Chapter 8: Psychology of Athletic Preparation and Performance Flashcards
Ideal Performance State
- The ultimate goal of every athlete
- Absence of fear- no fear of failure
- No thinking about or analysis of performance
- A narrow focus of attention concentrated on the activity itself
- A sense of effortlessness- an involuntary eperience
- A sense of personal control
- A distortion of time and space, in which time seems to slow
Physiological Efficiency
Employing only the amount of mental physical energy required to perform the task
Sport Psychology
Seeks to understand the influence of behavioral processes and cognitions on movement
Goals of sport psychology
- Measuring psychological phenomena
- Investigating the relationships between psychological variables and performance
- Applying theoretical knowledge to improve athletic performance
Emotions
Temporary feeling states that occur in response to events and that have both physiological and psychological components
Arousal
- A blend of physiological and psychological activation in an individual
- Refers to the intensity of motivation at any given moment
Anxiety
- A subcategory of arousal
- A negatively perceived emotional state characterized by nervousness, worry, apprehension, or fear and is associated with a physiological activation of the body
Cognitive Anxiety
Cognitive component of anxiety, involving a negative perception of a situation
Somatic Anxiety
- The physical reaction to anxiety
- Physical symptoms include tense muscles, tachycardia, and upset stomach
State Anxiety
A subjective experience of apprehension and uncertainty accompanied by elevated autonomic and voluntary neural outflow and increased endocrine activity
Trait Anxiety
A personality variable or disposition related to the probability that one will perceive an encironment as threatening
Psychological Efficiency
Employing only the amount of cognitive energy required to perform the task
Factors present when psychological efficiency is low
- A high degree of ego involvement, in which the athlete may perceive a threat to self-esteem
- A perceived discrepancy between one’s ability and the demands for athletic success
- A fear of the consequences of failure
Stress
- A substantial imbalance between demand and response capability
- Failure to meet the demand has important consequences
Stressor
An environmental or cognitive event that precipitates stress
Distress
Negative stress
Eustress
Positive stress
Factors that change the effect of arousal and anxiety on performance
- Skill level
- Task complexity
Effect of skill level on performance
More skill –> perform better with less-than or greater-than-optimal arousal
Effect of task complexity on performance
- Simple skill movements are less affected by a high degree of arousal
- High skill movements require lesser degrees of arousal in order to maintain a wide focus
Drive Theory
Proposes that as an individual’s arousal or state anxiety increases, so too does performance
Inverted-U Theory
Arousal facilitates performance up to an optimal level, beyond which increases in arousal are associated with reduced performance
Individual Zones of Optimal Functioning Theory
- Different people, in different types of performances, perform best with very different levels of arousal
- There are positive and negative emotions that can enhance or debilitate performance
How does the Individual Zones Theory differ from the Inverted-U Theory?
- Ideal performance does not seem to always occur at the midpoint of the arousal continuum
- Rather than there being a single defined arousal point at which optimal performance occurs, there is a range within which best performance can occur
Catastrophe Theory
- Somatic arousal has a curvilinear, inverted-U relationship to athletic performance
- Cognitive anxiety shows a steady negative relationship to performance
- When increases in physiological arousal occur in the presence of cognitive anxiety a sudden drop in performance occurs
Reversal Theory
- The way in which arousal and anxiety affect performance depends on the individual’s interpretation of that arousal
- This theory implies athletes have the ability to reverse their interpretation of their own arousal
Motivation
The intensity and direction of effort
Intrinsic Motivation
- Athletes are driven because of their love of the game and the inherent reward they feel from participation
- Motivation that comes from within; would be present even without material reward or punishment
Extrinsic Motivation
Motivation that comes from some external as opposed to internal source
Achievement Motivation
Refers to a person’s efforts to master a task, achieve excellence, overcome obstacles, and engage in competition or social comparison
Motive to achieve success (MAS)
- The capacity to experience pride in one’s accomplishments
- Characterized by a desire to challenge oneself and evaluate one’s abilities
Motive to avoid failure (MAF)
- Relates to the desire to protect on’e ego and self-esteem
- More about avoiding the perception of shame that accompanies failure
Self-Controlled Practice
Involves the athlete in decisions related to the practice structure, including when to receive feedback or which skill to practice
Positive Reinforcement
The act of increasing the probability of occurrence of a given behavior by following it with a positive action, object, or event
Operant
The target behavior
Negative Reinforcement
The act of increasing the probability of occurrence of a given operant by removing an aversive action, object, or event
Punishment
Designed to decrease the occurrence of a given operant
Positive Punishment
The presentation of an act, object, or event following a behavior that could decrease the behavior’s occurrence
Negative Punishment
The removal of something valued in order to decrease an operant’s occurrence
Specific Positive Feedback
When a coach focuses on what athletes should do and what they did right
Attention
The processing of both environmental and internal cues that come to awareness
Selective Attention
The ability to inhibit awareness of some stimuli in order to process other
Routine
A mental checklist
Stages of learning new motor skills
- Cognitive Stage
- Associative Stage
- Automaticity Stage
Cognitive Stage
Characterized by effortful and conscious regulation of the movement
Associative Stage
The athlete must focus on the task but is less concerned with the details of the movement
Automaticity Stage
The mind is relaxed and the skill is executed automatically without thinking
Dimensions of Attention
- Direction (internal/external)
- Width (broad/narrow)
Internal Attention
Introspective perspective
External Attention
Externally-oriented perspective
Broad Attention
Expansive perspective
Narrow Attention
Highly selective orientation
Quadrants of Attentional Focus
- Broad External
- Broad Internal
- Narrow Internal
- Narrow External
Broad External Attention
The athlete assesses the situation by looking at the environment and various elements within it
Broad Internal Attention
The athlete processes information and develops a strategy
Narrow Internal Attention
The athlete mentally rehearses the upcoming action
Narrow External Attention
The athlete specifically focuses on one or two eternal cues to generate action
Relaxation Techniques to Control Elevated Arousal and Anxiety
- Diaphragmatic breathing
- Progressive muscular relaxation
- Autogenic training
- Systemic desensitization
- Imagery
- Self-efficacy
- Self-talk
- Goal setting
Diaphragmatic Breathing
- AKA belly breathing
- Precursor to virtually all other mental training techniques
- Focuses on the process of breathing to clear the mind and therefore increase concentration
Progressive Muscular Relaxation
- The athlete goes through a series of alternating muscular tensing and relaxing phases
- By going through this process, the athlete learns to become aware of, and control, somatic tension
- The idea is a relaxed body promotes a relaxed mind
Autogenic Training
Consists of a series of exercises designed to produce physical sensations in the body- generally warmth and heaviness
Systemic Desensitization
Combine mental and physical techniques that allow an athlete to replace a fear response to various cues with a relaxation response
Counter-conditioning
- The adaptive, learned replacement process by which an athlete learns to use a specific relaxation skill-based coping response to control for cognitive arousal
- The principle behind systemic desensitization
Imagery
A cognitive skill in which the athlete creates or recreates an experience in his or her mind
Self-Confidence
The belief that one can successfully perform a desired behavior
Self-Efficacy
- A situationally specific form of self-confidence
- The perception of one’s ability to perform a given task in a specific situation
Sources of self-efficacy
- Performance accomplishments: past experiences of success or failure
- Vicarious experiences: watching others (modeling)
- Verbal persuasion: encouragement from self or others
- Imaginal experience: using imagery to see one-self perform
- Physiological states: perception of arousal as facilitative or debilitative
- Emotional states: affect or mood
Self-talk
- Intrapersonal communication
- The inner dialogue we have with ourselves
Self-talk categories
- Positive
- Negative
- Instructional
Goal setting
- A process whereby progressively challenging standards of performance are pursued with a defined criterion of task performance
- Increases the likelihood of perceived success
Types of goals
- Process goals
- Outcome goals
- Short-term goals
- Long-term goals
Process Goals
Goals over whose achievement the athlete has control (i.e. effort)
Outcome Goals
Goals over which the athlete has little control (i.e. winning)
Short-Term Goals
- Goals that are directly related to current training or competition
- Can be attained in a relatively short time frame
Long-Term Goals
Goals that overarch a series of linked short-term goals
Learning-Performance Distinction
- Learning is a process that results in a relatively permanent change in the capability for a motor skill
- Performance is the execution of the skill in the current environment
Whole Practice
Addresses the skill in its entirety
Part Practice
- Separates the skill into a series of subcomponents
- As a general rule tasks that are not interrelated are learned better with part practice
Ways to separate a task into subcomponents
- Segmentation
- Fractionalization
- Simplification
Segmentation
Breaks down the task into a series of subcomponents that have clear breaks between them
Fractionalization
Breaks the tasks into subcomponents that occur simultaneously
Simplification
Adjusts the difficulty of the tasks by changing task characteristics such as the execution speed or equipment used
Methods to integrate the subcomponents back into the whole skill
- Pure-part training
- Progressive-part training
- Repetitive part training
Pure-Part Training
- AKA part-whole method
- The athlete practices all components of the skill multiple times independently
- After all components have been practiced individually, the skill is practiced in its entirety
Progressive-Part Training
- The athlete practices the first two parts in isolation before putting them together
- Components are added in isolation progressively until the entire skill is practiced
Repetitive Part Training
- The athlete practices only the first part in isolation
- Then each subsequent part is added until the whole task is performed
Random Practice
Multiple skills are practiced in a random order during a given practice session
Variable Practice
Includes variations of the same skill within a single practice session as opposed to specific practice in which a specific skill is repeated multiple times
Observational Practice
- AKA action observation
- Practice through observation of the task or skill to be performed
Types of instructional styles
- Explicit instructions
- Guided discovery
- Discovery
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 the overall movement goal and important prompts for task accomplishment without explicitly telling the athlete how to accomplish the task
Discovery
Instructs the athlete on the overarching goal of the task and the athlete receives little to no direction
Intrinsic Feedback
Feedback provided to the athlete by the athlete from the senses
Augmented Feedback
Feedback provided to the athlete by either an observer or technology
Components of Augmented Feedback
- Knowledge of results
- Knowledge of performance
Knowledge of Results
Provides the athlete with info about the execution of the task goal
Knowledge of Performance
Provides the athlete with information about his or her movement pattern
