Psychology in sport
Mental preparation for sport
&
Psychological skills training
Arousal
Arousal is a physiological and
psychological state of being awake or
reactive to stimuli
A mental preparedness for action, closely
associated with the concept of motivation. When
motivation increases so does arousal.
With arousal the body gears itself up for action,
physically and psychologically:
-
Heartbeat goes faster
-
Breathing goes faster
-
Increase in sweat
-
-
Better focus
Better concentration
Mind interacts with the body
Arousal
Physiological arousal
Psychological arousal
Refers to physical readiness for action: heart
and breathing rates, sweating, reaction times
Refers to the emotional and motivational
are indicators for this. Warm-up activities are
state of the sportsperson and can range from
designed to increase physiological arousal in
indifference and boredom to alertness and
readiness for peak performance
then high excitement or tension.
Theoretical approaches to arousal
Drive reduction theory- proposes that arousal increases to meet the perceived
demands of the task, so the performance is more likely to reflect the most usual
behavior (dominant habit).
Why do performances fluctuate?
Inverted U-hypothesis – suggests that (to a certain point) arousal levels are too low
for certain performances. Athlete is not ‘psyched up’ enough. But there is a point
where arousal turn to anxiety and performance starts to deteriorate (‘psyched out’)
Catastrophe theory – multidimensional approach, suggests that performance
depends on a complex interaction between arousal and cognitive state anxiety.
Performance does not gradually get worse as arousal increases, it rapidly and
dramatically deteriorates -> catastrophically
Theoretical approaches to arousal, graphs
Drive reduction theory
Inverted U-hypothesis
Theoretical approaches to arousal, graphs
Catastrophe theory
Is it a good thing or a bad thing for a
performer to be worried for an event?
Does it depend on the type of activity?
Arousal curves
What do the arousal curves tell you about the three athletes?
Who is capable of the best performance?
Who needs to be really psyched up before he performs at his best?
Whose level of arousal needs to be very carefully controlled for good performance?
1: Sam 2: Jon 3: Ted
Steffi Graf vs. Jana Novotna
“choking”
Choking vs. Clutch performance
What are the emotions that influence the preparation
or performance in a sport?
Participation in sport and exercise influences
a range of participant emotions such as
depression, anxiety, and pleasure.
These are specific emotions that have
discrete effect on performance
•
Positive emotions:
Excitement, relief, pride,
accomplishment
•
Negative emotions:
Anger, guilt, shame, anxiety, boredom
A negative mood is more likely to prime
us to remember negative emotions of
past failures, and thus reduce our
feelings of confidence to perform
A positive mood is more likely to prime
us to remember positive previous
outcomes and increase our confidence
to perform
Anxiety
The concept of anxiety is linked to the negative emotional feelings a person
experiences such as worry, nervousness, apprehension, or unease about
something with an uncertain outcome. These feelings are particularly
prevalent in sporting situations when winning or not losing are very
important for various reasons.
Anxiety
Anxiety that results from a
Anxiety more related to a
changing ‘mood state’
person’s general characteristics
• Cognitive anxiety: psychological
and personality traits
anxiousness (poor concentration, • State anxiety: anxiety about an
confusion, negative images of
event/situation, state anxiety can be
fear/failure)
either cognitive or somatic and it can
• Somatic anxiety: physiological
effects (butterflies in the
even be a learned response
•
Trait anxiety: anxiety as a personal
stomach, sweating, tense
characteristic, general acquired
muscles, nausea)
behavioral tendency to become
nervous
How is anxiety measured?
Self report tests, HR
monitors, brain scan
Trait anxiety: Sport
Competition Anxiety
Test (SCAT)
State anxiety:
Competitive State
Anxiety Inventory 2
(CSAI 2R)
• Easy to administrate
• Can be used with large groups
• Can be open to bias/respondents can reply how
they think they should not how they actually feel
• Responses are open to misunderstanding by nonexperts
• The questionnaire is not sensitive to small
changes in anxiety levels
• The questionnaire system is inconvenient in a real
sport situation/ can actually interfere with
anxiety response
• High scores on the intensity of anxiety do not
necessarily mean this state is detrimental
Stress
Selye’s definition: “non-specific response
of the body to any demand made on it”
Sources of stress are called stressors,
stressors come in many forms:
competition, frustration, conflict,
personal, physiological & climatic,
audience.
Stress is defined as: “a substantial
imbalance between the demand
(physical and/or psychological) and
response capability, under
conditions where failure to meet
that demands has important
consequences”
More examples of sport stressors
• Rewards, incentives, prizes
• Prestigious events
• Representative honours/games
• Social evaluation
• Win at all costs attitude
• Pre-match pep-talks
• Parental pressure
• Inconsistent coaching/training
• Excessive time demands
• Repetitive practices
• Excessive expectation
• Emotional blackmail
• Concerns about self-image
Stress process
Research suggests that in analyzing
stress as sequential process it is
important to differentiate between
the performer’s perception of stress
and the actual potential
environmental stressors. (stress can
have a negative effect on
performance but also a positive
effect)
Many top class performers need to
feel under pressure to perform well.
Managing stress
•
Reduce the problem
•
Reduce the stress
•
Control arousal
These techniques can be classified as mainly somatic or cognitive, and can be taught
through psychological skills training (PST).
PST refers to the systematic and consistent practice of
mental or psychological skills. Studies and some coaches say that PST can attribute
for 50-90% of an athlete’s performance.
However, PST
•
is not just for elite athletes
•
Is not just for problem athletes
•
Does not give quick fix solutions
A performer is affected by a range of
psychological factors
Manipulation of these factors can advance
optimal performance
“How are psychological skills used in a sporting
context?”
PST
The PST program focusses on optimizing
performance by improving self-efficacy
and emotional control. The athlete will
Psychological Skill training (PST) is an
complete sessions using goal setting,
individually designed combination of
imagery and relaxation.
methods selected to attain psychological
Program consists of three main phases:
skill needs. There is no quick fix single
package, each program must be
individually based on the psychological
state of the individual and, the sport.
PST skills: confidence, concentration
PST method is the tool that will be
utilzed to improve the skill
 Educational phase – developing
understanding of the importance of
PST and how it can help
 Acquisition phase – Athletes learn
how to use PST methods and how to
best implement them
 Practice phase – complete training in
both competition and training
PST methods
Goal setting
Goals are seen as direct
motivational strategies
setting standards a performer
SMARTER
S –Specific
M – Measurable
is psychologically motivated
A – Accepted
to try to achieve, usually
R – Realistic
within a specific time. Goal
setting is generally seen as
T – Time bound
extremely powerful technique E – Exciting
for enhancing performance
through self-confidence and
motivation.
R - Recorded
Types of goals
Outcome goals
Focuses on the end
product
Performance goals
Comparing present
performance with
previous performance
Process goals
Focus on what can be
done to improve the
performance
Mental imagery
Used for control or regulation of
• Imagery is a cognitive function
arousal, improving concentration,
and is associated with long-
building confidence and
term changes in performer’s
controlling emotional responses
behavior. By recalling
(stress management) and coping
appropriate stored
with pain and injury.
information from the memory
a player is able to generate
images of movement
experiences (almost as good
and effective as the real thing)
Mental Imagery
The mental imagery sessions will use
internal (imagination), and external
• Internal Imagery: picturing what
(video demonstration) examples of
you would see if you were
performances. All sessions will focus
actually doing the skill yourself
solely on optimal performances and
(kinaesthetic feeling associated)
will be done in real time and in slow
• External Imagery: see yourself as
motion.
others would you, as if you are
Slo mo is especially good to correct
watching yourself on a video
a certain technique. Athlete will
develop a competition-specific
session, this session will be practiced
intensely prior to and competition