Lecture 1-Psychology of Sport/Exercise

Question 1

MST

Answer 1

mental skills training is the act of turning scientific information into actions for athletes.

Question 2

Psychology definition:

Answer 2

“The scientific study of behaviour where behaviour is broadly defined”

Question 3

Social Psychology definition

Answer 3

The scientific study of human social behaviour. The ‘hows’ and ‘whys’ of human social behaviour

Question 4

Sport/Exercise Psychology definition

Answer 4

The scientific study of human behaviour in the sport and exercise context. The ‘hows’ and ‘whys’ of the sport and exercise context

Question 5

All these branches of psychology, whilst different, are all analysis of….

Answer 5

behaviour of humans and the varying element is the context.

Question 6

There are two questions generally asked in sport psychology

Answer 6

What effect do psych factors have on performance on sport/exercise?
What effect does the participation in sport/exercise have on an individual?

Question 7

Psychology in sport

Answer 7

• Voluntary action of motivation through participation in sport.
• Competitive aspect of sport causing stress and emotion
• Evaluative activity
• Skill learning
• Participation with and also against people
• Rule bound activity

Question 8

Psychology for sport

Answer 8

• This is different again; it is about learning how to apply psychology in a way that enhances performance. To be consistently good at sport you need psychological skills to maintain this.

Question 9

There are three psych theories – all three of these theories are a result of the interaction between

Answer 9

behaviour, person, and the environment

Question 10

1. Psychoanalytic theories (Homo valen)

Answer 10

• striving human- these are unconscious, inner urges expressed as drives and emotions especially libido which is the act of a motivational force.

Question 11

Who discovered the Psychoanalytic theories (Homo valen)

Answer 11

Freud and he was interested in this as our instincts are contradictory

Question 12

example of the Psychoanalytic theories (Homo valen)

Answer 12

. An example of this could be the aggressive instinct.
Analagous to hardware and software. The hardware is the person and their genetics, the software is the person’s environment.
A person has a choice, they can choose to act on instincts or they can choose to ignore them.

B=f (P)
- Behaviour
-Function
-Person

Question 13

2. Behavioral theories (Homo mechanicus)

Answer 13

Talks about humans as reactive humans.

Question 14

example of Behavioral theories (Homo mechanicus)

Answer 14

Analogous to a computer, a human is programmed (hardware) in a way to react consistently to certain kinds of input from the environment (software).

B=f (E)
-Environment

Question 15

3. Cognitive theories (Homo Sapien)

Answer 15

– the thinking human. A person thinks about a different environment but also brings their own motives, goals and beliefs to each environment and situation.

Question 16

Cognitive theory more indepth:

Answer 16

There is a complex interaction between how the person interprets a situation and how they act on it. This is the social environment influencing behaviour. Thus, behaviour = a function of person x environment.

B=f (P x E)

Question 17

What is ‘Sport’?

Answer 17

From a psychological perspective, sport is different compared to all other activities.
The question at hand is why we participate in sport which can often be painful, voluntarily?
Sport is something that makes us anxious because we care about it.

Question 18

Sport definition

Answer 18

Sport is institutionalised, competitive activities that involve vigorous physical exertion or use of relatively complex physical skills

Question 19

Sport is

Answer 19

“a structured, organised and institutionalised activity”

Question 20

Sport is “a structured, organised and institutionalised activity” BUT

Answer 20

sport can be defined differently for everyone. Some people define sport by acknowledging it is an activity involving rules, shared goals, winners and losers, coaches and teams.

Question 21

do you need opponents for sport

Answer 21

For sport, we need atleast ONE or otherwise multiple opponents to be able to call it a competition and determine that the element of competition is met.

Question 22

Sport is hugely popular especially in westernised countries

Answer 22

This is evident through its high rates of participation, huge numbers of spectators, the media/broadcasting involved with sport and the business opportunities that sport provides.

Question 23

What is ‘competition’?

Answer 23

When we compete we have a clear cut standard of excellence
The standard of excellence is clear because you know how well you perform based on the outcome. You know before you perform what the standard is. You are judged based on how well you meet this outcome.

Question 24

Competition definition

Answer 24

A situation where a comparison of an individuals performance is made with some standard of excellence, in the presence of others who are aware of the criteria (standard) for comparison and can evaluate the competitive process

Question 25

Key points of competition

Answer 25

-Performance standard
-Comparison process
-Social evaluation