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.
Attentional focus definition
The object towards which an individual directs their concentration focus
Why’s attention important
- if athletes could think any way they wanted and still play their best, winning would be determined by effort and skill alone.
- attention is a dynamic perspective
- maintaining concentration and perceptions of control in pressurised environment in fundamental to successful sporting performance especially at elite level
- being immersed in the present, having feelings of confidence and effective control is associated with optimal attentional focus.
How our brains process information
- selective attention
- limited capacity
- processing efficiency
Our brains and our working working memory
Task irrelevant➡️working memory➡️task related processing➡️task relevant info
Processing information
- focusing on outcome of movement (external) leads to greater success than focusing on movement execution (internal focus)
- superiority of external over internal focus. Internal focus causes athlete to actively intervene with movement, disrupting coordination of automatic processes.
- optimal attentional focus may differ according to skill level of the participant.
The audience effect- social facilitation
- presence of others can cause anxiety.
- presence of spectators can enhance performance if the skill is easy or well learned, but performance may decrease if task is difficult or unfamiliar.
Attentional style: Direction
External cues- a target, ball or teammate.
Internal cues- thoughts, images, feelings, kinaesthetic sensations.
Attentional style: Width
Broad- analysis of situation, planning, strategies.
Narrow- single focused thoughts
Broad External (Niddifer’s model of attention)
- peripheral awareness
- ability to read and react to environment.
- good at scanning, picking the opten team-mate.
Broad Internal (Niddifer’s model of attention)
- analysis, problem solving and creative thinking, planning
- planning, developing an alternative plan of attack, debriefing.
External Narrow (Niddifer’s model of attention)
- focused on target
- ability to block out distractions and remain focused
Internal Narrow (Niddifer’s model of attention)
- focus on a single thought or idea and stay with it.
- enhanced kinaesthetic awareness.
Maintaining focus
- difficult to hold concentration for long periods of time
- maintain concentration over a long period of time by switching concentration on and off when necessary (re-focusing)
Types of stressors in sport
- Performance stressors
- Self presentational stressors
- Intra-Interpersonal stressors
- Organisational stressors
Performance stressors
- own and other peoples’ performances
Self presentational stressors
- social and material outcomes
- self-esteem maintenance
- identity development
Intra-Interpersonal stressors
- self-imposed expectations
- influences of other people
- task related factors (decision making)
Organisational stressors
- environment
- leadership
- personal
- team factors
Stress process- Transactional Approach
Transactional Approach- stimulus + response = stress
Link between individual and their environment
Stress- ongoing transaction. Internal environment (beliefs, goals and values) and external environment (situation).
Coping- constantly changing cognitive and behavioural process, which aims to manage situations that individuals appraises as taxing.
Process oriented model (Lazarus and Folkman)
Stressor➡️primary appraisal (harm/loss, threat, challenge, benefit) ➡️secondary appraisal (assessment) ➡️ coping response
Cognitive Appraisal
- crucial element of the stress process.
- individuals psychological and physical well-being and performance quality.
- interpretation of stressful events- influences level of perceived stress and coping responses.
- cognitive appraisal- determines quality and intensity of perceived stress- influence the coping strategies selected
- interactive nature of the appraisal-stressor coping process
Primary Appraisal
- realisation that something is at stake
- is what is happening perceived to be relevant to goal commitments, values, beliefs about self and situational intentions.
- harm/loss, threat, challenge, benefit
Harm/Loss (primary appraisal)
Damage that has already occurred
Threat (primary appraisal)
The potential for harm or loss
Challenge (primary appraisal)
Joy associated about a subsequent struggle
Benefit (primary appraisal)
Gaining benefit from a stressful situation)
Secondary appraisal
- cognitive evaluation process of coping options
- identifying coping resources
- appraisals are thoughts about a stressful encounter, followed by a coping strategy in attempt to escape/reduce the perceived stressor.
Influenced: personal (perceived controllability) and situational factors (predictability of the situation)
Types of coping
Differ depending on function and intention
- problem and emotion-focused strategies
- avoidance coping
- approach coping
These broad dimensions are useful in that they provide an overall categorisation of athletes responses to stress.
Problem-focused coping
- altering the stressful situation
- seeking information, planning, setting goals
- predicts positive affect
- most effective during encounters which athlete has potential for personal control.
Emotion-focused coping
- deals with the emotional distress associated with the stressful situation.
- seeking emotional/social support, relaxation, visualisation, positive thinking and humour.
- linked with greater cognitive anxiety. Most effective during encounter which athlete has little control over.
Avoidance coping
- efforts to disengage from the stressful situation.
- reducing importance
- attempting to maintain additional focus on task
- behavioural efforts, removing oneself from the situation
- psychological efforts- cognitive distance/blocking.
- avoidance coping with sport injury
- facilitate short term emotional stages, possibly some long-term benefits
- caution warranted in recommendation- association between coping strategy and psychopathology.
Approach coping
Confronting the source of stress and deliberately attempting to reduce it.
- taking direct action
- seeking info, questioning, arguing
- increasing effort
- preferable under conditions of high perceived control, when spice of stress is known- when athlete has high confidence and communication skills.
