Lecture 20- Sport Psychology Flashcards
What’s the difference between sport and exercise?
- Sport= some level of competition
- Exercise= just anything physical
What are some examples of people that sport + exercise psychologists help?
- It’s a broad range from those who are just starting out/ who don’t do sport up to the eilte
- They also help teams facilitating cohesion and communities
What kind of roles does a sport + exercise psychologist perform with elite athletes?
- Motivate them
- Help deal with psychological issues that come with being in the lime light
- Optimize training
What are the three practitioner skills and the activities associated with them?
- Athlete’s skill training: cognitive, behavioral (i.e. not focusing on physical aspects of training that is the role of coaches)
- Counselling and clinical interventions: Athletic issues, psychological issues
- Consultation and training: Organizations, teams, support networks (athlete’s are part of a wider network and need to work+ understand this network to get the best results).
Which of the three practitioner skills of sports and exercise psychology most relates to clinical psychology?
Counselling and clinical intervention: sometimes even require clinical psychology background to practice. It’s because in this area psychologists provide counselling for things directly related to the sport (i.e. injury, dealing with change, gaining motivation) but also for general psychological issues that may or may not be related to the athlete’s sporting career (anorexia, anxiety, depression)
What is supposed to be the first piece of research in both sport’s psychology but also in social psychology? What was the results for this study and the problems with it?
Triplett, 1898
- Participants were fastest cycling when racing against another
- Racing alone but against pace setter= a little slower
- No pace setter and race alone= is slowest
Key finding= racing against another can improve outcomes/ competition can be good! Limitation is that this is observational research and therefore there may be confounds
Triplett then went on to invent a competition machine (have to wrap a rope around something idk but don’t really have to know specifics). Basically he progressed in his theory showing that 20 individuals with positive stimulation worked better in company, 10= little stimulation : company had no effect and finally for the 10 overstimulated they were slower in company.
This relates the idea of stress that when we over stimulated/ doing a difficult task performance is inhibited by the presence of others. On the other hand, when the task is easy social facilitation occurs
What is important to remember about triplet’s findings?
- Although his general theory was correct his science was actually faulty e.g. despite counter balancing there was still heavy practice effects.
- It’s a general trend: some individuals may always perform better with or without others
What is a reason a pro runner might perform better with a pacer as opposed to a real competitor?
Triplet’s research tells us that people run better when they have a real competitor not pacer, however if the athlete is very elite there may not be any good/ valid competitors. Therefore, a pacer that swaps in is better.
What is the Yerkes Dodson law? What does the theory back up?
- U shape curve exists in the relationship between stress and performance (this U can also be inverted depending on the specific measures being taken)
- The law describes that there is an optimum stress level for a particular task where performance is best and changes either side of this optimum will result in decreased performance (explaining the ‘U’ shape). It is the role of sport + exercise psychologists to find this optimum
- Back’s up Triplets’ faulty science
According to Yerkes Dodson law how does the optimum stress level differ between easy, medium and hard tasks?
Basically, optimum stress level decreases more and more as task difficulty increases
For easy tasks under the Yerkes Dodson law is the shape of the graph still a U?
Yes, but is definitely flatter/ more linear than before
Why is it important to analyze the link between high level and low level sport?
- Anyone who is now an elite athlete was once just starting out.
- We need to find out how they got where they are today so that we can encourage more people to reach the pinnacle (being a country that wins at sport is good money wise)
- It’s also just beneficial to health and wellbeing to foster communities that are good at sport
List the three models described in this lecture for thinking about the relationship between low level and high level sport….
- Trickle down
- Pyramid model
- Inclusive
What is the trickle down model? What are the good and bad things about it?
- Focus on the elite and the idea is that this will trickle down to benefit the masses (it’s a cycle) i.e. fund the elite and this will inspire more communities/ kids to be invovled in sports (ideal of idols) and this in turn will mean more players which is good for the country
- Good things: Good if you are already at the top, creates idols
- Bad things: Mental health effects of pushing/ idolizing people, athlete’s aren’t necessarily the best role models, you can’t just make someone interested in a sport if they are not, it pushes the sports that are already popular while other sports will become obscure, there are other factors in sport’s involvement (i.e. I might really want to be invovled in a sport but if I don’t have the money or resources to invest there is not a lot I can do).
What is the pyramid model? What are the good and bad things about it?
- A broad base of PE and community involvement in sport increases performance at the top level
- Good things: flipped from trickle down methods in that you are focused on benefiting and funding the masses/ low level sport, good in that yes everyone needs a good base of athleticism and this encourages low level sport involvement
- Bad things: Having a lot of individuals invovled at low down levels doesn’t necessarily translate to good elite sports people (which we need), ignores the role of specialist training, Implies that you have to start young and move all the way up through the ranks otherwise you move out of the sport area all together
