Sport Psychology Flashcards
What is sport psychology?
Science that focuses on psychological principles in the sport/exercise settings
Who implements the psychological principles?
Sport psychologist (provide psychological council)
Can be adopted by:
Coaches
Athletes
What role does self-confidence play?
Self confidence ties into the development of motivation
What are the two types of self-confidence?
Global: relates more to a general form of confidence
Situation-specific: relates to a particular context
What is self-efficacy?
Form of situation-specific self-confidence
Belief in ability to execute actions requires to produce a desired outcome.
Those with high self efficacy work harder, persist longer and achieve better outcomes
Where does self-efficacy come from?
Bandura: 4 elements
- Successful performance: experiencing success allows athletes to develop their sense of self-efficacy
- Vicarious experience: can be derived from viewing the success of skilled others who model the behaviour
- Verbal persuasion: encouragement from coaches, family and peers can help to enhance self efficacy. Can also occur through self talk.
- Emotional arousal: emotional and physiological arousal can impact attention and skill development. Important that people be optimally aroused to be attentive.
What is the psychological momentum of sport psychology?
A positive or negative change in cognition and behaviour that causes events that results in a shift in performance and competitive outcome
What is the hot-hand phenomenon?
Idea that performance temporarily improves after a string of successors.
If they believe they have this their confidence will grow.
An illusion due to cognitive biases: streaks of repeated success are more memorable than alternations between scores and misses. Therefore overestimate the frequency of successful streaks
What is arousal?
State anxiety -> athletic performance
What is the inverted U hypothesis?
Demonstrates relationship between arousal and performance.
Moderate arousal = max performance
Extreme ups and downs in arousal are linked to detriments to performance
How does the inverted U hypothesis work for complex and simple skills?
Complex skills: far less arousal is needed. (Complex fine motor skills)
Simple: higher level of arousal needed for optimal performance (gross motor activities)
As skill becomes less complex the amount of arousal required for optimal performance increases
How does the inverted U hypothesis change for ability levels?
Beginners: less arousal is required for optimal performance
Expert: more arousal is needed for optimum performance. This is why skilled athletes use things that boost arousal in competitive situations compared to novices
What is the individual zone of optimal functioning
Optimal levels of anxiety different from person to person
Control techniques can be used fall into the optimal range. If I deal level can be determined athletes can attempt to reach the ideal through control techniques
What are stresses
Unhelpful stress can hinder performance
Such as worrying about: Failure Injury Opponents Evaluation Physical and mental errors Fatigue Distractions Weather conditions
What is the two ways of coping with stress
Approach style: opposed to avoidance
Problem or action focused: majority of coping is in this form
What is self talk? And what are the 3 forms of it?
It is the verbalisation of perceptions feelings instructions and reinforcement it is an effective coping strategy to improve athletic performance
- task specific statements: reinforce aspects of techniques
- encouragements: reminding yourself you can do it
- mood words: increase arousal
What is the anxiety stress spiral
When experiencing high stress it needs to be controlled and brought down to optimum level if anxiety hinders performance it can lead to more anxiety
What are some relaxation strategies
Progressive relaxation: systematically tending and relaxing each muscle group
Autogenic training: Feelings associated with a heavy and warm sensation in limbs
Meditation: uncritically focussing attention in single thought, sound or object
Biofeedback training: uses instruments to monitor things like heart rate you can use them to monitor and observe things slow your heart rate which can then be used in a sporting context
What are some energising strategies
Some people have excessively low arousal and need to energise prior to sporting events
Pep-talks: High energy self talk
Music: can evoke sense of power and decrease distractions like fatigue and discomfort
Physical movement: can increase heart rate the same way steady breathing reduces excessive arousal
Augmented feedback?
Feedback from an external source
Can be provided during or after performance
Assists the acquisition and improvement of motor behaviour
Instructional vs motivational self talk?
Instructional self talk = better performance
What is automatic self talk?
Phrases of cues athletes use address to themselves (vary in consciousness and intention)
How is self- talk effective?
Enhances attentional focus:
Reduces distractions
What are internal distractions?
Stimuli that evolve from within the self
What are external distractions?
refer to stimuli from from the environment
How do distractions impact performance?
Attention is misdirected and processing efficiency is affected because distractions use up working memory
