Psychology of Athletic Preparation and Performance Flashcards
An individual’s negative perception of a situation involving worrisome and negative thoughts
Cognitive Anxiety
A physical reaction to cognitive anxiety involving the physical symptoms of tense muscles, fast HR, and upset stomach
Somatic Anxiety
A subjective experience of apprehension, uncertainty, and uncontrolled arousal (temporary)
State anxiety
A personality characteristic that represents a natural disposition to perceive situations as threatening
Trait anxiety
A negative form of stress that generates cognitive and somatic anxiety
Distress
A positive form of stress that generates positive mental energy and physiological arousal
Eustress
The theory that proposes that as an individual’s arousal or state anxiety increases, so too does performance
Drive Theory
True or False: A lower arousal state is more optimal for highly complex tasks and unskilled athletes while a higher arousal state can be more optimal for simple tasks and skilled athletes
True
This theory states that arousal improves performance up to an optimal level, after which further increases in arousal result in gradually reduced performance
Inverted-U Theory
This theory maintains that different people in different types of performances will perform best with very different levels of arousal (there is no singular universal point of optimal performance)
Individual Zones of Optimal Functioning (IZOF)
This theory corrects the Inverted-U Theory by stating that increases in arousal beyond the optimal level result in a sudden negative drop in performance vs a gradual decline
Catastrophe Theory
This theory states that the way in which arousal and anxiety affect performance depends on the individual’s interpretation of that arousal and that an athlete can change their perception of the arousal in order to change their performance
Reversal Theory
A type of motivation which refers to a person’s motivation to master a task, achieve excellence, overcome obstacles, and engage in competition
Achievement Motivation
_____ is a type of practice that involves the athlete in decisions related to practice structure such as what skill to practice or when they would like to receive feedback
Self-controlled practice
____ is the act of increasing the occurrence of a given behavior with the addition of a positive action/object/event such as praise or prizes/rewards
Positive reinforcement
____is the target behavior that is desired
Operant
____is the act of increasing the occurrence of a given behavior by removing an action/object/event such as not having to run sprints after practice
Negative reinforcement
_____decreases the occurrence of a behavior with the presentation of an act/object/event such as having to do extra sprints or pushups
Positive punishment
_____decreases the occurrence of a behavior with the removal of an act/object/event such as benching an athlete
Negative punishment
____is the desired performance state when the athlete can successfully perform the desired movement/action without thinking
Automaticity
What are the 4 quadrants of attentional focus?
1) Assess (broad-external) 2) Analyze (broad-internal) 3) Prepare (narrow-internal) 4) Act (narrow-external)
______a relaxation technique in which attention is brought to different parts of the body to assess somatic feelings such as warmth or heaviness (does not involve any tensing of the muscles as in progressive muscle relaxation)
Autogenic Training
____ is a technique that combines mental and physical strategies to allow an athlete to replace a fear response to various cues with a relaxation response
Systematic desensitization
____a form of skill practice that involves breaking down a task into a series of sub-components that have clear breaks between them (I.e. breaking the snatch down into the 1st pull, 1st transition, 2nd pull, and catch)
Segmentation
_____breaking down a task into sub-components that occur simultaneously in a movement (I.e. practicing the overhead press and the bending of the knees separately in the push press)
Fractionalization
____adjusts the difficulty of the tasks by changing the task characteristics (i.e. replacing a barbell with a PVC pipe)
Simplification
_____has the athlete practice the sub-components multiple times independently before practicing the skill in its entirety
Pure-part training (part-whole training)
____has the athlete practice the first two skills in isolation, then those two skills together, and then practices the 3rd skill independently before adding it to the first two skills
Progressive part training
____has the athlete only practice the first skill in isolation and then each subsequent skill is added one at a time until the skill is practiced in its entirety
Repetitive part training
When multiple skills/exercises are practiced in a random order during a given practice session (instead of one skill/exercise at a time before moving onto a completely new skill/exercise)
Random practice
Variations of the same skill are practiced in a given training session using different modes of equipment, heights, velocities, etc
Variable practice
Feedback provided to the athlete by the athlete’s own senses
Intrinsic feedback
Feedback provided to the athlete by a coach or some form of technology (such as video replay)
Augmented feedback
What are the 6 characteristics of the ideal performance state?
- Absence of fear (no fear of failure)
- No thinking about or analysis of performance
- A narrow focus of attention on the activity itself
- A sense of effortlessness
- A sense of personal control
- A distortion of time and space
A blend of physiological and psychological activation; refers to the intensity of motivation at any given moment
Arousal
A substantial imbalance between demands and response capabilities under conditions in which failure has important consequences
Stress
