Individual differences

Question 1

What is personality?

Answer 1

the patterns of thoughts and feelings and the way we interact with our environment.

Question 2

What is trait anxiety?

Answer 2

genetically determined, innate anxiety that is the same no matter the environment. It’s enduring.

Question 3

What is state anxiety?

Answer 3

anxiety occurring in a specific situation due to fear of failing, fear of injury or high arousal levels

Question 4

What are the two types of state anxiety (examples of each)?

Answer 4

Somatic = the body’s response (sweating, increase HR, increase blood pressure and muscle tension)

Cognitive = psychological worry over the situation such as worrying, irrational thoughts and confusion

Question 5

What is a type A personality?

Answer 5

impatient, intolerant and high stress levels

Question 6

What is a type B personality?

Answer 6

relaxed, tolerant and not stressed

Question 7

What’s the difference between stable and unstable personality traits?

Answer 7

Stable = doesn’t swing from one emotion to another, reliable, consistent

Unstable = someone who is highly anxious and has an unpredictable personality.

Question 8

What’s the difference between an extrovert and an introvert?

Answer 8

extrovert = seeks social situations, outgoing, likes to have an audience, easily bored as RAS is not easily stimulated
introverts = dislikes social situations, shy, dislikes performing with a crowd, easily over aroused as RAS is easily stimulated

Question 9

What is the social learning theory of personality?

Answer 9

behaviour is learnt from observing and copying significant others. If deemed successful then it’s more likely to be repeated. It is unpredictable so situational

Question 10

Explain the interactionist theory of personality?

Answer 10

personality is determined by the relationship between our traits and environment so it’s situational

Question 11

What is attitude?

Answer 11

A predisposition to act or think
in a particular way towards something or someone.

Question 12

What 3 parts make up the triadic model of attitudes?

Answer 12

Affective = our emotions
Behaviour = how we act
Cognitive = what we think

Question 13

What is prejudice?

Answer 13

A preconceived opinion thats generally untrue about something

Question 14

What makes persuasive communication effective?

Answer 14

The persuader needs to be of high status
The message needs to be accurate and good quality
The recipient needs to be open to persuasion
The recipient needs to feel comfortable where the discussion is taking place

Question 15

What is persuasive communication used for?

Answer 15

changing attitudes or a part of an attitude.

Question 16

What is motivation?

Answer 16

The amount of drive you have to achieve your goal

Question 17

What is arousal?

Answer 17

The amount of drive/stimulation we have to achieve something or perform.

Question 18

What’s the drive, inverted U and catastrophe theory?

Answer 18

Drive = linear relationship between arousal and performance
Inverted U = increased performance to optimum arousal then decline after more arousal
Catastrophe = initial increase in performance with arousal but then extreme decline occurs due to arousal being too high. This can be saved by reducing arousal.

Question 19

What is trait anxiety?

Answer 19

anxiety that will always occur in any scenario (not situational) and it’s due to your personality (your born with it, innate).

Question 20

What is aggression?

Answer 20

The intent to harm outside the rules of the sports event.

Question 21

What cue utilisation?

Answer 21

keeping focussed on what’s important to you and not being distracted by irrelevant information

Question 22

Which theory suggests that aggression is a natural response?

Answer 22

Instinct theory of aggression.

Question 23

What’s the frustration-aggression hypothesis?

Answer 23

drive to goal - obstacle preventing achieving the goal - frustrated - aggression - either reduces frustration leading to success or aggression leads to punishment and further frustration.

Question 24

What’s the aggressive cue hypothesis (Berkowitz 1969)?

Answer 24

performers arousal increases causing frustration. Certain tiggers/cues can then make the aggressive act more likely

Question 25

What are the four processes in Bandura’s social learning theory?

Answer 25

Attention
Retention
Motor Reproduction
Motivation

Question 26

What’s the difference between social facilitation and inhibtion?

Answer 26

Facilitation = Positive influence of others on sporting performance,

Inhibition = Negative influence of others on sporting performance.

Question 27

What is evaluation apprehension?

Answer 27

The raising of arousal levels due to the audience judging the performance causing the performer to revert to their dominant response

Question 28

Which personality types perform well in front of a crowd?

Answer 28

Type B and extroverts.

Question 29

What three factors influence how much a crowd affects a performer?

Answer 29

Personality factors, Levels of experience and types of skill

Question 30

Which types of skills are more easily performed in front of an audience?

Answer 30

simple or gross due to them requiring high arousal produced through the presence of an audience.

Question 31

Name some strategies to minimise social inhibition?

Answer 31

shut out audience, practice with an audience, relaxation techniques (slow breathing), decreasing the importance of the event,

Question 32

What are the two ways of changing someone’s attitude?

Answer 32

Creating cognitive dissonance and persuasive communication

Question 33

What is the attention process in social learning theory?

Answer 33

the performer concentrates on the demonstration and coach highlights key points. Model should be attractive/ a role model

Question 34

What is the retention process in social learning theory?

Answer 34

demo is repeated and coach ensures the performer can remember the demo, they create a clear mental image by visualisation or mental rehearsal

Question 35

What is the motor reproduction process in social learning theory?

Answer 35

performer must be mentally and physically able to replicate the demo how they remember it

Question 36

What is the motivation process of social learning theory?

Answer 36

performer must have determination to copy and learn the skill, coach can help by offering praise and extrinsic rewards

Question 37

Pros and cons of the drive theory?

Answer 37

pros :
1. shows why elites perform well at high arousal
2. simple to understand
3. extroverts will have an increased performance at high arousal
4. relates to gross skills which need high arousal to be performed better

Cons :
1. too simplistic
2. performance never increases in a linear pattern
3. cognitive learners perform worse at high arousal levels
4. doesn’t take into account individual differences
5. doesn’t explain decreases in performance at high arousal

Question 38

Pros and cons of inverted U theory?

Answer 38

pros:
1. more realistic than drive
2. above and below optimum arousal, performance often worsens
3. recognises that optimum arousal shifts dependant on personality or skill type

cons:
1. performance never gradually increases then decreases
2. performance can recover after over arousal

Question 39

Pros and cons of catastrophe theory?

Answer 39

pros:
1. shows sudden decline when over aroused which is more likely than gradual drop
2. a performer can recover performance by lowering arousal

Cons:
1. not all performers have a dramatic/sudden drop in performance
2. doesn’t account for personality