Diploma in Sports Science (Sports Psychology) Course Materials Notes

Introduction

  • Bangladesh Krira Shiksha Protisthan (BKSP)

Diploma in Sports Science (Sports Psychology) Syllabus

UNIT-I

1. Introduction

  • 1.1 Meaning of sports psychology
  • 1.2 Scope of sports psychology
  • 1.3 Relationship of sports psychology with other sports sciences
  • 1.4 Importance of sports psychology in sports

2. Cognitive Appraisal and sports

  • 2.1 Meaning of cognition
  • 2.2 Characteristics of cognition processes in sports
  • 2.3 Cognitive rigidity and problems in sports
  • 2.4 Cognitive rehearsal techniques for peak performance
  • 2.5 Cognitive restructuring of burnt out athletes
  • 2.6 Cognitive dissonance: state arousal
  • 2.7 Cognitive components of aggression, stress, and motivation.

3. Attention and its role in sports

  • 3.1 Concept of attention
  • 3.2 Attentional focus and sports performance
  • 3.3 Arousal attention relationship in peak performance
  • 3.4 Attentional skill training in elite sportspersons
  • 3.5 Theories of attention in sports

UNIT-II

1. Personality and sports performance

  • 1.1 Meaning of personality
  • 1.2 Dimensions of personality types and traits in sports
  • 1.3 Psychodynamic theories in sports personology
  • 1.4 Behavioral schools in personality of sports
  • 1.5 Exploratory behavior in sports
  • 1.6 Sports and sensation seeking
  • 1.7 Causal attribution in sports

2. Role of aggression in sports

  • 2.1 Concept of aggression
  • 2.2 Biological component of aggression
  • 2.3 Hostility and anger in sports
  • 2.4 Theories of aggression in sports
  • 2.5 Aggression reduction - assertive training

UNIT-III

1. Emotional regulation in sports

  • 1.1 Meaning of emotion
  • 1.2 Types of emotion
  • 1.3 Fear of success phobia
  • 1.4 Catastrophic theory of anxiety
  • 1.5 Eustress and sports

2. Psychophysiological aspects of sports

  • 2.1 Autonomic reactivity in sports
  • 2.2 Arousal modulation in alertness
  • 2.3 Nature of arousal in peripheral nervous system
  • 2.4 Reticular activation in sports

3. Anxiety Arousal - peak performance

  • 3.1 Problems of inverted U Hypothesis
  • 3.2 Theory of optimal function in sports
  • 3.3 Slate arousal and trail arousal

UNIT-1V

1. Goal setting and motivation in sports

  • 1.1 Meaning of motivation
  • 1.2 Concept of goal selling
  • 1.3 Types of motivation
  • 1.4 Importance of goal setting and its guidelines
  • 1.5 Biological basis of motivation
  • 1.6 Endorphins and motivation in sports
  • 1.6 Intrinsic and extrinsic motivation
  • 1.8 Role of need structure in sports
  • 1.9 Mastery and achievement motivation

2. Sports leadership

  • 2.1 Meaning of leadership
  • 2.2 Need of leadership in sports
  • 2.3 Leadership effectiveness
  • 2.4 Leadership qualities in group and individual sports

UNIT-V

1. Social skills in sports

  • 1.1 Group dynamics in team games
  • 1.2 Factors affecting group cohesion
  • 1.3 Spectator psychology
  • 1.4 Spectator cohesion and group cohesion

2. Psychological aspects of action regulation

  • 2.1 Meaning of action regulation
  • 2.2 Importance of action regulation
  • 2.3 Self-regulation techniques in sports
  • 2.4 Systematic desensitization, Imagery training and Autogenic rehearsal

3. Biofeedback and sports performance

  • 3.1 Biofeedback training in elite sports persons
  • 3.2 Muscle relaxation skills and visuo motor behavior rehearsal

Introduction to Sport Psychology

  • Sport Psychology is a sub-discipline of Exercise and Sport science and a sub-area of psychology.

  • Definition of Psychology

    • "Psychology is the science of human and animal behavior; it includes the application of this science to human problems." (Introduction to psychology; Tata McG.raw-Hill Publishing Company Ltd; 199.1; P.4.)

  • Two Modern definitions

    • "Psychology can be defined as scientific study of behavior and mental process" (Psychology; Scott, Foresman and company; 1983; P.4.)

    • "Psychology is the scientific study of the behavior and cognitive process of individual Organisms Psychology: Scott, Foresman/Little Brown Higher Education; 1990; P.2.

    • There are four important aspects of those definitions

      • i) Behavior (ii) Menial process (iii) Man & animals (iv) Science.

  • Sport Psychology is:

    • "The effect of sport itself on human behavior” (Alderman.1980)
    • "A field of study in which the principles of psychology are applied in a sports setting” (Cox,1985)
    • “The branch of sport and exercise science that seeks to provide answers to questions about human behavior in sport” (Gill, 1986)
    • Sport Psychology is a science.
    • A limited definition of Sport Psychology is that it is the study of human behavior in the context of competitive sport and how behavior (performance) is affected by three primary sources; the sportspersons, the team leader (i.e., the coach), and the environment in which these individuals interact.
    • Sports Psychology is a sub discipline of psychology.
    • Sports Psychology is a sub discipline of sport and exercise science.
    • Coach Performance Player Environment

Scope of Sport Psychology

  • Sport Psychology is defined as an applied psychology or as a field of study in which the principles of psychology are applied.
  • Sport psychology is also a branch of exercise and sport science. Exercise and sport science is a multidisciplinary area.

Areas under Exercise and sport science
* Exercise and spoil psychology, physical Education, sport Bio-mechanics. Socio-cultural sport Studies. Motor Control and Learning and Exercise Physiology.

  • Sport psychology has slowly and gradually emerged as an independent discipline, which is providing insight.
  • Sport psychology borrows selected relevant information from the associated discipline of psychology and also develops theoretical models and approaches unique to sport and exercise.

According to American Psychological Association (APA), the scope of sports psychology deals in the following areas:
* 1. Training in psychological skills of athletes.
* 2. In the well-being of athletes.
* 3. In the systemic issues associated with sports organizations.
* 4. In developmental and social aspects of sports participation.

Training in psychological skills of athletes
* Goal-setting and performance profiling for athletes.
* Visualization and performance planning for athletes.
* Enhancing self-confidence for athletes.
* Cognitive-behavioral self-regulation techniques for athletes.
* Concentration and attention control strategies for athletes.
* Emotion management training for athletes.
* Sexual identity issues in sport counseling.
* Aggression and violence counseling in sports.
* Athletic injury and rehabilitation.
* Team cohesion training.

In the well-being of athletes
* Eating disorders and weight management interventions for athletes.
* Substance abuse interventions for athletes
* Grief depression, loss and suicide counseling for athletes.
* Over training and burnout counseling.
* Career transitions and identity development in sport.
* Interventions to address parental and familial needs involved in youth sports participation.

In the systemic issues associated with sports organizations
* The role of sport psychology in dealing with associated with sports organization involved resolution of conflict and eradication of confusion amongst administrators, coaches, officials, players, media, families etc.

In developmental and social aspects of sports participation
* Moral and character development in sport, and sportsmanship.
* Development of self-confidence, self-esteem and competence in sports.

International committees for sport psychology (ISSP, NASPSPA and AAASP) focus on three areas of applied sport psychology:
* 1.Health Psychology;
* 2. Performance Enhancement;
* 3. Social Psychology
* Applied sport psychology involves extending theory and research into the field to educate coaches, athletes, and parents with the goals of facilitating optimal sport involvement and performance.

Health Psychology
* The Health psychology interest area focuses on the role of psychological factors in sport and exercise, particularly as they relate to disease development and remediation, coping with stress, and health promotion.
* A primary interest is the close relationship between mental health and physical health.

Performance Enhancement
* The performance Enhancement/Intervention area utilize research, theory, and practice to improve performance in a variety of exercise, health, and sport settings.
* This group is also concerned with the effects of sport psychology interventions on the well-being of participants in exercise and sport.

Social Psychology
* Addresses theory and intervention focusing upon individual and group processes in sport and exercise settings.
* Social psychological factors are examined as they related to the sport participant, coach, team, and spectators.

Relationship of Sports Psychology with other Sports Science

  • Sports psychology is the branch of sports science that seeks to provide answers to questions about human behavior related to performance of sports, exercise and physical activities.
  • As a branch of sports science, sports psychology is part of the overall study of human movement also known as kinesiology.
  • Because sports science is multidisciplinary, applied field, and because it occupies the middle of the physical to social continuum, it has ties to all other sub-areas within exercise and sports science.

Most prominent sub areas
* sports medicine, sports Biomechanics, exercise physiology, sports training and sports nutrition/diet.

Relation between Sports psychology and Sports Medicine:
* Sports psychology and sports Medicine, both like all other scientific subjects follow the processes of diagnostic observations to identify the areas of problems to be dealt with; follows the processes of analytical interpretations to ascertain with the cause of the problems, and encourages experimentations for furtherance of knowledge.
* Both follow specific therapeutic systems for crisis management at the field and afterwards during long-term pre-and-post competitive training sessions, and consider the effective planning for rehabilitation of the injured (physically) and/or mentally disrupted player into actual playing condition.
* The science of sport medicine is dedicated to deal with injury and with the process of physical rehabilitation, while sport psychology deals with provisions for crises management when the injured players passes through absolute, despair, and solitude.
* The science of sport psychology is also committed to render services during the phases of rehabilitation to keep the player in a state of readiness to face with newer competitive challenges.
* Menstruation is a regular source of stress to most of the female athlete engaged in sports and physical activities all over the world.
* The specialists in sport medicine deals with this problem under a purview of menstrual distress, menstrual irregularities, and amenorrhea, while the task of sport psychologist is to guide the players facing these crises with their modification of cognitive make-up.
* An actual task of sport psychologist is to educate the players with complex gynecological issues in simpler ways so they can accept the monthly situations as simple usual happenings.

Relation between Sports Psychology and Sports Biomechanics:
* These two areas of scientific study intersect between each other in specific areas related to movement coordination.
* Performance of majority of the sports involve-balance; maintenance of bilateral coordination; and adequate ability to transfer the body-weight (laterally and back-and-forth).
* These all are possible with the effective utilization of the core muscles-strength. The subject of sport Biomechanics deals with the issues related to movement disorder.
* Sport psychology as a science deals with the mental aspect of these coordinative activities. Actually, the feelings and understandings related to these movement coordination issues come under the purview of sport psychology, i.e., the problems related to player's realization of the changes in body-balance, transfer of weight and coordination are discussed.
* The maintenance of emotional stability in aiding the optimization of all these movements related aspects fall under the purview of the study of sport psychology.

Relation between Sports Psychology and Exercise Physiology;
* Both of them study the differential roles of human brain and the nervous system in shaping behavior in the field of sports.
* Both of these studies consider cardiovascular (heart-rate-HR), circulatory (blood-pressure BP) processes as the indexes of autonomic activities.
* The study of exercise physiology is concerned with the pros and cons, and the structure, and function of the circulatory and cardiovascular system, while sport Psychology contributes in understanding the I-IR and BP as autonomic regulatory measures as indexes of emotional disturbances, and the detrimental consequences if any. on the performance of sport.
* Both of these studies consider cortical activation (cerebral functioning) as the key to all the sensory and motor processing related to accurate decision-making.
* Sport Psychology as such is concerned with the functionality and implications of those Physiological processes in shaping appropriate behavior facing competitive challenges and the adverse consequences, if any. related to the performance outcomes.

Relation between Sports Psychology and Sports Training:
* The study of sport training is aimed at achieving peak conditioning required for successful performance, whereas the goal of the study of sport psychology is to identify the specific types of problems (those the player may face) in learning newer techniques, and in practicing those learned techniques to become skillful;
* In training newer skills the coaches and trainers demand adequate attention focus, adequate cognitive ability of the trainees to understand and to learn newer skills-trainings, while the task of the sport psychologist would be.
* Identification of the specific problem areas related to the mental make-up of the trainees and their preparation for psychological skills-training, to cope with those training related problems (faced during practice-sessions).
Relation between Sports Psychology and Sports Nutrition/diet:

  • The goal of the study of sports Nutrition is the assessment of nutritional status and proper dietary management of the trainees and accordingly dietary -planning is done.

  • This is always done keeping a parity with the training-sessions (for evaluation the players), and pre-competitive requirements, and post-competition recovery requirements to compensate the nutritional deficits, and to keep the trainers physically prepared for the next phases of training.

  • The task of an expert sport psychology consultant in a training set-up will focus on effective implementation of the dietary-regimes to every one of the players. This refers to the question of player's individual perception related to the task and food habits.

  • Actually in sports the question of nutrition appears absolutely important compared to taste of food. Food may not be fell suitable to a player for his/her own desire for palatable (tasty) foods. But if s/he get habituated those with own interest, those can be immensely (extremely) beneficial to him/her.

  • An expert sport psychologist will be able to help every trainee with the adequate knowledge about the prescribed nutritious food, and how those are going to help in performing with excellence.

Development of Sport psychology

  • Physical educationists the initial efforts in the development of Sport Psychology. They were interested in psychological aspects of sport.

    • Sport psychology as a scholarly field is relatively young, but in practice it has existed as long as people have engaged in sport and physical activities.
    • The roots of Sport Psychology were founded in the beginning in physical education departments and institutions, where the teachers and coaches made individual efforts as per their interest in various aspects of psychology.
    • The president of International Olympic Committee Coubertin made the first formal effort to institutionalized Sport Psychology.
    • At the time of executive body meeting of IOC in 1918, a conference was also conducted in which professionals and people interested in Psychology and Physiology were invited.
    • It is difficult to say how much this conference has contributed for the development of Sport Psychology, but it was the formal start.
    • Gradually in many countries such as USSR (Russia), USA, Germany and Japan development of Sport Psychology started, which was mainly based on individual efforts.
    • In 1920 the first sports psychology laboratory was established by Carl Diem in Germany.
    • In 1918 Colman Griffith who is the Father of American Sport Psychology initiated his research program.
    • He was interested about the effect of reaction time, personality, mental awareness, muscular tension and relaxation on sports performance and from 1919 to 1931 published 25 sport psychology research articles.
    • In 1923 Griffith offered the first course in sports psychology.
    • In 1925 Griffith established sports psychology' laboratory in North America. But due to financial constraint this lab was closed in 1932.
    • The first book in sports psychology was published by Griffith in 1926, named the psychology of Coaching and in 1928, the psychology of Athletes.
    • In North America no academic oriented research activity was carried out in between 1932 to 1964.
    • After 1960 some physical Education Department offers Sports Psychology Courses.
    • In 1965 International Society of Sport Psychology (ISSP) was formed. Then on that year its first World Congress of Sports psychology held in Rome.
    • In 1966 a group of Sport psychologists met in Chicago and formed the society, named North America Society for the psychology of Sport and physical Activity (NASPSPA).
    • In 1986 Association for the Advancement of Applied Sport Psychology (AAASP) was established.
    • In 1987 American Psychological Association (APA) was started.
    • In 1991 Association for the Advancement of Applied Sport Psychology (AAASP) established certified consultant designation.

  • Journals Established:

    • 1979 - Journal of Sport Psychology
    • 1986 - Sport Psychologist
    • 1989- - Journal of Applied Sport Psychology.
    • Today Sport Psychology is an independent, chiefly practice related branch of Psychology and is an integral part of sport physical education as well as an important sport and exercise science.
    • It has a close relationship with other sport sciences. It has been accepted as a branch of applied psychology in 1978 and sport psychologists arc regularly participating in International Congress of Applied Psychology.
    • The areas of special interest for Sport Psychology arc professional preparation, practical oriented approach (PST), development of sport specific psychological test and the future direction for the well-being of the sportspersons.

Importance of Sports Psychology

  • The importance of Sports Psychology in the professional preparation of coaches and PE teachers is universally recognized.
    • Sports Psychology forms an integral part of teacher's/coach's training all over the world.
    • Psychology has played a role in sport from the sport time sport exists i.e., coaches have been using psychology from the very beginning of organized sport, but may not be appropriately systematically and correctly. Professionally trained and knowledgeable coach will be able to use Sport Psychology in a constructive way.

Understanding Relationship.
* To understand relationship between biological and Psychological factors in motor learning: (i) Influence if growth and development (ii) Individual differences (iii) Maturation and sex differences (iv) Role of heredity and environment.

Ability.
* To develop the ability to understand and analyze behavior to grasp learning and coaching situation better: The fast and foremost requirement of the coach is to understand sportspersons with whom he has to work for long duration of time. The knowledge of sport psychology equips" the coach of understand and analyze the behavior of self as well as others more accurately. Good environment will provide better understanding between the coach and sportspersons. then only the coach will be in a position to bring conducive and productive training atmosphere and fulfill the need and aspirations of the sportspersons.

Motivation.
* To motivate Sportsperson for better training and performance in competition: Motivation is one of the key factors in developing performance and giving good performance in competition. It is the energizing; force for task to be performed successfully. There are numerous ways to motivate sportspersons but no single way can be effective for all. Various techniques are to be used in combination to develop motivation and sustain it for training and competition.

Specific Demands

  • To understand and develop specific Psychological demands of particular sport: Every sport has specific physical and psychological characteristics, which are to be understood to be able to develop them. Generally, coach pay attention to physical characteristics and ignore psychological, thinking they will automatically develop. It does, but with trial and error method by wasting a lot of time, even them sometimes faulty psychological skills arc developed which do more harm than benefit for the performance.

Talent identification.
* To enhance and stabilized the level of performance: Psychological skills play a dominant role is determining if the sportsperson will reach to his ultimate potential. Goal setting, attention, self confidence, imagery, mental toughness, arousal management and decision making abilities are required to attain higher levels.
* These psychological skills are to be learned in a systematic way to enhance performance. These skills are similar to physical skills, which cannot be developed without regular training along with physical skills.
* The main reasons for fluctuation in performance are psychological and psychological skills are mainly responsible to stabilized performance.
* Therefore, mastery over these skills helps in maintaining the higher level of performance over long duration of time.

Development of knowledge.
* To develop and transmit the knowledge: Sport Psychology is a young developing sport science and a practice oriented science. It is essential that there is a relationship between theory and practice. Gaining new knowledge with research and the ability to imparting the knowledge further for its effective use is key to the development of the field. Important areas such as sport specific investigation methods, counseling, termination of carrier, psychological well-being of sportsperson, moral ethical questions and future direction for development of sport psychology need constant attention of experts.

Cognition in Sport

Defining cognition: It is an expression for every process by which a living creature obtains knowledge of some object or becomes aware of its environment.

  • Cognitive processes are: perception, imagination, recognition, discovery, thinking, judging, memorizing, learning and often speech. Cognition to a human activity intellectual and communicable.
    • Piaget's (1970) theory of development explained that, the children get motivated to develop cognitive structures because they need to interact with and master the environment.

According to Piaget there are three stages of cognitive development:

*   Assimilation - A child simply processes the information according to their available cognitive fame or structures, which according to Piaget is termed as assimilation.

*   Disequilibrium - Gradually the child realizes that the basic structures or cognitive frames are not sufficient to process all the available stimuli present in the internal and external environment. Here, the child feels confused. Piaget defined this stage s disequilibrium.

*   Accommodation - This disequilibrium motivates child to develop newer cognitive structures in order to understand complex situations, a process defined by Piaget as accommodation.
*   Thus, according to Piaget, precisely cognitive development, and development as a whole is a lifetime process in which we continually move between disequilibrium and equilibrium.
*   Thus, cognitive theories by and large, imply that the development of cognitive structures is linked to the process of motivation. Theories suggest that the motivation as a process may be conceptualized as some kind of discrepancy between what the individual needs to realize in order to make majority of the information or stimuli available as comprehensible.

Caharacteristics of Cognition

  • Cognitions are often based on past learning. Children learn to categorize, to develop beliefs and attitudes by imitating and modeling their parents and other seniors. Alteration and modification of one's own beliefs, values and attitudes occur with newer experiences of the 'self.

  • Cognitive processes have a tendency to make our beliefs, attitudes, ideas etc. Consistent with social, moral or ethical values. Thus a child tries to organize, to conceptualize, or to process information according to certain rules and principles. These rules help the child to recognize the world as more meaningful, consistent predictable.

  • Cognitive processes are relatively rigid. Once our cognitive structures are formed, we appraise all the newer information on the basis of that cognitive frame or structure. When we perceive that, these frames are no longer useful for explaining a lot of aspects present in the ever-changing world, we see that, these cognitive frames are naturally very much resistant to change (not easily changeable) or to get modified.

    • Depending on the aforesaid characteristics of cognition, behavioral problems arising out of conflicting situations arc explained on the basis of the theory of cognitive dissonance.

Cognitive processes in sport

*   Cognitive processes operate very quickly in sporting situations.
*   Cognitive processes require identifying and differentiating information and selecting appropriate information.
*   Cognitive processes are to be executed under high physical load
*   Cognitive processes are to be executed under high psychological pressure
*   Cognitive processes are influenced directly or indirectly by opponents.

THEORY OF COGNITIVE DISSONANCE: STATE AROUSAL

  • Cognitive dissonance theory implies that basically people in this world need to experience cognitive consistency in some sense.
    • It helps to explain why categories, beliefs, attitudes values and stereotypes are highly resistant to change.
    • According to the theory of cognitive dissonance, human being is susceptible to process all information in such a way that it will be consistent with existing information, stereotypes, values, attitudes etc. and behavior- and otherwise to ignore information those do not fit with the existing beliefs, attitudes etc.
    • The most major area of research in Cognitive Dissonance concerns with any specific situation wherein an individual sport performer has already committed an action that is inconsistent with his/her cognition.
    • Conceptually the theory suggests that, when we encounter new information that is inconsistent with our existing ways of thinking about the environment as a whole, a state of cognitive dissonance typically arises.
    • It has been suggested that, the cognitive dissonance creates a motivational state within us that disposes us to look for ways of reducing it.
    • To do this, we can add new cognition or change existing ones, seek information that is consistent with existing cognition or simply avoid information that is inconsistent with the existing cognition.

THE BILOGICAL COMPONENT

  • Previous researches were of the opinion that, cognitive dissonance has a motivational or drive-like state, what actually produces physiological arousal.
    • Croyle & Cooper (1983), evidenced definite increase in arousal followed by cognitive dissonance, while Elkin & Leippe (1986), found in two different studies that, cognitive dissonance caused elevation in galvanic skin response (GSR), which was later on further supported by the extensive studies taken away by Losch & Cacioppo (1990).

THE LEARNED COMPONENT

  • Researches have also suggested that, a perception of an inconsistency among an individual's cognitions generates a psychological discomfort-intrapersonal tension -and that this aversive state motivates individuals to take remedial actions (Elliot & Devine, 1994).
    • The learning perspective suggest that some strategies arc used to reduce dissonance, and if these strategies are found effective and are observed to reduce psychological discomfort, whenever the individual in concern faces cognitive dissonance once again repeated use of these strategies in future gets reinforced.

THE COGNITIVE COMPONENT

  • The cognitive dissonance theory explains why people are inclined to maintain their existing beliefs.

  • The theory also suggests that it is possible to change other people attitudes.

    • Sometimes, people engage in behaviors that are not consistent with their underlying beliefs and attitudes. If that happens people may change their attitudes to match their behavior.

  • Festinger (1957) argued that since it is quite impossible to change their behavior, people usually try to change or alter or to modify their beliefs.

IMPACT OF COGNITIVE DISSONNCE ON SPORTS PERFORMANCE

  • A good deal of research indicates that cognitive dissonance may lead to performance decrements. It has been postulated that, while cognitive dissonance can facilitate performance in subsequent over-learned or well-learned tasks, this may often interfere with performance on subsequent difficult or complex task.

  • The basic interpretation of these and other findings is that, cognitive dissonance increases arousal and it is the increased arousal that mediates this effects.
    Increased arousal narrows attention. Narrowed attention can facilitate in performance on an existing highly practiced skill, high arousal would interfere with learning that required broad as opposed to narrow attention.

  • Since, cognitive dissonance can make it difficult for people to focus or concentrate, they sometimes attempt to control this type of arousal by managing information input.
    *In the course of a sporting competition, an opponent may attempt to use cognitive dissonance to distract a competitor by saying, for instance, *