Psychological Aspects of Sports

Psychological Adjustment to Injury and Aggression in Sports

• Two approaches to psychological adjustment to injury: Stage model and Cognitive Appraisal model
• Factors affecting emotional responses in injured athletes: personal and situational factors
• Characteristics of athletes who recover quickly: high goal setting, positive self-talk, healing imagery
• Characteristics of athletes with positive rehabilitation outcomes: effective pain management, social support, adherence to rehab
• Patient and practitioner expectations during injury rehabilitation
• Key focus areas for practitioners in the recovery process
• Issues related to returning to competition: autonomy, pressures, relatedness
• Implications for creating environments that satisfy athletes' physical and psychological needs
• Definition and differentiation of aggression types: hostile, instrumental, assertive
• Theories of aggression: instinct theory, frustration-aggression theory, social learning theory, revised frustration-aggression theory
• Factors that can increase the likelihood of aggression: environmental temperature, perceptions of victims intent, structure of the game
• Five stages of Moral Reasoning and the role of social learning in controlling aggression

Psychological Aspects of Health Behaviors and Imagery in Sports

• Efficacy beliefs play a critical role in exercise adherence, rehab efforts, and health behaviors.
• Major sources of efficacy information include performance accomplishments, vicarious experiences, social or verbal persuasion, and physiological arousal.
• Bandura's four-stage modeling process includes attention, retention, motor reproduction, and motivation.
• Knowledge of strategies for building confidence and efficacy is essential for performance accomplishments.
• Visuomotor behavioral rehearsal (VMBR) has been shown to reduce gametime anxiety and enhance recovery times and future performance in psychological intervention studies.
• Goal setting is pivotal in imagery and involves when, where, why, and what imagery.
• Theories of imagery include the psycho-neuromuscular theory, symbolic learning theory, and Lang's bio-informational theory.
• Imagery is used to improve concentration, enhance motivation, build confidence, control emotional responses, acquire and practice sports skills, and cope with pain and injury.
• Factors influencing imagery effectiveness include the nature of the task, skill level of the performer, using imagery along with physical practice, and imagining ability.
• Imagery has cognitive functions such as experiencing specific sport skills, planning strategies, and motivational functions for goal attainment, effective coping, and arousal management.
• The causes of sport injury include environmental, biomechanical, anatomical, and psychological factors, with potential moderators including history of stressors, coping resources, and medication.
• Psychological interventions are crucial in addressing attitudes, stress, personality, attentional narrowing, attentional distraction, muscle tension, and coping resources to lower the risk of injury and improve recovery.

Test your knowledge of psychological adjustment to injury, aggression in sports, and the psychological aspects of health behaviors and imagery in sports with this comprehensive quiz. Explore key concepts such as the stages of psychological adjustment to injury, factors affecting emotional responses in injured athletes, theories of aggression, efficacy beliefs in exercise adherence, and the use of imagery to enhance performance and cope with injury.