random order during session

variable practice

includes variations of the same skill within a single practice session as opposed to specific practice in which specific skill is repeated multiple times

explicit instructions

include prescriptive information that gives the athlete the rules for effectively executing the given task

guided discovery

provides the athlete with instructions about overall movement goal, important prompts for accomplishment without specificity

discovery

instructs the athlete on overarching goal of task and athlete receives little to no direction

intrinsic feedback

provided through sensory feedback

augmented feedback

feedback provided to athlete by an observer/coach or technology

knowledge of results

provides athlete with information about the execution of the task goal

knowledge of performance

provides the athlete with information about his or her movement pattern