Exam 1 310

Question 1

What are the five cardinal mental skills?

Answer 1

* Routine, self-talk, imagery, concentration, arousal/anxiety regulation

Question 2

What is the difference between anxiety and arousal? How might we measure them?

Answer 2

• Anxiety is a form of stress; it is the natural response that the human species has evolved to promote its survival in the face of threats in the environment. It can be measure through a survey
• arousal is more a factor of excitability and physioloical, and could be measured by heart rate or BP

Question 3

What is the difference between trait and state anxiety?

Answer 3

• Trait is how anxious you regularly are and state would be how anxious you are in a specific situation

Question 4

How does perception of control influence interpretations of stress?

Answer 4

• Sort of having to with the jones control model. Under a stressor if you have control over the situation it the effects of the stressor can be facilitative which would be helpful to the situation. To not have control over the situation would cause you to have debilitative symptoms which would include negative expectancies.

Question 5

What psychological stressors are evident in the sport environment?

Answer 5

• Importance of the event, audience effects, emphasis on the individual, fear of injury, expectation of success

Question 6

What are some strategies to control anxiety/arousal? Be prepared to provide a brief description for each strategy.

Answer 6

• Think of a relaxing place
• The five breathing technique where you focus your attention on your breathing
• Controlling the controllable aspects of the game

Question 7

What is concentration?

Answer 7

• directing attention towards a specific goal

Question 8

Why is it usually not effective to try to concentrate?

Answer 8

• You cannot try to concentrate because you would be directing your attention towards concentrating and not the specific goal. It is a paradox concentration involves passive avoidance of distraction by the irrelevant to focus on the relevant.

Question 9

What are the three dimensions of concentration, and examples of each?

Answer 9

* Selectivity: Is what you choose to focus on, such as focusing on the front of the rim when you shoot a free throw.
* Direction: Internal or external
* Width: Broad or Narrow

Question 10

What can happen to your concentration and performance when arousal is too high?

Answer 10

When arousal becomes too high performance and concentration can suffer

Question 11

What is the definition of choking?

Answer 11

Choking is defined as, ‘performance decrements under pressure situations’
and more specifically, ‘the occurrence of inferior performance despite striving and incentives for superior performance’

Question 12

• What is concentration?

Answer 12

• directing attention towards a specific goal

Question 13

Why is it usually not effective to try to concentrate?

Answer 13

• You cannot try to concentrate because you would be directing your attention towards concentrating and not the specific goal. It is a paradox concentration involves passive avoidance of distraction by the irrelevant to focus on the relevant.

Question 14

What can happen to your concentration and performance when arousal is too high?

Answer 14

When arousal becomes too high performance and concentration can suffer

Question 15

What are some ways to enhance concentration? Given a brief scenario, be prepared to choose and explain an appropriate strategy.

Answer 15

• Simulation strategies responding to errors
• Preevent routines
• Race plans
• Centering
• Cue words
• Triggers

Question 16

What is the definition of choking?

Answer 16

Choking is defined as, ‘performance decrements under pressure situations’ and more specifically, ‘the occurrence of inferior performance despite striving and incentives for superior performance’

Question 17

What are the two main categories of theories explaining choking, and the main differences between them?

Answer 17

• Drive Theories: The drive theorists believe that performance can be affected detrimentally by an increased level of arousal/drive, produced by the desire to perform well under pressure
• attentional theories :
- The distraction theories state that pressure induced anxiety will occupy the athlete’s working memory (Sarason, 1988) and create a dual-task condition in which anxiety-related thoughts are processed alongside information required for skill execution.
- self-focus theories propose that performance anxiety increases an athlete’s level of self-consciousness, which will cause them to focus their attention inwardly, consciously monitor and/or control their skill execution,

Question 18

Compare and contrast PET and CPH

Answer 18

Both maintain that performance anxiety will increase the level of effort which the athlete exerts. However, in the case of PET, this effort is suggested to compensate for processing inefficiency, and can maintain performance under pressure if working memory is not overwhelmed by anxiety or the cognitive demands of the task. Conversely, the CPH claims that the increased effort will damage the performance of skilled athletes, as it encourages them to reinvest the task and process it in an explicit manner.

Question 19

• What are some variables that may moderate (influence) choking? Be prepared to briefly explain several of these variables and how they might influence choking.

Answer 19

• Self-consciousness: Most choking research has focused on the influence of self-consciousness, but an agreement on its role has yet to be reached. For example,asserted that an athlete with high dispositional self-consciousness is less likely to choke, because they often focused inwardly under pressure and become immune to the detrimental effects of self-focus.

• Dispositional reinvestment: An athlete’s level of dispositional reinvestment denotes their tendency to consciously control a well-learned skill under pressure
• Trait anxiety and self-confidence: This is considered to be a result of the frequent and intense state anxiety response that athlete’s with high trait anxiety experience whilst under pressure, which overwhelms their working memory, causing processing inefficiency and encouraging choking
• Skill level and task priorities: It has been established that novice performers are more likely to choke as a result of distraction, for they process task relevant information through working memory and have limited capacity to cope with additional demands. Although it has been suggested that novice performers may also choke via self-focus ,it is generally accepted that the performances of novices are maintained or even enhanced when they explicitly monitor their skill. Conversely, a skilled athlete is susceptible to choking as a result of self-focus, as they tend to process their well learnt kill outside their working memory system
• Presence of an audience: It is recognised that the presence of an audience is likely to moderate choking, but it is unclear whether the effect is positive or negative.
• Stereotype threat: A stereotype threat has been offered as a potential moderator of choking in sport in a range of academic and social setting. For example, women have been observed choking on a mathematical task, when informed that gender capabilities for completing such tasks differ.
• Coping styles and public status

Question 20

What is visualization?

Answer 20

• Is the process by which we recreate experiences in our minds using information stored in memory.

Question 21

Contrast the different visualization perspectives.

Answer 21

• Visual- internal: viewing what is going on as though you were actually there performing
• Visual external is sort of like stepping outside the body and watching yourself perform
• Kinesthetic: involves creating the feeling of performance
• Visual internal kinesthetic: involves both visual-internal and kinesthetic imagery. Visualizing your performance through your own eyes and reacting to bodily sensation.
• Visual external kinesthetic: you see yourself performing from a third person and at the same time react to the bodily sensations

Question 22

Contrast the five different functions of imagery according to Paivio.

Answer 22

• Motivational specific: would involve an athlete imagining himself in a specific sport setting that is highly motivational. Like taking the last shat at the end of a tie game.
• Motivation general- mastery: the athlete envisions himself in a typical scenario in the sport exhibiting the ability to remain correctly focused
• Motivation general-arousal: The athlete imagines himself controlling anxiety a situation typical to her sport
• Cognitive specific: the athlete imagines themselves correctly executing a specific skill in a sport
• Cognitive general: the athlete imagines themselves reviewing and considering strategies that effect tactics or overall strategy

Question 23

For what different purposes can athletes use visualization, and why would visualization be useful for each purpose?

Answer 23

• Skill development
• Skill refinement
• Tactical rehearsal
• Precompetition preparation
• “What if” scenarios
• Within competition
• Post performance review

Question 24

Explain the procedure of progressive muscle relaxation in general, as well as its purpose.

Answer 24

* involves progressing from one muscle group to the next, alternately creating and relieving tension. This increases your sensitivity to when and where tension is present in your body. It trains you to detect tension and release it automatically