Individual differences Flashcards
personality, attitudes, motivation, arousal, anxiety, aggression, social facilitation
what is a personality?
- the patterns of thoughts and feelings
- the way in which we interact with our environment and other people that makes us a unique person
what is anxiety?
- negative emotional state closely associated with arousal
- experiencing apprehension and being aware of high arousal linked to our fears and worries
what is state anxiety?
- anxiety that is felt in a particular situation
- somatic
- cognitive
what is narrow band approach?
- personality is split into 2 types
- type A and type B
- can help suggest anxiety levels which can affect their state anxiety
Type A characteristics
- impatient
- intolerant
- high levels of stress
- competitive
- more prone to anxiety
Type B characteristics
- relaxed
- tolerant
- lower stress
- less prone to anxiety
Stable personality traits
- unchangeable
- consistent
- predictable
unstable personality traits
- changeable
- unpredictable
- highly anxious
- neurotic
what is Extroversion
- a personality characteristic or trait of a person who seeks social situations, likes excitement but lacks concentration
what is introversion
- someone who does not seek social situations, likes peace and quiet but good at concentrating
What is RAS (reticular activating system)?
- ## determine if someone is inclined to extroversion or introversion
RAS on extroverts
- RAS inhibits their external sensory stimuli
- areas of the brain have low levels of arousal
- extroverts seek more external stimulation
- to have higher levels of internal stimulation so are more outgoing
RAS on introverts
- they already have high levels of arousal in their brains
- avoid external stimulation
- shy/avoid social situations
Social learning approach to personality
- personality changes with the environment and the situation
- explains why we are like people we think are significant
- explains why seperated twins have diff personalities
- personalities shaped by those around us
- adopt personalities of role models
Interactionist approach to personality
- we do have consistent traits but our traits interact with the environmental factors in a situation
- explains how personality changes in situations
- B=f(PE)
- Behaviour = function of (personality x environment)
what is an attitude?
- predisposition to act a certain way towards someone or something in a persons environment
- learned and usually judgemental
- if its based on false info then its prejudice
components of an attitude- triadic model
- beliefs: cognitive element
- Emotions: affective element
- Behaviour: behavioural element
Beliefs: how they effect an attitude
- formed from past experiences and what we have learned from others
- significant people are more likely to influence our beliefs
Emotions: how they affect an attitude
- emotional reactions (pos or neg) depends on past experiences
- satisfaction and enjoyment previously then if a similar situation happens again, more likely to look forward to liking the situation
Behaviour: how they affect an attitude
- its not always consistent with our attitude
- believe exercise is good and enjoy it but may not do it
- more likely to behave in a way that reveals our attitude
what is prejudice?
- prejudgment
- someone who evaluates a situation before having adequate info about it
example of negative prejudice
- black players openly welcomed to a football club but not picked for the team not because of ability but because of racial prejudice
methods of changing attitudes
- persuasive communication
- giving useful info that help change neg attitude to pos one
effectiveness of persuasion depends on:
- the person doing the persuasion and if theyre a role model
- the quality of the message
- the characteristics of who is being persuaded
who should the person doing the persuading be?
- should have high status or be a role model
What should the message being persuaded be?
- should make sense
- be believable
- accurate, unambiguous and clear
who should the person being persuaded be?
- they may be intelligent enough to put up a counterpoint
- need to be intelligent enough to understand the message
what is a stereotype?
- a belief held by a collection of people about traits shared by a certain category of person
What is cognitive dissonance?
- elements involved in changing an attitude should be stable and the individual should be content
- the individual should believe two or more opposing beliefs
- they should feel uncomfortable
- to feel comfortable one of the beliefs needs to be dominant
what is motivation?
- drive to learn and achieve success
Three key points of motivation
- involves inner drive towards achieving a goal
- depends on external processes and rewards that we perceive in our environment
- concerns the intensity and the direction of our behaviour
what does weinberg believe about intrinsic and extrinsic motivation
- ’ rewards do not inherently undermine intrinsic motivation’
- not extrinsic rewards that motivate but how the reward is perceived
what is arousal in sport?
- intensity of our behaviour, the drive we have to achieve something
- physiological or psychological state of alertness that can affect our preparation for an action
physiological effects of arousal
- increased heart rate
- increased breathing rate
- higher sweat production
- worrying and anxiety
how arousal impacts performance
- as arousal increases, the state of readiness and expectation increases
Drive theory
- Hull (1943)
- performance increases in proportion to arousal
-learned behaviour is more likely to happen as the intensity of competition increases - P= f( H xD)
- performance= function of ( habit x drive)
what is drive reduction?
- drive may be reduced if individual loses motivation
- reactive inhibition
Inverted U theory
- arousal level increases so do the levels of performance only to an optimum point
- optimum point usually at moderate arousal levels
- once this arousal has passed the performance decreases
- anxious if over aroused= performance usually suffers
arousal on types of activities
- fine controlled movements= arousal fairly low for optimum performance
- gross= high arousal levels to expend more dynamic strength
arousal on skill levels
- highly skilled many actions need little attention= can cope with higher levels of arousal
- low skill levels need to attend to many details related to the movement so need to consciously process more info= if arousal is moderate they may loose concentration
arousal on personality
- extrovert= enjoy high excitement can cope with higher arousal levels
- introverted= perform well under low arousal levels
- backed up by RAS and personality
catastrophe theory
- shows dramatic decline in performance
- cognitive and somatic arousal interact ( cognitive determines performers reaction to high levels of stress)
- increase in cognitive anxiety helps performance if somatic anxiety is low
how cognitive and somatic anxiety interact and effect performance
- increase in cognitive anxiety and somatic anxiety is high then performance declines
- high cognitive anxiety and continuous increase in somatic anxiety then performance can suddenly drop e.g. catastrophe
- after catastrophe, arousal decreases, so performance improves, but not back to optimal level
what is peak flow experience?
- achieve optimum performance and associate it with an emotional response
- ‘in the zone’ where all that matters is performance
- arousal is based on inner drive and self motivation
mental strategies that drive them to be in the zone most of the time
what is RAS scientifically?
- in the central core of brain stem
- maintains arousal levels
- enhance or inhibit incoming sensory stimuli
- based biological basis of personality:
- extroverts inhibit the intensity of stimuli
- introverts increase the intensity of stimuli
- introverts dislike high arousal bc their RAS is already stimulated
reasons for high anxiety in sport
- importance of winning
- presence of a large crowd
- letting people down
- fear of being punished
competitive anxiety
- worry or apprehension experienced during or about a competitive experiences
The sport competition anxiety test (SCAT)
- self report questionnaire to asses anxiety during competition
- measures competitive trait anxiety
- predicts how they will be in future comps
- SCAT closely related to state anxiety
- situational factors also need to be considered
Four major factors related to competitive anxiety
- individual differences in the way people interact with a situation
- different types of anxiety e.g. state and trait anxiety
- general or specific anxiety: anxious in some situations but not all
- the competition process: interaction between personality factors, competitive trait anxiety and the situation= affects behaviour and causes state anxiety
what is the zone of optimal functioning
- emotional response that facilitates top performance
- also known as peak flow experience
How to be in the zone of top performers
- be relaxed
- be confident
- be completely focused
- activity is effortless
- movements are automatic
- fun: enjoyment is immense
- in control
what is cue utilisation?
- concentrating relevant cues
- if cues arent used effectively then cant gather relevant info from around the field of play
what is aggression?
- ‘any form of behaviour directed towards the goal of injurng or harming another living being who is motivated to avoid such treatment’
what is assertion?
- behaviour that is controlled within the laws of the game
- instrumental or chanelled
what is Frustration- aggression hypothesis?
- frustration will always lead to aggression
- any blocking of goals increases the individuals drive, which increases aggression
- aggression will reduce frustration= catharsis
what is the instinct theory of aggression?
- aggression is a natural response
- important to well being and evolutionary development of a species
- Lorenz: humans generate aggressive energy that needs to be released
- Frued: aggressive impulses would build up inside an individual and if not released can become dangerous to an individuals well-being
Frustration aggression diagram
drive to goal> obstacle to goal> frustration> aggression> either punishment or success
- if successful= cathartic
- if punished= more frustration
What is aggressive cue hypothesis?
-when frustrated theres an increase in arousal
- creates predisposition or readiness for aggression
- for aggression to happen certain stimuli must be present to act as cues
- cues then associated with having to be aggressive
What is social learning theory of aggression?
- Bandura: we learn through observing and copying the behaviours of others
- vicarious processes or direct reinforcement of our own behaviour
- disputes the idea that we have naturally aggressive drives
- if they learn aggressive behaviours then they can be unlearned
What is social facilitation?
- influence of the presence of others on performance being beneficial to it
What is social inhibition?
- influence of the presence of others on performance inhibiting it
Zajoncs theory of audience on performance
- presence of performer or coactors increase the arousal of performer
- increased arousal means dominant response more likely to occur
- skill is simple or performer expert the dominant response will be correct and performance will improve
- if skill is complex or performer novice the dominant response might be incorrect and performance will decline
what is evaluation apprehension?
- arousal level only increased when others present were evaluating or judging the performance
affects of social facilitation on performance (situational influences)
- home /away effects
- personality traits
- levels of experience
- types of skills/activities
affects of social facilitation on performance: home/ away effects
- people win more when theyre at home rather than away
- could be due to the nature of the audience
- whether the team feels alienated in their environment
- sometimes playing at home can be disadvantage
- increased pressure due to more of their supporters being there
- evaluated more as an individual
affects of social facilitation on performance: Types of skills/ activities
- if skills are simple/ gross high arousal caused by audience can facilitate performance
- if skills are more complex/fine low arousal is better and audience is less beneficial
affects of social facilitation on performance: personality traits
- type A perform less well with people who are type B
- extroverts tend to seek high arousal situations and perform better with an audience
- introverts shy away from social situations
affects of social facilitation on performance: levels of experience
- previous experiences in front of an audience can affect future responses
- elite performer more likely to do well in front of an audience bc dominant responses are more likely to be correct
- crowd kowledge of the sport will increase evaluation
- performing in front people you know increases anxiety levels
affects of social facilitation on performance: Other factors
- nature of the audience
- the physical proximity of the audience e.g. close they may feel threatened
ways to minimise social inhibition
- block out the audience using:
- imagery
- relaxation
- have people watching during training
- instructors can be calm focused and reassuring
- decrease the importance of the event
