Self-Confidence Flashcards
Defining Self-Confidence
- Self-confidence is the belief that you can successfully perform a desired behavior
- More recent thinking views sport self-confidence as a social cognitive construct that can be more trait-like or more statelike, depending on the temporal frame of reference used.
Trait self-confidence
Is the degree of certainty individuals usually have about their ability to succeed.
State self-confidence
Is the belief of certainty that individuals have at a particular moment about their ability to succeed.
Self-fulfilling prophecy
Expecting something to happen actually
helps cause it to happen.
Negative self-fulfilling prophecy
This is a psychological barrier whereby the expectation of failure leads to actual failure.
Vealey and Knight (2002): Confidence about one’s ability to:
◦ execute physical skills, ◦ use psychological skills, ◦ employ perceptual skills (e.g., make good decisions), ◦ be fit and highly trained, and ◦improve one’s skill (learn).
Hays, Maynard, Thomas, and Bawden (2007):
◦ Found additional types of self-confidence in elite athletes, such as belief in their ability to achieve (both winning and improved performance) as well as their belief in their superiority over the opposition.
◦ This underscores the notion of elite athletes having strong beliefs in their abilities and is consistent with the importance of self-belief as seen in the literature on mental toughness.
Robust Self-Confidence Characteristics
- Multidimensional
- Malleable
- Durable
- Developed
- Protective
- Strong set of beliefs
Benefits of SelfConfidence
•Arouses positive emotions •Facilitates concentration •Affects the setting and pursuit of challenging goals •Increases effort •Affects game strategies (play to win versus play to lose) •Affects psychological momentum •Affects performance
Optimal confidence
Involves being so convinced that you will achieve your goals that you strive hard to do so.
Lack of confidence (self-doubt)
Creates anxiety, breaks concentration, and
causes indecisiveness.
Overconfidence (false confidence)
causes you to prepare less than you need to in order to perform.
Skewed Inverted U ConfidencePerformance Relationship
People strive for an individual, optimal confidence level but sometimes become either overconfident or under-confident.
Each person has an optimal level of self-confidence, and performance problems can arise with either too little or too much confidence.
Key Components of the Model
of Sport Confidence
Factors influencing sport confidence: It is hypothesised that organisational culture as well as demographic and personality characteristics influence sport confidence.
Sources of sport confidence: Achievement, self-regulation, and social climate factors.
Constructs of sport confidence: Sport confidence varies on a continuum from more trait-like to more state-like, as opposed to either purely trait or state
selfconfidence.
Consequences of sport confidence: These consequences refer to athletes’ affect (A), behavior (B), and cognitions (C).
Self-expectations and performance:
The expectation of beating a tough opponent or successfully performing a difficult skill can produce exceptional performance as psychological barriers are overcome.
Coaches’ Expectations
and Athletes’ Performance: Stage 1
Coaches form expectations based on
◦ personal cues (e.g., gender, race, body size) and
◦ performance information (e.g., skill tests, practice behaviors).
Problems occur when inaccurate expectations (too high or too low) are formed.
Coaches’ Expectations
and Athletes’ Performance: Stage 2
Coaches’ expectations influence their behaviours regarding the
◦frequency and quality of coach–athlete interactions,
◦ quantity and quality of instruction, and
◦type and frequency of feedback.
Coaches’ Expectations
and Athletes’ Performance: Stage 3
Coaches’ behaviors affect athletes’ performance by
Causing low expectancy performers to perform more poorly because of less reinforcement, less playing time, less confidence, and attributions to low ability.
Coaches’ Expectations
and Athletes’ Performance: Stage 4
Athletes’ performances confirm the coaches’ expectations.
Performance results then feed back into stage 1 of the coaches’ expectations and athlete performance process.
Self-Efficacy Theory
Self-efficacy is the perception of one’s ability to perform a task successfully.
It is a situation-specific form of self-confidence.
Self-Efficacy Defined Bandura’s Self-Efficacy Theory
•Self-efficacy provides a model for studying the effects of selfconfidence on sport performance, persistence, and behavior.
•Self-efficacy is important when one has the requisite skills and
sufficient motivation.
•Self-efficacy affects an athlete’s choice of activities, level of effort,
and persistence. Although self-efficacy is task-specific, it generalizes
to other similar skills and situations.
•People with high self-efficacy set more challenging goals
Self-regulatory efficacy
Focuses more on one’s abilities to overcome obstacles or challenges to successful performance
Learning efficacy
Individuals’ beliefs in their capability to learn a new skill
Decision-making efficacy
Individuals’ beliefs that they are competent decision makers
Coping efficacy
Individuals’ beliefs in their ability to cope in the face of perceived threats
Self-presentational efficacy
Individuals’ beliefs in conveying a desired impression to others (e.g., appearing strong, coordinated, fit, or physically attractive)
Other efficacy
Individuals’ beliefs in the ability of others (e.g., partner, teammates, coach)
Sources of Efficacy
Performance accomplishments
◦ Accomplishments are the most dependable source.
◦ Successful experiences raise the level of self-efficacy, while failure results in lowered efficacy.
Vicarious experiences (modeling): Seeing others or modeling influences efficacy
Verbal persuasion from oneself and others (coaches, teachers, peers) can enhance feelings of self-efficacy.
Reciprocal Relationship Between Efficacy and Behavior Change
Self-efficacy is a determinant of performance and exercise behavior.
Performance and exercise behaviour determine one’s self-efficacy.
Four-Stage Modeling Process
Attention: Careful attention must be given to the model or person observed.
Retention: For modeling to occur, the observers must commit the observed acts to memory.
Motor reproduction: For modeling of physical skills to occur, the performers must be able to coordinate their muscle activity with their thoughts.
Motivation: For modeling to occur, the observers must be motivated to attend to, retain, and practice modeled acts. This stage affects all other stages.
Modeling
Modeling (also called observational learning) can influence confidence, leading to enhanced performance, depending on the following factors: ◦ Model similarity ◦ Coach models ◦ Mastery versus coping modeling ◦ Self-modeling ◦ Multidimensional modeling ◦ Virtual models
Mastery
Developing and improving skills
Demonstration of ability
Showing ability by winning and outperforming opponents
Physical and mental preparation:
Staying focused on goals and being prepared to give maximum effort
Physical self-presentation
Feeling good about one’s body and weight
Social support
Getting encouragement from teammates, coaches, and family
Coaches’ leadership
Trusting coaches’ decisions and believing in
their abilities
Vicarious experience
Seeing other athletes perform successfully
Environmental comfort
Feeling comfortable in the environment
where one will perform
Situational favorableness
Seeing breaks going one’s way and feeling
that everything is going right
In elite performers, additional sources of self-confidence include
◦ experience (having been there before),
◦ innate factors (natural ability, innate competitiveness), and
◦ competitive advantage (having seen competitors perform poorly or
crack under pressure before).
Components of coaching efficacy
Game strategy
Motivation
Technique
Character building
Building Coaching Efficacy – 5C’s
◦ commitment ◦ communication ◦ concentration ◦ control ◦ confidence
Collective Efficacy
Collective efficacy refers to a belief or perception shared by members of the team regarding the capabilities of their teammates (rather than merely the sum of individual perceptions of their own efficacy). Collective efficacy is each individual’s perception of the efficacy of the team as a whole
Building Team (Collective) Efficacy
Before competition: Focus on developing joint perceptions of capabilities and fitness to manage the upcoming competition in a
successful manner.
During competition: Focus on getting team members believing in one another right before and during the game.
After competition: Develop intrateam interpretations of experiences
of the game.
