Psychosocial Constraints

psychosocial factors

• characteristics or facets hat influence an individual psychologically and/or socially

• describes individuals in relation to their social environment & how these affect physical & mental health

psychosocial influences

interaction of individual (functional) constraints with environmental (sociocultural) constraints

psychosocial development

individual functional constraint

psychosocial constraints interact with individually developing functional factors as…

• emotions

• perceived abilities

• levels of motivation

• self-esteem

self-esteem

• one’s personal judgement of his/her own capability, significance, success, and worthiness

• self-evaluation

• ranges on a continuum from low-high

• domain specific

domain

• independent area or sphere of influence

• social, physical, academic

children’s self-esteem is greatly influenced by

1. verbal positive (“well done!”)

2. verbal negative (“why can’t you do better?”)

3. non-verbal positive (*thumbs up*)

4. non-verbal negative (*frowns*)

• occur through daily communications with SOs

development of self-esteem

• comparing to others begins at age 5

• under age 10, depends more on parental appraisals and outcomes than direct comparisons

• feedback & appraisal from teachers & coaches also contribute in post-childhood years

emotions

• pride & excitement from success

• disappointment & stress from failure

• influence self-esteem & motivation to participate

self-esteem can influence behaviour because…

• people tend to act in ways that confirm their beliefs of themselves

• people tend to be self-consistent

casual attributions

• reasons that people credit with success and failure

• the things that caused the observable output to occur

• differ as a function of self-esteem

• low: “we won but it wasn’t because of me”

• high: “we won and it was totally because of me”

high self-esteem attributions are…

1. internal

2. stable

3. controllable

low self-esteem attributions are…

1. external

2. unstable

3. uncontrollable

children with low self esteem exhibit these behaviours…

• underestimate their actual abilities

• unwilling to try new and/or challenging tasks

• lack of effort to succeed

• avoidance of participation

retraining attributions

• do NOT allow children to attribute failure to lack of ability or bad luck

• emphasize improvement through effort & practice

• give feedback

• set attainable goals

sport participation in adults

both amount & intensity level of physical activity decrease as adults grow older

psychosocial factors influencing adults’ activity levels

• stereotypes of ‘appropriate’ activity levels

• limited access to facilities & programs

• childhood experiences

• concerns about personal limitations on exercise

• lack of role models

• lack of knowledge about appropriate exercise programs

• belief that exercise is harmful

3 factors reflecting adult exercise participation

1. personal incentives - desire to be successful, compete, be with others, maintain health, etc.

2. sense of self - self-esteem

3. perceived options - such as transportation to sites

self-esteem in adults

• influences motivation

• behave based on beliefs of themselves

adults obtain information from 4 sources

• actual experiences

• vicarious experiences

• verbal persuasion from others

• physiological state

how can we help adults?

• encourage adults w/ low self-esteem in PA to persist

• be aware of incentives & perceptions of groups

• emphasize benefits of exercise that are most important to participants

types of goals

• subjective (trying one’s best)

• general objective (losing weight)

• specific objective (lose 5 lbs) - most informative, provides regular feedback, directs attention

harder & specific goals

harder: produce higher output (performance) than easy goals

specific: produce higher performance (rather than “do your best”)

realistic and measurable goals

• essential

• must be accepted by the learner

• long term goals should be broken up into several shorter term goals

goal setting depends on

• individual differences

• types of situations

• types of feedback available

advantages of goal setting

• enhances self confidence

• enhances perceptions of self efficacy

• easily applied to team or group tasks

• useful in injury or rehab situations

disadvantages of goal setting

• reliant on performers effort

• stressful

• may ignore other areas

motivation & goals

• environmental & task factors influence motivation

• perceived possibility of success - even if highly motivated, unlikely to strive for achieving is probability for success is low

• incentive value of success - is success worth the cost of achieving it?

motivation through reinforcement

• positive (reward) & negative (penalty)

• extrinsic rewards (delivered by others)

  • behaviour will extinguish when rewards are discontinued

  • NOT true motivators

• some degree of reward must be instruct in behaviour itself

  • e.g. recognition, enjoyment, playing well, etc.

dropping out

• ~80% of children withdraw from organized sport programs b/w the ages of 12-17

• mostly due to shifting interests & involvement levels rather than negative experiences

negative experiences that lead to dropping out

• dislike coach

• lack of playing time

• too much pressure

• no fun

• burnout

Dr. Tuckey’s sport experience

• cycling

• running

• skating

• swimming

• soccer

burn out

• severe negative experience

• associated w/ voluntary withdrawal from high-level competition

burn out from high level

• usually little obvious reason to end involvement

• attributed to individual functional factors

  • high stress

  • emotional distress

  • too much pressure

how does burn out happen?

• SOs take control of athletes life in areas not directly related to sport

• athlete only responsible for sport → feel constrained

• sport becomes entire identity

  • unidimensional concept of self, disempowerment, loss of autonomy

• have few life experiences outside of sport

• creates negative spiral at time (adolescence) when person is most concerned with developing their own identity

burnout is a…

• social problem

• drop out or switch is never independent

• should be considered as part of larger social organization

high-level athletes & mental health

• 41.4% of Canadian National team athletes met criteria for depression, anxiety, and/or eating disorder

• positive correlation between/w stress & those disorders

• stress, social support, coping skills & self-esteem impact mental health

Simone Biles

• withdrew from major tournament for mental health reasons

• brave and empowering

• faced attacks from those suggesting she was using mental health as an excuse for poor performance

persistence: reasons to continue in sport include a desire to…

• be competent in improving skills or attaining goals

• make new friends

• be apart of a team

• take on competition & be successful

• have fun

• increase fitness

persistence: enjoyment in pre- & young adolescents is furthered by…

• perceptions of high ability

• mastery

• low parental pressure

• greater parent & coach satisfaction