Fundamentals of Sport Psychology and Skill Acquisition Flashcards
Sports Psychology Defined
A Proficiency that uses psychological knowledge and skills to address optimal performance and well being of athletes, developmental and social aspects of sports participation, and systemic issues associated with sports settings and organisations.
How can sports psychologists help?
- improve focus
- grow confidence
- develop coping skills
- help teams develop cohesion
- encourage a healthy belief system
- improve motivation for optimal performance
- returning after injury
- develop game-specific plans
- identify/enter the “zone” more often
What do sports psychologists do?
- behaviours, mental processes and well-being
- often specialise: sport psychologists or exercise psychologists.
- amateurs-elites
- help athletes deal psychologically with the demands of the sport and their well-being.
What is Motivation?
- a social cognitive perspective
- concerns energy, direction, persistence and can be reached by many means.
- key determinant behind every action taken and every effort exerted. The driving forces behind our actions. The forces that influence our actions.
What is motivation determined by?
- Beliefs
- Values
- Cognitions
- significant social agents
Intrinsic motivation
- a wish to be effective and act for the activity sake.
intrinsic motivation can: - increase interest, excitement and confidence.
- enhance performance, persistence and creativity.
Extrinsic motivation
- the striving for an external reward or a wish to avoid punishment.
extrinsic motivation: - involves instrumentalities rather than enjoyment of the activity itself.
- lower personal value, which is doing something because it’s part of who you are.
Motivation influencing factors
- Competence (C). Being effective at a task (experience mastery)
- Autonomy (A). Choice and control (self-dependent behaviour)
- Relatedness (R). Belongingness with significant others (social interactions)
Achievement motivation
- the meanings individuals give for their success and failure.
- perceptions of competence affect choice to invest in a specific activity and the amount of effort expended in the activity and level of persistence when confronted by a challenge to perform the activity.
- Display Competence➡️Success➡️increases motivation, self-esteem, enjoyment and competence.
Goal orientations: Ego Orientation
- ability determined through evaluation against performance of others with comparable skill sets.
- demonstration of ability= other-referenced.
- success= out-performing others.
- mastery= surpassing performance of others by conveying minimal effort.
- likely to withdraw if defeat is imminent and avoid practice altogether.
- belief that natural ability determines success.
Impacts of Ego Orientation (Goal orientation)
EGO:
- give less time to training
- increase levels of anxiety
- negative behaviours in failure situations
- doubt ability
This leads to a decrease in: competence, self-esteem, enjoyment and motivation. Could cause dropout.
Goal orientations: Task Orientation
- ability evaluated on individuals own performance.
- mastery/perfection indicates competence.
- success= mastery of a skill.
- demonstration of ability is self-referenced.
- goals set based on desire to master a skill.
- persevere when faced with adversity/defeat.
- efforts deemed success if they subjectively view performance improvements.
Impacts of Task orientation (Goal orientation)
Task:
- give more time to training
- decreased levels of anxiety
- positive behaviours in failure situations
- more likely to feel successful
This leads to an increase in: competence, self-esteem, enjoyment and motivation. So more likely to stay in the sport.
Achievement goal orientations
- 2 goal orientations reflect individual differences
- developed through socialisation and experiences
- task goal orientations: personal growth, mastery stems from hard work, learning and collaboration with others.
- ego goal orientations: social status, superiority, wealth and success stems from outperforming others.
The achievement goal theory (Nicholls, 1984)
Goal orientation (task or ego) + perceived competence (high or low)
= behaviour, effort, choice, persistence and performance.
Achievement goal theory behaviour combinations via goal orientations and competence
Task and high competence= adaptive behaviours
Task and low competence= adaptive behaviours
Ego and high competence= adaptive behaviours
Ego and low competence= maladaptive behaviours
Adaptive behaviours
- exert effort
- moderate challenging task
- sustained or improved performance
- persistence n the face of failure
Maladaptive behaviours
- withdrawal of effort
- tasks too easy or too difficult
- performance impairment
- lack of persistence in face of failure
Orthogonality
Goal orientations are orthogonal- independent of each other.
- individuals are viewed as a two-part whole- combining goal orientations.
- one is either task or ego involved but the motivation with move on a continuum.
- distinction does not mean goal orientation exist in isolation- can fluctuate between orientations and experience combinations of different levels.
Research on orthogonality
Training vs competition (van de Pol and Kavissanu). Task higher in training than competitions.
Team vs individual sport (Harwood). Individual-sport athletes had higher competition ego orientation but did not differ in task orientation (Hanrahan and Cerin)
Effort and enjoyment. Task orientation linked positively and negatively with trait anxiety. Ego orientation typically positively related to trait anxiety (smith et al)
Attention Definition
The engagement in the perceptual, cognitive and motor activities associated with performing skills.
