Chapter 9: Emotions and Athletic Performance Flashcards
In a sentence each, summarize three important characteristics of our emotions and name the type of conditioning involved in each.
a) The reaction that one feels inside during the experiencing of an emotion (such as butterflies that an athlete feels just before the start of a competition), which is influenced by respondent conditioning.
b) The way that one learns to outwardly express an emotion (such as talking fast in an animated fashion when nervous), which is influenced by operant conditioning.
c) How one becomes aware of and describes one’s emotions (e.g. “I am a little nervous” as opposed to “I am a little mad) which is influenced by operant conditioning as well.
Describe three unconditioned reflexes that Watson observed that appear to characterize the emotions of fear, anger, and joy.
In studies of unconditioned emotional reflexes, Watson observed the USs of a sudden loss of support, loud sounds, and a sudden push elicited URs of a sudden catching of breath, a clutching or grasping response, and crying that he labelled as fear; the US of hampering an infant’s movement elicited the URs of crying, screaming, and body stiffening, that he labelled as anger; and the USs of tickling, gentle rocking, and patting elicited the URs of smiling, gurgling, and cooing that he labelled as joy.
In the experiment with little Albert what was the US? The UR? The CS? The CR?
CS - White rat
CR - Fear
US - Loud noise
UR - Fear
Describe an example that illustrates how pride might represent a combination of happiness and anger.
A coach giving a locker room pep-talk to his high school football team just before the big game. The coach says, “This is the big one. One more to go and we’ve won the championship. Just think how good you’re going to feel if you get to wear those championship jackets.” This is the presentation of rewards. The coach continued, “Are you going to let their team take it away from you? Are you going to let them win the championship?” This represents the withdrawal of rewards. While the players shouted in unison “No!” they were probably feeling a sense of pride - an emotion that may represent a combo of happiness from the presentation of rewards and anger from the possible withdrawal of rewards.
Describe four effects of excessive nervousness and tension and briefly explain why each effect might interfere with athletic performance at competitions.
1) Exposure to threat causes physiological changes within us to prepare us to deal with the threat. But because of the narrowing of attention, a nervous or fearful athlete is less likely to attend to important external cues. A nervous quarterback might have difficulty picking out the receivers well.
2) It consumes energy in the process of all those physiological changes. Although a burst of energy can enhance performance in short term athletic activities, such as a 50 meter sprint in swimming the extra energy consumption can be problematic in endurance activities.
3) It causes the adrenal gland to release adrenaline, which will cause the athlete to rush a skilled routine so that the timing is thrown off. A nervous tennis player is likely to have a shorter backswing, a rushed shot and other devastating results.
4) It adds additional stimuli to the competitive environment that were not present in the practice environment, which interferes with stimulus generalization of a skill from practice to competition.
Briefly describe two strategies for minimizing the causes of excessive nervousness and tension. Illustrate each with an example from sports that is not in this chapter.
1) Recognize and change negative thinking - one way of reducing the stress caused by thinking negatively about an event is referred to as cognitive restructuring which is counteracting irrational self-statements with more positive and realistic ones. Example: a nervous golfer who says, just before hitting the shot, “don’t swing too hard” should instead say a positive thought like “follow the routine”.
2) Structure the environment to tune out and prompt relaxing thoughts: in athletics anxiety causing events do occur and athletes might worry themselves thinking about all the possibilities of things that could go wrong during the game. An effective strategy for “taking their mind off the game” is to structure an environment to “tune out” and prompt relaxing thoughts. Example: a golfer who listens to music for 10 minutes to relax just before the game is less likely to feel tensed about his performance.
List five guidelines that athletes should be encouraged to practice in order to eliminate negative thoughts that cause them to be tense just before performing.
1) Use cognitive restructuring to view a situation as an opportunity for a realistic challenge.
2) Focus on what you can control, don’t think about what you can’t control.
3) Think about what you want to do, not what you don’t want to do.
4) Just before performing, mentally review past instances of successful performances.
5) Focus on the process of competing, not the possible outcomes.
Define or describe each of the following: Deep centre breathing and progressive muscle relaxation.
Deep centre breathing: a martial arts procedure that emphasizes thought control, a particular way of breathing, and muscle relaxation. When centering,
the athlete should first consciously relax the neck and shoulder muscles. Next the athlete should breathe low down in his/her stomach instead of high up in the chest. Instead of the chest rising and falling when breathing, the stomach should bulge out when inhaling and collapse while exhaling slowly. Each time the athlete exhales he should slowly whisper: “r-e-l-a-x” or “e-a-s-y”. Because this takes concentration, centering is a thought stopping procedure.
Progressive muscle relaxation: this technique involves alternatively tensing and relaxing various muscle groups while attending closely to the sensations that are felt when the muscles are tensed versus when they are relaxed.
Describe an example to illustrate how you might use visualization to help you relax.
Visualize a relaxing scene: Athletes are able to close their eyes and mentally picture scenes that they have seen before, a process called visualization. Visualizing a relaxing scene can be an effective way to help an athlete to combat excessive nervousness. Example: A curler is feeling nervous 15 minutes before an important game. They can sit in the locker room or in a quiet corner of the lounge in the curling rink, close his eyes and visualize a relaxing scene he has experienced before, like for example a deserted beach on a warm summer day, watching the waves. He can imagine the warm sun and seeing the waves break over and over. When feeling very relaxed he can open his eyes and begin the game.
Describe several strategies that might be used to minimize the likelihood of the occurrence of “choking” in sports.
- Use cognitive restructuring to view a situation as an opportunity for a realistic challenge.
- Focus on what you can control, don’t think about what you can’t control.
- Think about what you want to do, not what you don’t want to do.
- Just before performing, mentally review past instances of successful performances.
- Focus on the process of competing, not the possible outcomes.
- Deep centre breathing.
- Progressive muscle relaxation.
List the four steps that have characterized successful anger management programs used with athletes.
- Identify anger-causing situations.
- Teach substitute behaviours to compete with the anger.
- Practice the substitute behaviours using imagery and/or simulations and/or role playing.
- Use the coping skills in competitive situations with monitoring and/or supportive contingencies.
