Sports Psych

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Chapter 1: Welcome to Sport and Exercise Psychology


Definitions:

Sport and exercise psychology: scientific study of people and their behavior in the sport and exercise environment and the practical application of that knowledge (to increase their performance)

  • Two Objectives of sport and exercise psychology: psychological factors and physiological performance factors

Specializing in Sport Psychology

Research: inquiry aimed at advancing knowledge and sharing through professional meetings and journal articles

Teaching: teaching university courses in either psychological of exercise and sport science

Consulting: working with athletes of all ages and abilities in the fitness industry and in sports medicine and physical therapy


Distinguishing between two specialties

Educational sport psychology specialists

  • Use mental coach approach- understand psychology of human movement

  • Have training in physical education, kinesiology, or exercise and sport science

  • Educate and increase athletes’ and coaches’ awareness of issues such as anxiety management 

Clinical Sports Psychologist

  • Are licensed psychologists

  • Are trained to work with ppl with severe emotional disorders

  • Are trained to help athletes with problems such as eating disorders and substance abuse


Leading Sport and Exercise Psychology Organizations and Journals

Organizations

  • Association for Applied Sport Psychology (AASP)

  • American Psychological Association (APA) Division 47

  • European Federation of Sport Psychology (FEPSAC)

  • International Society of Sport Psychology (ISSP)

Journals

  • Journal for Advancing Sport Psychology Research

  • Journal of Applied Sport Psychology

  • Journal of clinical Sport Psychology

  • Journal of Sport Psychology in Action

  • Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology

  • Psychology of Sport and Exercise


History of Sport Psychology


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The Science of Sport and Exercise Psychology

A process or method of learning about the world through systematic, 


Methods of Knowing

  • Scientific method

  • Systematic observation

  • Single case study

  • Shared (public) experience

  • Introspection

  • Intuition


 Scientifically derived knowledge vs professional practice knowledge

  • Scientific is more research based while professional is more hands on and personal knowledge

  • Scientific is highly reliable, systematic and controlled, and objective and unbiased while professional is holistic, innovative, and immediate 

  • Scientific is reductionistic, conservative, and often slow to evolve, it also lacks focus on external validity, while professional is less reliable, lacks explanations and greater susceptibility to bias


Sport and Exercise Psychology as an art and a Science

  • The science of coaching, teaching, or leadership focuses on using general scientific principles

  • The art of coaching, teaching, and leadership is knowing when and how to individualize these general principles. Contextual intelligence is critical 

Three approaches to Sport and Exercise Psychology

Psychophysiological Orientation

  • Examines underlying psychophysiological processes of the brain in terms of primary causes of behavior

    • ex. Biofeedback to trained marksman

Social-Psychological Orientation

  • Behavior is determined by a complex interaction of the social environment and the personal makeup of the athlete or exerciser

    • ex. How a leader’s style and strategies foster group cohesion

Cognitive-Behavioral Orientation

  • Behavior is determined by both the environment and thoughts (cognitions)

    • ex. Studying differences in confidence and anxiety among tennis players with or without burnout 


The Present and Future of Sport and Exercise Psychology

What is a sport psychologist and what does this mean?

  1. More people are interested in acquiring training in psychological skills and applied work

  2. There is greater emphasis on counseling and clinical training for sport and exercise psychologists

  3. Ethics and competence issues are receiving greater emphasis

  4. Tension continues to exist between practitioners of academic and applied sport psychology

What is happening to research in the field?

  1. Qualitative research methods are receiving more attention

  2. Specialization and new subspecialties are developing

  3. Multidisciplinary research is increasing such that sport and exercise psychologists will work with experts from other kinesiology subdisciplines and across other disciplines

How is the field interacting with the rest of the world?

  1. He positive psychology movement in general psychology helps sport and exercise psychology expand into new areas such as business, music, and the performing arts

  2. As technology develops at record pace and changes all aspects of lives, sport psychologists are learning how to use these technologies to facilitate efforts

  3. More emphasis in contemporary sport psychology is being placed in studying cultural diversity and focus is placed on increasing understanding, facilitating inclusion, and embracing diversity


1/21         It is SPORT psychology not SPORTS psychology

Personality and Its Structure

Personality: the characteristics or blend of characteristics that make a person unique

The structure of personality:

  • Psychological core

    • The most basic and deepest attitudes, values, interests, motives, and self-worth of a person - the real person

    • ex. A person's religious values

  • Typical responses

    • The way one typically adjusts or responds to the environment

    • ex. being happy-go-lucky, shy

  • Role-related behavior 

    • How one acts in a particular social situation

      • ex. behavior as a student, parent, or friend

Psychodynamic Approach

  • Behavior is determined by several unconscious, constantly changing factors that often conflict with one another 

  • Emphasis is placed on understanding the person as a whole rather than identifying isolated traits

    • Psychodynamic approach is internally determined

Research support for psychodynamic approach

  • Current impact: has little influence and hasn’t been adopted by most contemporary sport psychologists

  • Weakness: focuses almost entirely on internal determinants of behavior, giving little attention to the social environment 

  • Contribution: has increased awareness that unconsciously determinants of behavior exists

Trait Approach

  • Behavior is determined by relatively stable traits that are fundamental units of personality

  • These traits predispose one to act in a certain way, regardless of the situation


Big 5 Model of Personality Components

  • Openness to experience

  • Conscientiousness

  • Extroversion

  • Agreeableness

  • Neuroticism


Perfectionism

  • Iis one of the most widely studied personality characteristics in sport psychology in recent years

  • A multidimensional construct that consists of various components, including setting high standards, feeling concern over mistakes, and being highly organized 

  • Self-oriented perfectionism: degree to which one sets high personal standards and stringently self-evaluates relative to those standards

    • Adaptive: it is beneficial

  • Socially prescribed perfectionism: degree to which one perceives significant others hold high standards for the person and bases approval on meeting those standards

    • maladaptive

  • Other-oriented perfectionism: degree to which one holds others to extremely high standards

    • Maladaptive

  • Depending on the specific components characterizing ones perfectionist personality, perfectionism can lead to both highly positive and extremely negative consequences (maladaptive vs adaptive perfectionism)

Research Support for Trait Approach

  • Current impact: has little influence

  • Weakness: knowing traits will not always help predict behavior in particular situations

  • Contribution: emphasizes the importance of traits and the measurement of such dispositions

Interactional Approach

  • Behavior is determined by both the person and the situational factors as well as by their interaction

  • The majority of contemporary sport and exercise psychologists favor the interactional approach

Research support for interactional approach

  • Current impact: has considerable influence and has been adopted by most contemporary sport psychologists

  • Weakness: very few

  • Contribution: emphasizes the consideration of both trait and situational variables and their interaction

Phenomenological Approach

  • Behavior is best determined by accounting for situational and personal characteristics

  • A person's understanding and interpretation of one's self and environment are critical

  • The phenomenological view is often stressed by today's sport psychologists

Research support for phenomenological approach

  • Current impact: has considerable influence and has been adopted by many contemporary sport psychologists

  • Weakness: very few

  • Contribution: emphasizes the contribution of a person's interpretation of one's self and environment while considering both trait and situational variable

Situational Approach

  • Behavior is determined largely by the situation or environment

  • The situation is a more important determinant of behavior than particular personality traits

  • The situational approach is not as widely embraced by most sport psychologists

Research support

  • Current impact: has little influence

  • Weakness: situation will not always influence individual behavior

  • Contribution: emphasizes the important of the situation



Measuring Personality

  • Measures both traits and states

  • A trait is a typical behavior

  • A state is the situations effect on behavior - a “right now” feeling that can change from moment to moment

  • There are general versus situation-specific (sport-specific) measures

  • Situation-specific trait tests predict behavior more accurately than do general trait measures

  • It's often more effective to compare personality test scores to a person's own previous test results than to group norms

    • MBTI tests


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Selected Findings in Personality Research

  • Some relationship exists between personality traits and states and sport performance, but it is far from perfect or precise

  • No single definitive personality profile has been found that consistently distinguishes athletes from non-athletes

  • Few personality differences are evident between male and female athletes, particularly at the elite level

  • Morgan’s (1980) mental health model shows that successful athletes exhibit greater positive mental health than do less successful athletes. However, precise predictions have not been achieved and should not be used for team selection


Cognitive Strategies and Athletic Success

  • What is athletic success?

  • Cognitive strategies and mental strategies are among the skills and behaviors that athletes use in competition

  • Although they’re not personality traits in the traditional sense, cognitive strategies reflect the behavioral aspect of personality and interact with personality characteristics 

  • Both quantitative and qualitative cognitive strategy measures have been shown to differentiate between more and less successful athletes

  • Overachieving high school athletes score higher on coachability, concentration, coping with adversity, and total cognitive strategy than average and underachieving athletes 

  • Cognitive strategies have been shown to be related to superior performance in elite sport

  • Elite athletes show superior ability to cope with adversity and mentally prepare compared to non-elite athletes

  • Olympic medal-winning wrestlers more often used positive self-talk, had a narrower and more immediate focus of attention, and were better prepared mentally for unforeseen negative events

  • Mental preparation and planning are critical components of athletic success


Cognitive Strategies and Athletic Success: Guidelines for Practice

  • Enhance confidence and practice specific plans to deal with adversity during competition

  • Practice routines to deal with unusual circumstances and distractions before and during competition

  • Concentrate wholly on the upcoming performance and block out irrelevant events and thoughts

  • Use several mental rehearsals before competition

  • Don't worry about other competitors before a competition; instead, focus on what you can control

  • Develop detailed competition plans

  • Learn to regulate arousal and anxiety


Your Role in Understanding Personality

  • Consider both personality traits and situations

  • Be an informed consumer

  • Be a good communicator

  • Be a good observer

  • Be knowledgeable about mental strategies


Chapter 4: Motivation

What is Motivation?

The direction and intensity of effort

  • Direction of effort refers to whether an individual seeks out, approaches, or is attracted to situations

    • ex. Trying out for the tennis team; coach attending a coaching clinic

  • Intensity of effort refers to how much effort an individual puts forth in a situation

    • ex. Attending class but not putting forth effort


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Major Motives for Sport and Exercise Participants

  • Improving skills/ achieving success

  • Having fun

  • Being with friends

  • Developing fitness

  •  Experiencing excitement and challenges


Why is motivation important?

  • Health decline

  • PA decline

  • Guidelines exist and few meet them


Exercise motivation deficit is one of the top barriers to exercise 

  • No time

  • No motivation

  • No energy/tired

  • Laziness

  • Other priorities

Developing a Realistic View of Motivation

  • Motivation is a key variable in both learning and performance contexts

  • Physical and psychological factors beyond motivation influence behavior and must be considered

  • Some motivational factors are more easily influenced than others


Views of Motivation

  • participant/traits-centered view

  • Situation-centered view

  • Interactional view


5 Motivational Guidelines

Guideline 1: Both situations and traits motivate people

Guideline 2: People have multiple motives for involvement

  • Shared and unique

  • Sex, culture, time

How to identify Participants Motives

  • Observe participants

  • Talk informally to connect others

  • Ask participants directly

Guideline 3: change the environment to enhance motivation

  • Provide both competitive and recreational opportunities

  • Provide for multiple motives and opportunities

  • Adjust to individuals within groups

Guideline 4: leaders influence motivation directly and indirectly

Guideline 5: use behavior mod to change undesirable participant motives


Achievement Motivation and Competitiveness

  • Achievement motivation is a person's orientation to strive for task success, achieve excellence, persist in the face of failure, and experience pride in accomplishments (Gill, 2000)

  • Competitiveness is a disposition to strive for satisfaction when making comparisons with some standard of excellence in the presence of evaluate others (Martens, 1976)


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Identify all areas where you see Motivation - video

  • Coach Bull coached similarly to military methods, tough love

  • Physical punishment (running)

  • Players wanting to play and do well

  • Wanting to do well for their families and school

  • Wanting to graduate and move away


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Is Arousal the Same as Anxiety?

  • Arousal is a blend of psychological and physiological activation, varying in intensity along a continuum

  • Anxiety is a negative emotional state with feelings of worry, nervousness, and apprehension associated with activation or arousal of the body

Trait vs State Anxiety

  • State anxiety refers to “right now” feelings that change from moment to moment

  • Trait anxiety is a personality disposition that is stable over time

  • High-versus low-trait anxious people usually have more state anxiety in highly evaluative situations 

Measuring Arousal and Anxiety

Physiological 

  • Heart rate

  • Respiration rate

  • Skin conductance

  • Biochemistry

Psychological

  • Questionnaires (self-report)

Stress and the Stress Process

  • Stress: a substantial imbalance between physical and psychological demands placed on an individual and his or her response capability under conditions in which failure to meet demands has important consequences 

Sources of Stress and Anxiety

  • Situational sources

    • Event importance

    • Uncertainty

  • People 

    • Teammates, Coaches, etc

  • Personal sources

    • Trait anxiety

    • Self-esteem

    • Social physique anxiety

  • Media

    • Newspaper

    • Television

    • Online 


  1. Drive Theory

  • As an individual's arousal or state anxiety increases so does her performance

    • Current impact: little to no research evidence

    • Weakness: overly simplistic

  1. Inverted-U Hypothesis

  • Performance has a curvilineal relationship to arousal 

    • Current impact: widely accepted, but criticized

    • Weakness: optimal arousal may not always be at the midpoint of the arousal 

  1. Individual Zones of Optimal Functioning (IZOF)

  • Best performances vary from individual to individual

  • Each individual has their zone of optimal functioning 

    • Current impact: supported by research

    • Weakness: does not account if the components of anxiety affect performance in the same way

    • Implication: allows coaches to help each individual athlete achieve an ideal balance of emotions to maximize performance 

  1. Multidimensional Anxiety Theory

  • Cognitive anxiety is negatively related to performance

  • Somatic anxiety is related to performance in an inverted-U pattern 

    • Current impact: ont consistently supported by research

    • Weakness: does not account how individuals interpret their cognitive and somatic anxiety

    • Implication: no implications for coaches

  1. Catastrophe Phenomenon

  • Low cognitive anxiety: physiological arousal is related to performance in a inverted-U fashion only

  • High cognitive anxiety: physiological arousal becomes detrimental to after a certain threshold

    • Current impact: some research support

    • Weakness: extremely difficult to test

    • Implication: arousal is not the only dimension that may impact



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Continuation of Arousal Theories 

  1. Reversal Theory 

  • In the moment interpretation

    • Pleasant (excitement) = facilitates performance

    • Unpleasant (anxiety) = hurts performance 

  • Current impact: little to no research

  • Weakness: uncertain

  • Implication: interpretation of the arousal matters and it can shift from moment to moment

  1. Anxiety Direction and Intensity

  • An individual's interpretation of anxiety symptoms is important for understanding the anxiety - performance relationship

  • Consider

    • Intensity (how much anxiety one feels)

    • Direction (a person's interpretation of anxiety as facilitating or debilitating to performance)

    • Perception of control

Significance of All Views

  • Arousal is multifaceted

  • It consists of the following:

    • Physical activation of arousal

    • Interpretation of arousal

    • Cognitive & somatic anxiety

  • It is doubtful that the optimal level of arousal is alway at the midpoint of the arousal scale 

Why Arousal Influences Performance

  • Increased muscle tension, fatigue, and coordination difficulties

  • Changes in attention, concentration, and visual search:

    • Narrowing of attention

    • Shift to dominant style

    • Attending to inappropriate cues

    • Worries and situation-irrelevant thoughts 

    • visual cues 

Implications for Practice

  • Recognize signs of arousal and state anxiety

  • Tailor coaching strategies to individuals

  • Develop performers’ confidence and perceptions of control 



Recognizing Symptoms of Arousal and State Anxiety

  • Cold, clammy hands

  • Constant need to urinate

  • Profuse sweating

  • Negative self-talk

  • Dazed look in eyes

  • Feelings ill

  • Headache

  • Cotton (dry) mouth

  • Constant sickness

  • Difficulty sleeping

  • Increased muscle tension

  • Butterflies in stomach

  • Inability to concentrate

  • Consistency better performance in non evaluative situations 


Tuesday, Feb 11th

Chapter 7: Feedback, Reinforcement, and Intrinsic Motivation


Reinforcement is the use of rewards and punishment, which increase or decrease the likelihood of a similar response occurring in the future



Negative reinforcement vs punishment

  • Reinforcers strengthen voluntary responses 

    • Negative removes a stimulus

    • Positive adds a stimulus

  • Punishments weaken a response

    • Positive adds a stimulus (spanking)

    • Negative removing a stimulus (taking away desert)


Principles of reinforcement pleasant consequences

Pleasant consequences→ repeat behavior

Unpleasant consequences → less behavior  (“go run a lap!”)


Principles are complex

  • Ppl react differently to the same reinforcement

  • People are unable to repeat desirable behaviors

  • Ppl receive different reinforcers 


Approaches to influencing behavior

Positive:

  • Rewards desirable behaviors→ likelihood of repeating behavior

Negative:

  • Punishing undesirable behaviors→ redirection of behavior


Positive Reinforcement

  • Reward appropriate behaviors

  • Make successful approximations of difficult behavior

  • Reward performance and outcome

  • Reward effort

  • Reward emotional and social skill


Using punishment:

  • Be consistent

  • Punish the behavior, not the person

  • Seek athlete’s input

  • Do not use physical activity or conditioning

  • Impose impersonally

  • Use sparingly, but enforce it when you use it

  • Age appropriate

  • Make certain athletes understand the reasoning


What Not To Do: Inappropriate approaches to motivation 

  • Focus on criticism

  • Focus on criticism with sarcasm

  • Use physical abuse

  • Emplo guilt 


Types of feedback

  • Verbal praise

  • Facial expressions 

  • Pats on the back 

  • “Way to go” vs “way to hustle through the lane and get the opposite…


Punishment can control and change behavior 

  • 80% to 90% of reinforcement = positive 

  • Supports: educational purpose, deter future cheating or wrongdoing

  • Drawbacks: bring about fear of failure, act as a reinforcer, unpleasant aversive learning environments 


Basketball video:

  • Ron dominated the game, he was too agile

  • High tensions 

  • Practicing the “take five” method to regroup himself

  • No security to stop the fights 


Behavior Modification

  • Systematic application of the principles of positive and negative reinforcement to change to help produce desirable behaviors and eliminate undesirable

  • Contingency management = behavioral coaching = behavior modification


Principles of Behavior prgrams

  • Target behaviors you want to change

  • Define targeted behaviors

  • Record the behaviors

  • Provide meaningful feedback

  • State outcomes clearly

  • Tailor reward systems


BM and Cognitive behavior therapy

  • Combo = even greater performance enhancement



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Intrinsic Motivation

Intrinsic & Extrinsic Motivation

  • What motivates people?

  • Apath, trophies, shame, enjoyment, etc

  • People who are intrinsically motivated

  • Enjoy competition, like the action and excitement, focus on having fun, and want to learn skills to the best of their ability

Factors Influencing Intrinsic Motivators

  • Social factors 

    • Success and failure

    • Focus of competition

    • Coaches’ behavior

  • Psychological factors

    • Need for competence, autonomy, and relatedness

Do extrinsic rewards undermine intrinsic motivation?

  • Payment can undermine intrinsic motivation 

Cognitive Evaluation Theory

  • Critical factor:

    • How the reward is perceived

  • Controlling:

    • Is the reward an attempt to control or shape behavior?

  • Informational: 

    • What do they say about a person's competence?

Extrinsic Rewards in Sport

  • Scholarship 

    • NIL

  • Competitive success and failure

  • Feedback

Practical Implications:

  • Provide for successful experiences

  • Give rewards contingent on performance

  • Use verbal and nonverbal praise

  • Vary content and sequence of practice drills

  • Involve participants in decisions

  • Set realistic performance goals

Flow: a special case of intrinsic motivation

  • Flow is a holistic, intrinsically motivating sensation when one is fully engaged

  • Elements of flow

    • Balance of challenges and skills; sense of control

    • Complete absorption in the activity; total concentration

    • Clear goals

    • Merging of action and awareness

    • Loss of self-consciousness; transformation of time

    • Effortless movement 

Controllability of flow state

  • Cannot control flow 

Achieving Flow; facilitators

  • Be motivated to perform

  • Maintain a balance between goals and skills

  • Achieve optimal arousal before performing

  • Maintain an appropriate focus in the present

  • Use pre competitive and competitive plans and preparation

  • Achieve optimal physical preparation and readiness

  • Experience optimal environmental and situational conditions

  • Exhibit confidence and positive mental attitude

  • Have positive team play and interaction feel good about performance 

Preventing/Blocking Flow; Disruptors

  • Non-optimal

    • Physical preparation and readiness

    • Environmental or situational conditions

    • Arousal level before competition

    • Environmental and situational influences

  • Lack of confidence or negative mental state

  • Inappropriate focus

  • Problem with [competitive preparation

  • Lacking motivation to perform

  • Negative team play and interactions

  • Performance going poorly

  • Doubting self and putting pressure on self

Negative Side of Flow

  • Dependence (addiction) on an activity once associated with a flow experience

  • Chasing the “high” in extreme sports