Sports Psychology Flashcards
Athletes should be the only one involved in setting goals and should always keep their goals private
- goal setting is the “the aim or objective or something that we are trying to obtain” (Locke & Latham, 1985)
- whether goals are private or public is a personal choice
- sharing a goal with the relevant people can lead to further support
- further support CAN’T happen when goals kept private
- when athletes share goals with coaches then the coaches can offer meaningful evaluation and feedback after performance (Sullivan & Strode, 2010)
- “specific difficult goals consistently led to higher performance compared to simply urging people to do their best (Locke & Latham, 2002)
Which came first - cohesion or performance?
- one is the result of the occurrence of the other
- so they have a cyclical relationship
- if team cohesion is developed then it increases team communication = increased performance
- two types of cohesion = social, task
- task = the degree to which member of a group work together to achieve common goals
- social = the degree to which members of a group like each other and enjoy one another’s company
- aim of cohesion = develop productivity + unity of the group
- I believe cohesion comes before performance
- “when athletes think and play for their teams instead of for themselves, they put in more effort, encourage teammates more and believe more in themselves and their teams” (Slater and Barker, 2022)
- “cohesion will assist in controlling group members - adding to the force of informal group pressure” (Pescosolido and Saavedra, 2012) - this pressure may add to increased performance
You are a sport psychologist working with a team on ‘togetherness’. The psychological intervention you have chosen is goal setting. Why is this an important psychological skill and how might it influence ‘togetherness’?
- you can do team goal setting
- which is seen as a useful tool in maintaining teams levels of cohesion
- hopefully will last throughout the season
- team goal setting is a good way of developing team cohesion
- goal setting is a basic psychological skill so is an easy one to do to build togetherness within a team
- “togetherness reflects the strength of connections between players on a team” (Slater and Barker, 2022)
- two main approaches considered in building a somewhat ‘togetherness’ within a team consists in sharing feelings, beliefs, information or knowledge (Bourbousson and Fortes-Bourbousson, 2017)
“A transformational leader is a person who stimulates and inspires (transform) followers to achieve extraordinary outcomes”, How might a leader do this?
- invests efforts beyond the realisation of reward and punishment
- enhances motivation
- offers lots of support
- can align followers with tasks that enhance their performance
- understand both the strengths and weaknesses of followers
- can challenge people to take greater ownership
- “is a person who stimulates and inspires followers to achieve extraordinary outcomes (Robbins and Coulter, 2007)
- “occurs when leaders go beyond their self interests so that they can inspire, encourage and stimulate others to exceed minimally expected standards (Beauchamp, 2014)
- “provide new direction, new inspiration and new behaviours for their organisations through authority and power” (Tucker and Russell, 2004)
Critically discuss the multidimensional model of leadership
You collect the following information from an athlete using the vividness of movement imagery questionnaire-2 : Internal visual imagery = 24, external visual imagery = 50, kinesthetic imagery = 12. Based on what you know about imagery what does this data tell you and what could you conclude about the type of sport the athlete might be involved in?
