HKIN 440 Midterm Exam Study Notes

• Study notes for HKIN 440 Midterm Exam

Athletic Pyramid

• The athletic pyramid is structured with professional athletics at the top, followed by college, then high school/club level, and recreational sports at the base.

Psychological Characteristics of Peak Performance

• Peak performance states involve a loss of fear and absence of overthinking about performance.
• Total immersion in the activity, a sense of effortlessness, and feeling in control are experienced.
• There is a perceived slowing down of time.

Mental Foundational Skills

• Establishing a clearly articulated philosophy and vision for mental training.
• Focusing on leadership and effective communication.
• Committing to building strong team cohesion.
• Developing global mental skills, including goal setting, self-awareness, and attitude adjustment.

Components of Mental Toughness

• Mental toughness includes stress management, self-confidence, reboundability, concentration, and motivation.

Stress Management and Mental Toughness

• The ability to remain calm under pressure is an important element.
• Choking is often a result of an athlete's inability to manage stress effectively.

Stress Management Tactics

• Cognitive restructuring, thought stopping, relaxation, and breathing techniques are used.

Self-Confidence and Mental Toughness

• The ability to handle self-doubt and negative thinking is key.

Self-Confidence Tactics

• Cognitive restructuring, building self-efficacy, visualization, and value orientation strategies are implemented.

Reboundability

• Reboundability is the ability to recover from mistakes and setbacks.
• Athletes should have mistake techniques as part of their mental skills.

Reboundability Tactics

• Cognitive restructuring, relaxation techniques, visualization strategies, goal setting, and mistake rituals are used.

Concentration

• Concentration is key to excellent performance.
• Focus before and during competition affects an athlete's ability to handle pressure; mental toughness is built around concentration.

Concentration Tactics

• Visualization, relaxation techniques, breathing techniques, and attentional focusing are implemented.

Motivation

• Motivation is what drives training.
• Without motivation, athletes may have untapped potential.

Motivation Tactics

• Goal setting, visualization, self-determination strategies, and value orientation strategies are used.

Psychological Skills Training (PST)

• PST involves the systematic and consistent practice of mental skills to enhance performance and increase self-satisfaction.

Why Psychological Skills are Neglected

• Lack of knowledge, discomfort, perceived lack of time, and misunderstandings are reasons psycho-skills are neglected.

Three Phases of PST

• Educational phase: Skills are taught and learned, and participants recognize the value and impact on performance.
• Acquisition phase: Strategies and techniques are developed.
• Practice phase: Skills advance from practice application to competition scenarios.

Ultimate Goal of PST

• Self-regulation is the ultimate goal.

Foundation Skills

• These are intrapersonal resources that provide the basic mental skills required for success.

Performance Skills

• They are mental abilities needed for skill execution during sports performance.

Personal Development Skills

• They represent maturational markers of personal development, enabling high-level psychological functioning through self-concept clarity.

Team Skills

• These encompass the collective qualities of a team that are essential for team climate and success.

Three Dimensions of Optimism vs. Pessimism

• Permanence, pervasiveness, and personalization are the dimensions.

Permanence

• Pessimists believe bad events are permanent; optimists believe good events are permanent and bad events are temporary.

Pervasiveness

• Pessimists give universal explanations for failures; optimists believe good events are universal and bad events are specific.

Personalization

• Pessimists blame themselves for bad events; optimists credit themselves for good events.

Three Aspects of Athlete Motivation

• Athletes are primarily motivated by ability, task, and social approval.

Motivation Pattern #1: Learned Helplessness

• Athletes with this belief don't think the outcome is in their control, lack effort and intensity, blaming external factors.

Motivation Pattern #2: Fear of Failure

• Athletes are motivated by fear of failing, which causes stress, removes enjoyment, and makes actions tentative.

Motivation Pattern #3: Fear of Success

• The fear of success that is based on negative aspects of winning, like too much pressure from competitors, coaches and family.

Motivation Pattern #4: Perfectionist

• These athletes link self-image to high performance, leading to dissatisfaction and preventing them from enjoying success, as they never live up to self-imposed views.

Motivation Pattern #5: Underachievers

• They show little appreciation for the hard work needed for success, believing talent alone is sufficient.

Motivation Pattern #6: Learned Effectiveness

• Athletes believe they possess skills to be successful.

Why Regulate Arousal

• Those who don't cope with stress may face performance impairments with mental and physical effects.

Somatic Anxiety Reduction (Muscle - Mind)

• Progressive relaxation: contracting and relaxing specific muscles.
• Breath control is key because breathing smooths out when calm.
• Biofeedback: gaining control over physiological and autonomic responses through feedback.

Cognitive Anxiety Reduction (Mind - Muscle)

• Autogenic training: focuses on warmth and heaviness to induce relaxation.
• Systematic desensitization: reducing anxiety by pairing anxiety-provoking stimuli with relaxation techniques.

Multimodal Anxiety Reduction Packages

• Cognitive-Affective Stress Management Training (SMT): uses integrated coping responses with relaxation and cognitive components to control emotional arousal.
• Stress Inoculation Training (SIT): involves exposure to stress and learning productive coping mechanisms through thoughts, images, and self-statements to enhance immunity to stress.

Hypnosis

• An altered state of consciousness that induces relaxation and openness to suggestions that can alter perceptions, feelings, thoughts, and actions.

Coping

• It is the process of constantly changing cognitive and behavioral efforts to manage demands or conflicts.

Problem-Focused Coping

• It involves changing or managing the problems that cause stress.

Emotion-Focused Coping

• It entails regulating the emotional response to the problem causing stress, such as through meditation.

Seeking Social Support Coping

• Seeking social support coping involves turning to others for emotional support.

Study notes covering the athletic pyramid, psychological characteristics of peak performance, mental foundational skills, and components of mental toughness. The athletic pyramid includes professional, college, high school/club, and recreational levels. Key psychological aspects involve loss of fear and total immersion.