Social factors Impacting on performance
The Social Factor
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Sport has always had a social element to it
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People take part in sports for various reasons
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Personal preference towards activities
Peer group influence
Inclusion
Fitness
Cultural reasons
The reason you choose to do the activities you do,
the role you play and even your behaviour and
conduct are all influenced by experiences you have
had either taking part in or watching sport
Social factors that can impact on
your performance
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Group dynamics
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cooperating/competing
contributing to team/group
relationships
roles/responsibility for the performance
Cultural/Societal issues
 etiquette
 rules/codes of conduct
 role models
Peer Group Influence
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A social group with common interests
○ Friends
○ Colleagues
○ Clubs
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Sub-groups can form within groups
○ Can cause problems (divisions or different views)
○ Can also strengthen bonds between people
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Relationships within groups can influence
the entire group dynamic
○ Two teammates fall out it has a negative impact
on the rest of the team
Groups
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A group is two or more persons who are interacting
with one another in such a manner that each person
influences and is influenced by each other person
(Shaw 1971).
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For a collection of people to be defined as a group,
the members must:
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interact with one another
be socially attracted to each other
share goals or objectives
have a shared identity which distinguishes them from
other groups
Group development
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The development of a group normally goes through the following
stages:
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Forming
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Storming
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rules and standards of behaviour are agreed
Performing
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heightened tension associated with competition for status and influence (roles are
defined)
Norming
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the group gets together and a level of formality is common
group matures to a point where it is able to work together as a team
There are many different forms of interaction in a group. We have
social interaction (formation of friends) and task interaction (the way the
members co-operate to achieve goals)
Group cohesion
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This is the extent to which members of a group show a desire to achieve common goals and
group identity
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Social cohesion
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extent to which members of the group get on with one another
Task cohesion
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extent to which members cooperate to achieve the group's goals.
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The following factors affect cohesion:
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Stability - Cohesion develops the longer a group is together with the same members
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Similarity- Cohesion develops when the more similar the group members are in terms of age,
sex, skills and attitudes
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Size - Cohesion develops more quickly in small groups
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Support - Cohesive teams tend to have managers and coaches who provide support to team
members and encourage them to support one another
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Satisfaction- Cohesion is associated with the extent to which team members are pleased with
each others performance, behaviour and conformity to the norms of the team
Positive impact of Groups
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Groups members can help to develop skills
○ People to practice with
○ People to offer feedback (positive and developmental)
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Peer groups can influence your decisions to
simply take part in activities (even ones you
may not have considered
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When you have a positive group who
encourage each other it will help to develop
confidence in abilities and a willingness to
participate. This will lead to increased
motivation and determination levels.
How groups can affect
performance negatively
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Poor group cohesion (sub groups, fractured
relationships, lack of common goals) can lead
to the following:
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Lack of support from group members
Lack of appropriate preparation
Criticism of performance
Loss of confidence
Communication and sharing of common goals
and group rules and standards can help to
combat poor group cohesion
Etiquette
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Sometimes referred to as the ‘unwritten
rules’ of sport
○ Shaking hands
○ Give opposition time for treatment/recovery
○ Applauding good play or opposition victory
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Etiquette allows competition to be
conducted in good spirit and with good
behaviour from all involved – performers
and spectators
Etiquette – Positive impact on
performance
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Showing appropriate etiquette means a
performance is likely to be good tempered
and fair
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Competition can be conducted in a
straightforward way (easy to officiate)
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Game/match likely to be enjoyable for all
(performers/officials/spectators)
Etiquette – Negative impact on
performance
Poor etiquette will mean performances are
disrupted
 Concentration can be affected which will
disrupt focus of players and possibly
officials
 Anger and frustration will enter in to
performances
 Skill level and overall quality of
performance can deteriorate.
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Rules and Codes of Conduct
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Rules are in place to provide
○ Safety
○ Shape to game
○ Fairness
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Clubs, teams and individuals can have specific codes of
conduct in place which are the expectations of how
athletes/performers/coaches will conform to set standards.
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Rules and codes of conduct can help develop social aspects
of sport
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Inclusion
Respect for self and others
Social responsibility
Motivation
Self discipline
Role Models
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Role models can play a huge part in influencing
participation in sport
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Can also shape behaviours of the people who look
up to them
○ Positive behaviour (e.g. work ethic or performance level)
○ Negative behaviour (e.g. cheating, bad sportsmanship,
inappropriate behaviour)
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People will try to emulate role models
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Skill level
Confidence
Dedication
Education (especially in the USA)
Collecting information about
social factors
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The Social Factors are concerned with: intrapersonal perspectives, interpersonal
relationships and societal influences.
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The majority of the methods that may be used to gather information on the Social
Factors tend to involve qualitative analysis.
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The methods normally consider the opinion and reflection of self and/or others.
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The methods can include:
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Questionnaire
Self-Appraisal
Team feedback
Coach feedback
Environmental Checklist
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There are various methods of data collection that can be used to gather information
about social factor that can impact on performance
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Two we will look at are
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Questionnaires
Team/Coach Feedback
Questionnaires
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Advantages
 Easy to carry out with clear instructions
 Questions can be tailored to gather relevant info
 Large amounts of info can be gathered from
many people in a short space of time
 You can compare responses to see any trends
 Can be administered to others or yourself
(self reflection questionnaire)
Questionnaires
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Disadvantages
 No way to tell how truthful a respondent is
being
 People may interpret questions differently
 Can be time consuming to analyse all
responses
 Researcher could create biased questions
Social Questionnaire
Social Questionnaire
Findings from questionnaires
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Research on cohesion in groups/teams has shown that
performance success leads to increased cohesion, which
in turn leads to increased performance.
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It also appears that there is a more positive relationship
between Task Cohesion and performance than Social
Cohesion and performance.
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This implies that groups can put aside negative personal
feelings for one another (poor social cohesion) and work
incredibly hard for one another to promote the group team
performance in order to win or give the best performance
(high task cohesion).
Feedback
External feedback
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External feedback is information you
receive about your performance from
various sources, usually verbal, visual or
written. For example: positive advice
from your teacher/coach, a video of your
performance, or a completed match
analysis sheet.
Feedback (social factors)
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What kind of areas or topics will
feedback relating to social factors
cover?
5 mins come up with a list for your table
Feedback (social factors)
Communication
 Cooperation
 Contributing to team
 Team dynamics
 Etiquette
 Codes of conduct
 Relationships
 Discipline (games and training)
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Feedback
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For feedback to be effective it needs to be positive
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Positive feedback focuses on what you did well and
suggests how further improvements could be made.
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Giving negative feedback to someone is not useful
as it fails to explain how improvement can take
place.
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For external feedback to be effective, it needs to be
immediate, precise and accurate.