Psychology of Athletic Preparation and Performance

Question 1

ideal performance state (flow state)

Answer 1

when you’re confident and things are effortless even though you’re focused

Question 2

physiological efficiency

Answer 2

employing only the amount of mental and physical energy required to perform the task

Question 3

emotions

Answer 3

temporary feeling states that occur in response to events and that have both physiological and psychological components

Question 4

arousal

Answer 4

simply a blend of physiological and psychological activation an individual and refers to the intensity of motivation at any given moment

Question 5

anxiety

Answer 5

a subcategory of arousal in that it is negatively perceived emotional state characterized by nervousness, worry apprehension, or fear

Question 6

cognitive anxiety

Answer 6

thinking negatively about a situation

Question 7

somatic anxiety

Answer 7

the physical symptoms that come from anxiety

Question 8

state anxiety

Answer 8

refers to a subjective experience of apprehension and uncertainty accompanied by elevated autonomic and voluntary neural outflow and increased endocrine activity

Question 9

trait anxiety

Answer 9

a personality variable or disposition relating to the probability that one will perceive an environment as threatening

Question 10

drive theory

Answer 10

proposes that as an individual’s arousal or state anxiety increases, so too does performance

Question 11

inverted-U theory

Answer 11

this theory states that arousal facilitates performance up to an optimal level beyond which further increases in arousal are associated with reduced performance

Question 12

individual zones of optimal performance

Answer 12

holds that different people, in different types of performances, perform best with very different levels of arousal

Question 13

catastrophe theory

Answer 13

somatic arousal has a curvilinear, inverted-U relationship to athletic performance, whereas cognitive anxiety shows a steady negative relationship to performance

Question 14

reversal theory

Answer 14

posits that the way in which arousal and anxiety affect performance depends on the individual’s interpretation of that arousal

Question 15

achievement motivation

Answer 15

refers to a person’s efforts to master a task, achieve excellence, overcome obstacles, and engage in competition or social comparison - motivation to achieve vs motivation to avoid failure

Question 16

self-controlled practice

Answer 16

involves the athlete in decisions related to the practice practice structure, including when to receive feedback or which skill to practice; it also simply involves asking athletes how they believe they are doing

Question 17

operant

Answer 17

a target behavior, such as correct footwork in basketball

Question 18

negative reinforcement

Answer 18

sprints at the end of practice because there “wasn’t enough hustle”

Question 19

positive punishment

Answer 19

making an athlete do push-ups because they fumbled the ball

Question 20

negative punishment

Answer 20

benching someone because they’re performing poorly

Question 21

autogenic training

Answer 21

consists of a series of exercises designed to produce physical sensations in the body- generally warmth and heaviness

Question 22

imagery

Answer 22

defined as a cognitive skill in which the athlete creates or recreates an experience in his or her mind

Question 23

process goals

Answer 23

the athlete has control over these, such as what foods need to be eaten or what time to wake up

Question 24

outcome goals

Answer 24

the athlete doesn’t have control over, typically winning being the primary focus

Question 25

whole practice

Answer 25

addresses the skill in it’s entirety

Question 26

part practice

Answer 26

separates the skill into a series of subcomponents

Question 27

segmentation

Answer 27

breaks down the task into subcomponents

Question 28

simplification

Answer 28

adjusts the difficulty of the tasks by changing task characteristics such as the execution speed or the equipment used

Question 29

pure-part training

Answer 29

has the athlete practice each subcomponent of the skill multiple times independently

Question 30

progressive-part training

Answer 30

has the athlete practice the first two parts in isolation before practicing these parts together

Question 31

repetitive part training

Answer 31

has the athlete practice oonly the first part in isolation; then each subsequent part is added until the whole task is reintegrated

Question 32

random practice

Answer 32

multiple skills are practiced in a random order during a given practice session

Question 33

variable practice

Answer 33

includes variations of the same skill within a single practice session as opposed to specific practice in which a specific skill is repeated multiple times

Question 34

observational practice

Answer 34

practice though observation of the task or skill to be performed

Question 35

explicit instructions

Answer 35

include prescriptive information that gives the athlete the “rules” for effectively executing the given task

Question 36

guided discovery

Answer 36

provides the athlete with instructions about the overall movement goal and important prompts for task accomplishment w/o explicitly telling the athlete how to accomplish the task

Question 37

discovery

Answer 37

instructs the athlete on the overarching goal of the task and the athlete receives little to no direction

Question 38

intrinsic feedback

Answer 38

feedback provided to the athlete by the athlete from the senses

Question 39

augmented feedback

Answer 39

feedback provided to the athlete by either an observer, such as a coach, or technology, such as video or laboratory equipment

Question 40

knowledge of results

Answer 40

provides the athlete with information about the execution of the task goal- such as knowing your 40m dash time

Question 41

knowledge of performance

Answer 41

provides feedback to the athlete about his or her movement patterns via a video, or a force plate for example