Sport and Excercise Psychology Flashcards
What is motivation? (Sage, 1977)
‘the direction and intensity of one’s effort’
What is the bounded rationality perspective? And what do we need to consider?
Rewards do not always motivate people to perform at their best. (e.g. playing a footballer more money does not make them score more goals)
- added pressure to perform
- coach / player relationships
Who proposed the Self-Determination Theory?
Deci & Ryan, 1985, 2000
What is the general overview of the Self-Determination Theory?
- Looks to understand what motivates people rather than how
- Assumes that humans have a growth mindset
What are the 3 basic psychological needs?
- autonomy (feeling in control of own behaviour and goals)
- relatedness (sense of belonging and attachment)
- competence (need to gain mastery of tasks and learn new skills)
What does being more self-determined cause?
The more self-determined we are, the more intrinsically motivated we are
What are the 4 types of extrinsic motivation?
- integrated regulation
- identified regulation
- introjected regulation
- external regulation
What is integrated regulation? Give an example
Behaviour is fully incorporated into persons repertoire of skills that satisfy psychological needs
- exercise is a fundamental part of who I am
What is identified regulation? Give an example
Motivated by personal values such as learning new skills
- participate in sport because it is important and has benefits
What is introjected regulation? Give an example
Motivated to avoid external sources of disapproval or gaining approval
- I would feel guilty if I didn’t exercise
What is external regulation? Give an example
Motivated by external reinforcement (gaining rewards or avoiding punishment)
- I participate because other people say I have to
Who proposed the Achievement Goal Theory?
Nicholls, 1989
What is the general overview of the Achievement Goal Theory?
- the perceptions of winning and losing are different for everyone
- how individuals evaluate competence and define success and failure
How would you describe someone with a Task-Mastery Orientation?
- take pride in progressive improvement of knowledge (‘I want to be better than I am now’)
- self referenced (not worried about other people)
- protected by maladaptive outcomes
How would you describe someone with an Ego Orientation?
- intent on demonstrating superiority over others (motivated by social comparison)
- current ability is most important
- outcome orientation (unlikely to try at something they might fail at)
Explain the Motivation Climate proposed by Ames, 1992
- Mastery (task-involving) climate = focused on individual improvement and cooperation
- Performance (ego-involving) climate = viewing mistakes as failure and outperforming others
Who proposed Attribution Theory?
Weiner 1985, 1986
What is Attribution Theory?
- focusses on the causes to explain the outcomes
- this can affect future motivation
What are the 4 attributions outlined in Wiener’s Attribution Model?
- ability
- effort
- task difficulty
- luck
What are the 2 dimensions that attributions are arranged into?
- locus of causality (internal / external)
- stability (stable / unstable)
What is the definition of Self-Esteem?
“personal judgement of worthiness”
- it is internal (specific to us)
What is the difference between self-esteem and self-concept?
SE = what we FEEL about ourselves
SC = what we KNOW about ourselves
Explain the multidimensional hierarchal modal of the self.
- self-concept is at the top
- branches off to the elements that make up our self-concept (social, physical)
How are athletes with poor self-esteem affected?
- self worth is unstable = they rely on their progress to determine how they feel about themselves
- failure decreases self-esteem
- attribute failure internally = less resilient
How are athletes with high self-esteem affected?
- future performance is less affected by failure
- they know self-worth is not reliant on performance
- internalise success
- can develop other areas of self-concept if one isn’t going well
What is the definition of Self-Confidence?
- “the belief or degree of certainty individuals possess about their ability to be successful in sport” - Vealey, 1986
What is the difference between trait and state self-confidence?
Trait = confidence in general ability
State = confidence at a specific moment
What are some benefits of self-confidence?
- facilitates concentration
- affects goals
- increases effort
- affects game strategy
- affects psychological momentum
What are some characteristics of overconfidence?
- overestimate own ability
- underestimate opposition
What is self-fulfilling prophecy?
When predictions set in motion a series of events that ultimately lead to the prediction being true
- positive and negative self-fulfilling prophecy
What is self-efficacy?
Perception of one’s ability to perform a task successfully in a specific situation
Performance Accomplishments as a source of self-efficacy.
- strongest source of self efficacy
- based on our personal experiences
- success increases belief in ability
- failure lower belief
Vicarious Experience as a source of self-efficacy.
- imitation / modelling success or failure influences our efficacy beliefs
- social comparison can be used in the promotion of exercise to specific groups
Verbal Persuasion as a source of self-efficacy.
- weakest source of self efficacy
- someone else is telling us what to do
- do we believe we can do it?
- reliant on how realistic the feedback is
Imaginal Experience as a source of self-efficacy.
- generating belief about personal efficacy based on imagery through the senses
Physiological states as a source of self-efficacy.
- condition of the body and how we interpret this
- breathing, sweating, muscle tension
- facilitative = SE is enhanced
- debilitative = SE is lowered
Emotional states as a source of self-efficacy.
- physiological cues are important components of emotion
- emotions are an additional source of information about SE
What is arousal?
General physiological and psychological activation from deep sleep to intense excitement
What is the Drive Theory? (Hull, 1943)
- proportional linear relationship
- more arousal = better performance
- performance is worse for complex skills
Limitation = even highly skilled players choke in highly charged situations
What is the Inverted-U hypothesis?
- performance will increase with arousal up to an optimal point
- supported by Arent & Landers, 2010
What is trait anxiety?
- aspect of personality
- a usually feeling / doesn’t change based on situation
What is state anxiety?
- how you feel right now anxiety wise
- split into cognitive anxiety and somatic anxiety
What is cognitive anxiety?
Subdivision of state anxiety
- negative thoughts / psychological responses
- lack of self-confidence
- impaired ability to concentrate
- concerns about perfromance
What is somatic anxiety?
Subdivision of state anxiety
- physiological changes
- feelings of nausea
- increased respiration
- increased muscle tension
What are some causes of anxiety?
- pressure (fear of failure n high pressure situations)
- uncertainty
- fear of harm
- frustration
What is stress?
substantial imbalance between demand and response capability, under conditions where failure has important consequences
What is the Stress Process (McGrath, 1970)?
Stage 1 = environmental demand
Stage 2 = Perception of demand (trait anxious are more likely to perceive as a threat)
Stage 3 = stress response (physical or psychological)
Stage 4 = behavioural consequences
How does parental pressure affect anxiety of young athletes?
High pressure in high ego motivational climate = increased anxiety
High pressure in high mastery motivational climate = decreased anxiety
What is the individual zone of optimal functioning (Hanin, 1997, 2000)?
- optimal arousal varies depending on individual skill level, personality characteristics and task
What is the Multidimensional Anxiety Theory?
- predicts performance level varies between different components of anxiety (e.g. cognitive anxiety, self-confidence etc)
Limitation = doesn’t look at interaction between these components
What is the Catastrophe Theory (Fazey & Hardy, 1991)?
- focuses on the interactive effects of arousal, cognitive anxiety and performance
- 3D graph
Low cognitive anxiety = inverted U shape
High cognitive anxiety = steady increase until catastrophe drop off point
What is the difference between groups and teams?
Groups = interacting individuals who have a common goal and mutual influence
Teams = collective sense of identify, distinct individual roles, norms of the team, task interdependence
Describe the Linear Perspective of how we become a team.
FORMING = familiarisation, discovering strengths and weaknesses
STORMING = trying to establish roles and status, infighting
NORMING = conflicts resolved, increased cooperation common goals
PERFORMING = togetherness, team success, defined roles
What is Group Cohesion?
Dynamic process that reflects the tendency for groups to stick together for the satisfaction of member affective needs
Conceptual Model of Cohesion
What are the 2 types of cohesion?
Task Cohesion = the extent of working together to achieve common goals
Social Cohesion = extent to which group members like and enjoy each others company
What is the Conceptual Framework of Group Effectiveness (Steiner, 1972)?
Actual Productivity = Potential Productivity - Group Process Losses
What does the term ‘group process losses’ mean?
The Ringelmann Effect
- individual members of a group become increasingly less productive as group size increases
What are some causes of ‘social loafing’?
Free rider = think their effort is unimportant to the outcome
Minimising strategy = motivated by doing as little as possible
Allocation strategy = save their best efforts for when it will benefit them most
FINISH W5 FROM CLARITY AND ACCEPTANCE ONWARDS
What is attention?
A person’s ability to exert deliberate mental effort on what is most important in any given situation
What are the 4 characteristics to define attention?
- selective attention
- maintaining alertness
- situational awareness
- shifting attention
What is the Attentional Control Theory (Eysenck et al, 2007)?
Top down processing = directing attention to things that will help achieve specific goal
Bottom up processing = external stimuli triggers an attention focus
- anxiety impairs top down, so we pay more attention to threatening stimuli rather than what we want to focus on
What is the Attentional Focus Theory (Nideffer, 1976)?
Width = broad vs narrow focus of attention
- broad = aware of lots of stimuli at once
- narrow = exclude irrelevant info
Direction = internal vs external attention
- internal = thoughts / feelings
- external = crowd / lights etc
What are some examples of internal focus distractions?
- fear of injury
- anxiety
- body discomfort
What are some examples of external focus distractions?
- crowd
- weather
- coach
- equipment
What are some examples of outcome focus distractions?
- generating money
- position
- consequence of poor performance
What is the Choking Process as described by Weinberg & Gould (2024)?
- conditions which lead to choking = high pressure situations
2a. physical changes = muscle tension / increased breathing rate etc
2b. attentional changes = internal, narrow focus - performance impairment = timing / coordination breakdown, rushing
What is problem focused coping?
Altering or managing the cause of the problem
- competition plans
- goal setting
- self-talk
- time management
What is emotion focused coping?
Regulating the emotional response to problem
- mediation
- relaxation
- mental and behavioural withdrawal
Breathing as a coping method for anxiety.
Diaphragmatic breathing
1. lower level of lungs = diaphragm out and abdomen down
2. middle portion = expanding chest and raising rib change
3. upper level = raising chest and shoulders
Pressure training as a coping method for anxiety.
- recreating the demands of training (task, performer and environment stressors)
- adds positive or negative consequences of training
- acts like exposure therapy
What are the 3 types of self-talk?
Positive = I can do it
Negative = you’re going mess it up
Instructional = keep your eyes on the ball
What is the difference between organic and strategic self-talk?
Organic = spontaneous (naturally occurring thoughts) and goal-directed (rational response to spontaneous processes
Strategic = predetermined self-talk plans to trigger motivation
What is imagery?
Creating experiences in the mind
- visualisation, mental rehearsal, symbolic rehearsal
What is the Psycho-Neuro-Muscular Imagery Theory?
- proposes that imagery produces similar neuromuscular activity to the actual movement
- when imagining a movement, you use similar neural pathways to the physical movement
What is the Symbolic Learning Imagery Theory (Sackett, 1934)?
- imagery creates a mental ‘blueprint’ of the required action
- enables rehearsal of cognitive aspects of a skill (strategy, decision making etc)
What is the Bio-informational Imagery Theory (Lang, 1977)?
- combining stimulus, response and meaning
Stimulus = the stimulus we are trying to imagine
Response = your response to the stimulus
Meaning = interpretation of the response
What is Goal Setting Theory (Locke & Latham)?
- directs focus away from irrelevant tasks
- motivates us to work towards something
- influence persistence / resilience
- discovery of new task-relevant strategies
What are the 5 important goal characteristics?
- goal difficulty (motivating or demotivating)
- goal specificity
- goal proximity (long, mid or short term goals)
- goal source (who is setting / developing the goal)
- goal types (learning or performance goals)
What does SMARTER goals stand for?
Specific
Measurable
Actioned
Resourced / realistic
Time-based
Evaluate
Reset
What is an outcome goal?
Ego focused goal
- winning a match, getting a professional contract
What is a performance goal?
Specific goal to improve performance
- increase shooting accuracy by …%
What is a process goal?
Goals that focus on the process of reaching a performance goal
- keep your elbows up
What is leadership?
The process whereby an individual influences a group of individuals to achieve a common goal
What are the 2 types of leaders and how are they chosen?
Emergent Leader = come from the group itself either because of skill or they are nominated by the group
- team have a say over who the leader is
Prescribed Leader = appointed by an outside body
- team don’t have a say and may not like them
What is the Basic Leadership Model?
Leadership –> Psychological Outcomes (motivation, confidence) –> Behavioural / Performance Outcomes (effort invested in training, sacrifices made for sport)
What is autocratic / task orientated leadership?
- don’t care about opinions of athletes
- no group input is welcome
- dictator
- inflexible approach
- cold and impersonal
- group don’t know how to function without leader
- create plans and priorities
- good with less advanced athletes
What is democratic / social or person orientated leadership?
- make decisions after group consultation
- actively encourage group involvement
- more relaxed / informal approach to leadership
- group is able to function when leader is absent
- focussed on developing relationships
- effective with experienced, highly task-orientated athletes
What is Laissez-faire leadership?
- ‘no leadership’
- allow group to make decisions and only step in if needed
What is the Trait Approach to leadership?
- leaders are ‘born not made’
- successful leaders have specific characteristics that make them good leaders no matter the situation
- BUT we don’t know for certain what these characteristics are
What is the Behavioural Approach to leadership?
- leaders are ‘made not born’
- anyone can learn to be a good leader
- people observe behaviours of good (or bad) leaders and mimic these
What is the issue with research into leadership?
- not sport / team specific (lots of research was done on ‘groups’ not ‘teams’ and they have different characteristics)
What is the Multidimensional Model of Leadership (Chelladurai, 1978, 1990, 1993)?
- framework allowing leadership to be applied specifically to sport
- effective leadership is dynamic and based on interactions between leader, group and situation
- SEE MINDMAP
What is transactional leadership?
- series of exchanges between leader and follower
- leaders use rewards and punishments to foster compliance
What is transformational leadership?
- where leaders go beyond their own self-interests to inspire and encourage to go beyond expected standard
- athletes go beyond what they think they can achieve
What is the Meta-Cognitive Model of Vision, Support and Challenge (Arthur et al., 2012)?
- create an inspirational vision for the future
- provide support
- provide challenge
Describe the leader behaviour of Inspirational Motivation and the predicted result.
- inspiring others to achieve vision
VISION
Describe the leader behaviour of Appropriate Role Modelling and the predicted result.
- leader sets example for others to follow
VISION
Describe the leader behaviour of Fosters Acceptance of Group Goals and the predicted result.
- promotes cooperation
- developing teamwork
VISION
Describe the leader behaviour of Individual Consideration and the predicted result.
- recognise individual differences
- concern for development of followers
SUPPORT
Describe the leader behaviour of Contingent Reward and the predicted result.
- positive reinforcement of appropriate behaviour
SUPPORT
Describe the leader behaviour of Intellectual Stimulation and the predicted result.
- nurturing creative and proactive innovative thinking
CHALLENGE
Describe the leader behaviour of High Performance Expectations and the predicted result.
- expectation for excellence
CHALLENGE
What are some issues with Transformational Leadership?
- overemphasis at dyadic level (leaders 1:1 with athletes rather than as a group)
- insufficient research into how situational variables affect leadership
- we haven’t researched when transformational leadership is NOT good
Why do people excerise?
- weight control
- reduce risk of cardiovascular disease
- reduction in stress and depression
- enjoyment
- enhancement of self-esteem
- opportunity to socialise
What are the Physical Activity Guidelines?
- 150 mins of moderate intensity per week
OR - 75 mins of vigorous intensity per week
What did Knox et al (2013) and Hunter et al (2014) find about physical activity guidelines?
Knox = only 18% could correctly recall the guidelines
Hunter = only 8.4% could correctly identify moderate to vigorous activities from a list of options
What did Netz et al (2008) find were reasons for omitting exercise in different age groups?
Older adults (60-78) = health related reasons (what if I get hurt, exacerbating existing health conditions), internal barriers (e.g. not the sporty type)
Adolescents = parents more interested in academic success, previous physical inactivity, being female
What are the health effects of sedentary behaviour?
- highest sedentary group have 73% increased risk of metabolic syndrome
- increase in sedentary behaviour = increased cardiovascular disease
What is the Health Belief Model (Rosenstock, 1974)?
- cost benefit analysis of partaking in physical activity
- attempts to explain and predict health behaviours
- wasn’t designed with exercise in mind, it was designed for disease
What is Perceived Susceptibility and its application?
Ones opinion of chances of getting a condition
- define population at risk
What is Perceived Severity and its application?
Ones opinion of how serious a condition is and what its consequences are
- specify consequences of risk and condition
What is Perceived Benefits and its application?
Ones belief in the efficacy of advised action to reduce risk
- define action to take
- clarify expected positive effects
What is Cues to Action and its application?
Strategies to activate readiness
- provide ‘how-to’ info
- promote awareness
What is Perceived Barriers and its application?
Ones opinion of tangible and psychological costs of the advised actions
- identify and reduce barriers through reassurance, incentives, assistance
What is Self-Efficacy and its application?
Confidence in ones ability to take action
- provide training, guidance in performing action
What is the Behaviour Modification Approach?
- strategy for enhancing exercise adherence
- 10-25% increase in frequency of PA compared to controls
- makes use of prompts to initiate behaviour
What are prompts and what effect do they have?
- cues that initiate behaviour (posters, notes, campaigns)
Health sign = increase stair use from 69% to 77%)
Additional e-mail = increase to 85%
Poster removed = decline to 67%
What are Reinforcement Approaches?
- strategy for enhancing exercise adherence
- provide feedback and allow for self-monitoring (apple watches, handwritten logs)
What did Brickwood et al (2019) find about activity trackers and PA?
- wearing activity trackers significantly increased step count, moderate and vigorous activity
What did Laranjo et al (2021) find about smartphone apps / wearable trackers and PA?
- moderate increase in PA corresponding to increased steps
What did Carter et al (2018) find about health apps and PA?
- increased awareness of PA behaviour
- increased motivation
- unmet goals led to discouragement, guilt, shame
- unhealthy checking of data
