Sport Psychology Midterm

Front 1

1. What is sport and exercise psychology and what are its two general objectives.

Back 1

The scientific study of people and their behaviors in sport and exercise activities and the practical application of that knowledge.

2 objectives: 1. Understand the effects of psychological factors on physical and motor performance

2. Understand the effects of participation in physical activity on psychological development, health, and well-being.

Front 2

1. Describe 3 roles of sport and exercise psychology specialist

Back 2

- Research: Sharing findings with colleagues and participants in field produces advances, discussion, and healthy debate at professional meetings and in journals.

- Teaching: Many sport and exercise psychology specialists teach university courses

- Consulting: Consulting with an individual athlete or athletic teams to develop psychological skills for enhancing competitive performance and training

Front 3

1. Distinguish between clinical and educational sport psychology. Why is this distinction important?

Back 3

- Clinical: are licensed psychologists; are trained to work with people with severe emotional disorders; are trained to help athletes with problems such as eating disorders and substance abuse

- Educational: use mental coach approach(understand psychology of human movement); have training in physical education, kinesiology, or exercise and sport science; educate and increase athletes and coaches awareness of issues such as anxiety management and confidence development; TEACH WELLNESS

Front 4

7. How does arousal influence performance?

Back 4

- Increase muscle tension, fatigue, and coordination difficulties

Front 5

7. What are the attention, concentration and visual search changes that occur?

Back 5

- narrowing of attention

- shift to dominant style

- attending to inappropriate cues

- performance worries and situation-irrelevant thoughts

- visual cues are differently identified and processed when performers are anxious

Front 6

8. How might you tailor coaching/leadership strategies to individuals who are trying to deal with stress and anxiety? Give an example

Back 6

Tailor coaching strategies to individuals: Sometimes arousal must be reduced, other times maintained, and other times facilitated.

Example: If a student or athlete with high trait anxiety and low self-esteem must perform in a highly evaluative environment, the teacher or coach would best de-emphasize the importance of the situation and instead emphasize the performers preparation. A pep talk stressing the importance would only add more stress and increase arousal and state anxiety beyond optimal level.

Front 7

2. What is your role in understanding personality?

Back 7

- consider both personality traits and situations

- be an informed consumer

- be a good communicator

- be a good observer

- be knowledgeable about mental strategies

Front 8

2. When might you consider using personality tests? Discuss other ways to assess participants personalities.

Back 8

To distinguish between an individuals typical style of behaving(traits) and the situations effect on behavior (states)

Other ways: 1. Situation specific measures- predict behavior more reliably for given situations because they consider both the personality of the participant and the specific situation.

2. Sport specific measures- provides more reliable and valid measures of personality traits and states in sport and exercise context.

3. Psychological measures- contain a degree of measurement error, use caution in interpreting their results, not always clear how these should be used and sometimes been used unethically

Front 9

3. What major factors besides motivation should you consider in order to understand performance and behavior in exercise and sport settings?

Back 9

- People are motivated to satisfy three general needs: Feel competent, autonomous, social connectedness

- Achievement Motivation: persons efforts to master a task, achieve excellence, overcome obstacles, perform better than others, and take pride in exercising talent.

- Competitiveness: disposition to strive for satisfaction when making comparisons with some standard of excellence in the presence of evaluative others. Some people are highly orientated toward achievement in one setting(sport) and aren't in other settings(math class)

Front 10

4. Discuss how a teacher's or coach's attributional feedback influences participant achievement. What are the key components of attributional retraining?

Back 10

-Attribution Theory: how people explain their successes and failures.

-Key components: Stability- stable, unstable; Locus of causality-internal, external; Locus of control- in ones control, out of ones control

- Example: You may win a swimming race and attribute your success to:

1. a stable factor(your talent or good ability) or an unstable factor(good luck)

2. an internal cause(your tremendous effort in the last 50 meters) or an external cause(an easy field of competitors)

3. a factor you can control(your race plan) or a factor out of your control(your opponents lack of physical conditioning)

- Its linked to expectations of future successes or failure and emotional reactions

Front 11

5. Discuss the major differences in how arousal relates to performance according to the following theories and how these theories assist in sport & exercise psychologists in working with clients:

-DRIVE THEORY

Back 11

- Individuals arousal or state anxiety increases, so does her performance.

- Zajonc's social facilitation theory contended that an audience creates arousal in the performer, which hurts performance on difficult tasks that are not yet learned but helps performance on well-learned tasks.

- the presence of others increases arousal in the performer and that this increased arousal (drive) increases or brings out the performers dominant response (the most likely way to perform a skill). 5

Front 12

5. Discuss the major differences in how arousal relates to performance according to the following theories and how these theories assist in sport & exercise psychologists in working with clients:

-INVERTED U HYPOTHESIS

Back 12

- at low arousal levels, performance will be below par, the exerciser or athlete is not psyched up. As arousal increases, so does performance--up to an optimal point where best performance results. Further increases in arousal however can cause performance to decline.

-Critics ask whether optimal arousal always occurs at the midpoint of the arousal continuum, and question the nature of the arousal itself. Inverted U has taken us as far as we can go hence sport psychologist have begun to explore other views for more specifics.

Front 13

5. Discuss the major differences in how arousal relates to performance according to the following theories and how these theories assist in sport & exercise psychologists in working with clients:

-CATASTROPHE MODEL

Back 13

- Performance depends on the complex interaction of arousal and cognitive anxiety.

- Predicts that physiological arousal is related to performance in an inverted U fashion but only when athlete is not worried or has low cognitive state anxiety. If cognitive state anxiety is high, the increases in arousal at some point reach a kind of threshold, just past the point of optimal arousal level, and afterward a rapid decline in performance, "catastrophe occurs"

- It is very difficult to scientifically test

- Important message for practice, namely that for optimal performance, an ideal physiological arousal level isn't enough: It is also necessary to manage or control cognitive state anxiety (worrying)

Front 14

5. Discuss the major differences in how arousal relates to performance according to the following theories and how these theories assist in sport & exercise psychologists in working with clients:

REVERSAL THEORY

Back 14

- Hw arousal affects performance depends on an individual's interpretation of his or her arousal level

- An athlete might see perceive arousal as positive one minute and then reverse the interpretation to negative the next minute.

- Key contributions: 1. emphasizes that ones interpretation of arousal, not just the amount of arousal one feels, is significant. 2. the theory holds that performers can shift or reverse their positive or negative interpretations of arousal from moment to moment.

- This view is interesting but it is too early to draw firm conclusions.

Front 15

6. What is social facilitation theory? look on pg 91

Back 15

Stressor-->individuals differences-->stressor--> individuals differences ( trait anxiety, self esteem)-->control(yes or no)

----->yes(positive expectancies of ability to cope, goal attainment)-->symptoms interpreted as facilitative

----->no(negative expectancies of ability to cope, goal attainment)-->symptoms interpreted as debilitative

Front 16

6. What implications does this theory and model have for performance? Practice?

Back 16

Ex: Good balance beam performances have been associated with gymnast interpreting cognitive anxiety as facilitative.

Ex:3 swimmers consistently experienced debilitate anxiety learned goal setting, imagery, self talk skills in an effort to change their anxiety from debilitate to facilitative. Results proved they switched it and their performances improved.

Front 17

9. Define choking, what is it, and what is it not.

Back 17

- Process that leads to impaired performance, poor performance under pressure

- It is not bad performance at a critical time of the game or competition, such as a missed shot or dropped pass.

Front 18

9. When does it occur, why does it occur and how could you help athletes avoid it?

Back 18

-It occurs in a situation of emotional importance to the athlete because sensing pressure causes your muscles to tighten. Your heart rate and breathing increase; your mouth gets dry, and your palms get damp which causes the key breakdown to happen at attentional level: instead of focusing externally on the relevant cues in your environment, you focus on your own worries and fears of losing and failing, attention becomes narrow and internal.

-Help athlete avoid it by: the "quiet eye" period is a time where task relevant cues are processed and motor plans are developed. Thus, a longer duration minimizes distractions and allows focusing on relevant cues. In essence, the process of choking might, in part, result in shorter periods of focus on the task itself, leading to performance decrements.

Front 19

10. Discuss the six sources of self-efficacy, provide examples of how a coach/trainer might instill confidence using each.

Back 19

1. Performance accomplishments- Based on one's mastery experiences, if successful will raise the level of self-efficacy, but repeated failure result in expectations of lower efficacy. Coaches can use tactics as guiding a gymnast through a complicated move, letting young baseball players play on a smaller field.

Front 20

10. Discuss the six sources of self-efficacy, provide examples of how a coach/trainer might instill confidence using each.

Back 20

2. Vicarious Experiences- demonstration or modeling to help students learn new skills. Coaches view their own modeling of self confidence as an important additional source of confidence for their athletes.- learn through watching the coach

Front 21

10. Discuss the six sources of self-efficacy, provide examples of how a coach/trainer might instill confidence using each.

Back 21

3. Verbal Persuasion- Coaches, teachers, peers often use persuasive techniques to influence behavior. A coach can tell and exercise participant to "hang in there and don't get discouraged, even if you have to miss a couple days"---important to participants and improves self efficacy

Front 22

10. Discuss the six sources of self-efficacy, provide examples of how a coach/trainer might instill confidence using each.

Back 22

4. Imaginal Experiences- individuals can generate beliefs about personal efficacy or lack of efficacy by imagining themselves or others behaving effectively or ineffectively in future situations. Coaches can get their athletes to imagine them crossing the finish line and the feeling they get

Front 23

10. Discuss the six sources of self-efficacy, provide examples of how a coach/trainer might instill confidence using each.

Back 23

5. Physiological states- influence self efficacy when individuals associate aversive physiological arousal with poor performance, perceived incompetence, and perceived failure. Coaches can help anxiety and arousal level such as a fast heartbeat, where some people see it as a sign that they are ready for the upcoming competition.

Front 24

10. Discuss the six sources of self-efficacy, provide examples of how a coach/trainer might instill confidence using each.

Back 24

6. Emotional States- Not simply the product of physiological arousal, thus emotion and moods can be an additional source of information of self efficacy. Athlete who is energized and shows positivity enhances self efficacy. Athlete who is depressed and anxious about rehab would have low feelings of self efficacy.

Front 25

11. Discuss Bandura's four-stage modeling process. How might this build self efficacy?

Back 25

- Attention: careful attention must be given to the model of 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.

Front 26

12. Discuss three things other than success that a coach or physical educator might reinforce?

Back 26

1. Reward performance, not only outcome- Outcome is sometimes out of the player's control so coach should focus on performance, not only outcome if individual did skill correctly. Also to use an individuals own previous level of performance as standard for success(beating record)

2. Reward effort- Coaches and teachers must recognize effort as part of performance. Not everyone can be successful in sport. When people know they are being recognized for trying new and difficult skills, and not just criticized for performing incorrectly, they do not fear trying.

3. Reward emotional and social skills- Athletes who demonstrate good sporting behavior, responsibility, judgment, and other signs of self control and cooperation should be recognized.

Front 27

13. For an individual who is intrinsically motivated, will the introduction of extrinsic rewards increase motivation?

Back 27

-For some yes it will increase motivation. Such as adding trophies to an activity should increase motivation, "the more, the better".

-But for others, it will decrease motivation because it undermines intrinsic motivation. They aren't doing it for themselves anymore. A study found that participants who were rewarded with money for participating in an interesting activity subsequently spent less time at it than did people who were not paid.

Front 28

13. How might you shift the extrinsically motivated individual towards an intrinsic way of being motivated? Why might this be important?

Back 28

-Provide successful experiences

-use verbal and nonverbal praise

-give rewards contingent on performance(enhance motivation)

-use external rewards sparingly, build a motivational climate that fosters intrinsic motivation in which athletes motivate each other in pursuit of excellence. Less a coach has to use external rewards, more likely the rewards will be seen as motivational which builds self determination.

- Its important because athletes will then enjoy competition and not expect anything, focus on having fun and not stress as much, and want to learn skills to the best of their ability

Front 29

14. Discuss the concept of Flow.

Back 29

-Flow is a holistic, intrinsically motivating sensation that people feel when they are totally in an activity or are on automatic pilot.

-A flow model describes the essential elements of flow.

- "in a groove", "on a roll", "in the zone"

Front 30

14. What are its major characteristics? In what sort of activity is flow most likely to occur?

Back 30

- loss of self consciousness

- a sense of control

- no goals or rewards external to the activity

- transformation of time

- effortless movement

Occurs when your skills are equal to your challenge. Intrinsic motivation is at its highest and maximum performance is achieved.

----motivation to perform, achieving optimal arousal level, maintaining focus, preparation, readiness, good environment and situational conditions, confidence and mental attitude, team play and interaction, feeling good about performance-----all get you to flow state

Front 31

15. The Ted Talk, "How to make stress your friend, Kelly Mcgonagal stated, How you think about stress matters!" Discuss the studies and insights she used to support her statement.

Back 31

read online article

Front 32

16. Describe the four stages of team development and the key events that characterize each stage

Back 32

1. Forming- team members familiarize themselves with other team members(social comparisons, assessing strengths and weaknesses) might compare amount of playing time they get to other athletes playing time, also see if the belong in group and what role to play

2. Storming- resistance to the leader, to be controlled by the group, and interpersonal conflict. Occurs from roles and status being established

3. Norming- hostility is replaced by solidarity and cooperation. Conflicts resolved and sense of unit forms. Work together to reach common goals. Instead of competing for status or recognition, players strive for economy of effort and task effectiveness.

4. Performing- team members band together to channel their energies for team success. Team focuses on problem solving, using group process and relationships to work on tasks and test new ideas. Structural issues are resolved, interpersonal relationships stabilize, and roles are well defined.

Front 33

17. Describe the Ringlemann effect. What implications do Ringlemann's findings have for a coach, physical educator, or exercise leader?

Back 33

-Tendency for individual members of a group to become increasingly less productive as the size of their group increases.

- Efforts diminish quickly, reduce efforts when they feel less responsible for output

- Don't care as much because they know more people are involved so they don't have to do as much work because someone will pick up their slack which leads to problems with self efficacy

Front 34

18. Discuss 4 components of effective leadership. What implications do these have for leaders in coaching, teaching, or exercise settings?

Back 34

1. Leader's qualities- integrity, flexibility, loyalty, confidence, preparedness, resourceful

2. Leadership styles- democratic style: athlete centered, cooperative, and relationship oriented.... autocratic style: win orientated, tightly structured, task orientated. Coach should be both. Also how decisions are made depending on who the coach and situation

3. Situational Factors- be sensitive to the specific situation and environment: Is the sport a team or individual sport? Is it an interactive or coactive sport? What is the size of the team? How much time is available? Does the group have particular leadership tradition?

4. Follower's quality- characteristics of the followers. Need for mesh between the characteristics and style of leaders and participants shows interactional process of leadership.

Effectiveness is determined by the leaders capacity to experience more complex ways of leading. Becoming an effective leader takes work and continuing efforts to improve oneself and ability to learn from leadership experiences.

Front 35

19. Define active listening.

Back 35

- Attending to main and supporting ideas, acknowledging and responding, giving appropriate feedback, and paying attention to the speaker's total communication.

- Also involves non verbal communication, such as making direct eye contact and nodding to confirm that you understand the speaker

Front 36

19. How can it enhance listening skills?

Back 36

- Listening sometimes requires mental preparation. Ex: Before having an important discussion with your coach, develop a mental game plan for the exchange.

-Active listening enhances communication because the speaker feels that she is being heard, acknowledged, and provided with appropriate feedback.

Front 37

19. Discuss 3 types of breakdowns in communication, include examples for each.

Back 37

1. Sender failures- senders may transmit a message poorly, ambiguous messages are ineffective communications. Ex: Say a coach tells an athlete that if he continues to do well in practice, he will be in the starting lineup when the season opens. Over the next few weeks the coach compliments him regularly. Two days before the start of the season the athlete is taken aback when he is listed as a reserve.

2. Receiver Failures- Misinterpreting the message, Ex: Cindy I've missed you the past several weeks, says Mary. If you don't keep up your regular exercise, you'll get fat again. In fact I already see those love handles....Cindy has been overweight for years and is sensitive to comments about her weight. All she hears Mary saying is she is getting fat and Cindy starts getting depressed because she has worked so hard to lose weight.

3. Receivers failures--Receivers can also cause problems when they fail to listen. Ex: Teacher may convey information very well but if her students are looking out the window or thinking about an upcoming party, communication will break down.

Front 38

19. Describe 4 principles in providing constructive communication. How might the sandwich approach be beneficial?

Back 38

1. Describe your feelings. Take responsibility for your emotions by saying things such as "I feel disappointed"

2. Describe your thoughts about the action or event that concerned you. Describe your understanding of what is happening by saying "When people lie to me..."

3. Describe the tangible reason why the behavior affects you. This helps the listener understand how his or her behavior is affecting you. "Because i am afraid someone will get hurt..."

4. Describe what you want done. The most important skill is asking for what you want. Be specific with exact behavior, "I want you to tell me the real reason you missed practice yesterday."

- The sandwich approach involves positive statement, future orientated instructions, and a compliment. This type of criticism avoids the negativism that usually accompanies critical remarks; it allows people to focus on the positive aspects of their behavior.

Front 39

20. Nideffer's TAIS is a trait measure of a person's generalized way of attending to the environment. What are the limitations inherent in trait measure of an athlete's perceptions?

Back 39

-Doesnt appear to be able to separately measure attention along the internal to external dimension

-the scales measuring direction of focus are so highly inter-correlated that they are not separated from each other through statistical procedures like factor analysis.

Front 40

20. What does the text recommend to make the TAIS a better assessment tool? What does Mrs. Mcquade suggest to make this a better tool?

Back 40

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