SELF CONCEPT
Gobinder Gill
By the end of the session:

ALL students should describe the key
components of perspective

MOST students should explain burnout and
describe its symptoms

SOME students will develop the stages of
career transition for athletes
Activity 1
33

Research indicates that there are a number of
characteristics that identify a successful
person.

In groups (two or three) identify these
characteristics.
Twelve traits of successful people
(McCoy, 1988)
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They enjoy their work
They have high self-esteem and a positive attitude
They use negative experiences to discover their strengths
They are decisive, disciplined goal-setters
They have integrity and help others to succeed
They are persistent
They take risks
They have developed good communication and problem-solving
skills
They surround themselves with competent, responsible and
supportive people
They are healthy, have high energy and schedule time to renew
They believe in God, a higher power, and sometimes just plain luck
They have a sense of purpose and desire to contribute to society
Perspective


Botterill and Patrick (2003)
What is perspective?
“Capacity to view things in their true relations or
relative importance”
 Allows athletes to put their sport within the proper
context of their lives enabling them to survive and
thrive in the demanding and often brutal
environment of sport
 Attending to and managing the aspects of
personal life which then free us to properly attend
to the demands of sport
 Balanced living

Perspective

Identity

Support Sources

Values
Perspective: Identity
Seminar

Complete your current and ideal identity pies and
discuss implications with a partner.
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Where would you like to see change
What do you need to do to bring current and ideal in line?
Interview a partner about their support sources and
values
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What type of support do they offer?
How can these help bridge gap between current and ideal
identity?
How do you ensure this support is maintained
Perspective: Support Sources
Maslow (1968)
Team You
You
E.G., Work,
partner
Perspective enhances our
psychological skills
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Goal setting
Imagery
Self talk
Relaxation/arousal
control
Motivation
Team cohesion
Emotion
management
Burnout
Burn out

“I didn’t have an option to choose not to do that event
after making the team...the timing was very poor and
that contributed to overtraining and my performance
was probably 80% at the Games due to fatigue and
lack or recovery.”
–Olympic athlete

“It’s a long, long grind. It’s either preseason practice,
the season itself, postseason weight training, or
recruiting. The demands to win can also very stressful.
When we were successful, there was pressure and
high expectation to stay successful. When we were
losing, there was pressure to start winning real soon.
This schedule and pressure can wear you down and
make you just want to leave everything behind for a
Burnout definitions

Overtraining

Staleness

Burnout

“An exhaustive psychophysiological response
exhibited as a result of frequent, sometimes
extreme, and generally ineffective efforts to meet
excessive training and competitive demands”
(Weinberg & Gould, 2003, p. 470).
Characteristics of burnout

Exhaustion: both
physical and
emotional.
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Depersonalization:
seen as the individual’s
being impersonal and
unfeeling.

Feelings of low
personal
accomplishment: low
self-esteem, failure,
and depression.
Models of Burnout
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Cognitive-affective stress model (Smith, 1986)
Situational demands
 Cognitive appraisal
 Physiological responses
 Behavioural responses
 Motivation and personality factors
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Negative-training response model (Silva, 1990)
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Based on responses to physiological stress
Unidimensional identity development and
external control model (Coakley, 1992)

Focus on self concept or lack thereof
Activity 2
17
15

Using your knowledge of Burnout theory, write
down (in groups) factors that identify burnout
Factors related to burnout (Gould et al.,
1996)
Triggers
Cognitive
appraisal
High
conflicting
demands
Perceived
overload
Lack of
control
Physio &
Psych
responses
Decreased
motivation
Behavioural
responses
Personality
and
motivation
Physical
withdrawal
High trait
anxiety
Few
Fatigue
meaningful
accomplishmen
ts
Emotional
withdrawal
Low self
esteem
High
expectations
Lack of
meaning and
devaluing
activity
Decreased
concentration
Psychological
withdrawal
Competitivene
ss
Fear of failure
Low social
support
Lack of
enjoyment
Weight gain or Decreased
loss
performance
Narrow
identity
Excessive
Chronic stress
Susceptibility
High need to
Giving up
Treating and preventing burnout
Short term goals in
competition and
practice
 Communication
 Proper recovery
 Self-regulation
skills
 Maintain
perspective
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Activity 3
20
18
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In your groups do the following:
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1) Identify any ex sports stars that have made a
transition from their previous sport to another
area/career
Career transition among
athletes
Conceptual model of career
transition (Taylor & Ogilvie, 1994)
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Stage 1: Causes of career termination
Age
 Deselection
 Injury
 Free choice
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Stage 2: Factors related to adaptation
Developmental contributors
 Self-identity
 Perceptions of control
 Social identity
 Tertiary contributions

Conceptual model of career
transition (Taylor & Ogilvie, 1994)

Stage 3: Available
resources for
athletes
Coping strategies
 Social support
 Preretirement
planning
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Stage 4: Quality of
career transition
Stage 5: Intervention
for career transition
Summary
24


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Perspective of life and its situations must be
considered both by performers and
practitioners
Burnout is a cause that must be treated in its
infancy to prevent total burnout
Career transitions is something that can be put
into development programmes for performers
Further reading:

Balague, G. (1999). Understanding identity, value, and meaning when
working with elite athletes. The Sport Psychologist, 13(1), 89-98.

Brown, M., Cairns, K., & Botterill, C. (2001). The process of perspective: The
art of living well in the world of elite sport. Journal of Excellence, 5, 3-38.

Taylor, J., Ogilvie, B., & Lavallee, D. (2006). Career transition among
athletes: Is there life after sports? In. J. Williams (ed.), Applied Sport
Psychology: Personal growth to peak performance. McGraw-Hill, New York.

Weinberg, R.S., & Gould, D. (2003). Foundations of sport & exercise
psychology (3rd ed). Human Kinetics, Champaign, IL.