Sport Psychology: Attitude Flashcards
What is attitude?
It is a value aimed at an attitude object. It is also referred to a mental and neural state of readiness towards an attitude object
Attitudes are…? (4)
*. Can be unstable
*. Are learned
*. Can be changed
*. Directed towards an attitude object
. Cognitive thoughts
. Emotional feelings
. Behavioural responses
How is attitude formed?
Through socialisation which is the process where cultural values are learnt by associating with others
Who do we learn our attitudes from?
We learn them from significant others when the information is reinforced or repeated
How is attitude conditioned?
Conditioned by behaviour that is successful and reinforced - praise will develop a positive attitude between coach and player
How can the learning of attitude be bad?
It can be negative if the behaviour learnt is negative or if the reinforcement is negative - this can come from praise for cheating behaviour
What are the three parts of the Triadic model?
. Cognitive
. Affective
. Behavioural
What is the cognitive part of the Triadic model?
Your beliefs, knowledge and thoughts such as a belief in exercise benefits
What is the affective part of the Triadic model?
Your feelings or emotional responses such as enjoying training
What is the behavioural part of the Triadic model?
Your actions or intended behaviour such as training three times a week
How can attitude be positive or negative? (4)
*. Familiarisation
*. Learned from role models
*. Learned from enjoyable experiences
*. Learned by conditioned behaviour
. Learned from beliefs
. Learned from influence of significant others
What are the 2 concepts of attitude change?
. Cognitive dissonance
. Persuasive communication
What is cognitive dissonance?
New information given to the performer to cause unease and motivate change
What does dissonance mean?
It means to create some conflict/ disharmony in the player
How can cognitive dissonance be used?
- Give new information to promote a person to question their current behaviour and motivate change
- Making the activity fun or varying practice can make the situation more fun than expected thus changing opinion
- Using rewards to promote positive behaviour such as prizes for attending training
- Bring in a specialist role model from another area to promote the topic
What is persuasive communication?
You can be talked around but it is hard if core beliefs are stable making people resilient to change
What is important about persuasive communication? (4)
*. The message needs to be understood
*. Quality of the new information
. The situation and timing of when the message is given is important
*. The new information should outweigh old beliefs
*. The message should be given by someone of high status
. The individual may be resilient to change
What should the person receiving the information do? (Persuasive communication)
. Pay attention
. Understand
. Accept
. Retain
the message being given
What should the coach giving the information be? (Persuasive communication)
. Be an expert
. Be trustworthy
What should the message be? (persuasive communication)
. Must be clear
. Be unambiguous
. Be balanced between the pros and cons
How can negative attitudes be changed to positive attitudes? (4)
. Persuasion from a ‘perceived expert’
*. Making it fun when training
*. Allowing early success
. Using positive reinforcement and rewards
*. Pointing out the benefits of exercise
*. Using role models
. Cognitive dissonance
How could a PE teacher change the negative attitude that a pupil may have towards swimming?
. Tell the pupil about the pros of swimming
. Offer rewards
. Present role models from swimming (athletes)
What is an attitude and how are they formed?
Attitudes are values aimed at attitude objects. They are formed by socialisation with others, familiarisation and conditioned behaviour
Explain the three aspects of the Triadic model.
- Cognitive - your thoughts (belief in something - exercise)
- Affective - your feelings (enjoying something - training)
- Behavioural - your actions (training a certain amounts of times a week)
