Sports Psychology Overview

Sports Psychology Review

• Techniques for managing trait anxiety include breathing exercises and cognitive strategies.
• Somatic anxiety involves physical sensations, while cognitive anxiety is characterized by worry.
• Scientific principles are applied in controlled lab settings, while professional practice focuses on individual athletes.
• Athletes categorized as "avoiding fear/shame" are considered low achievers, while those seeking challenges are high achievers.

Catastrophe Theory

• Performance depends on both arousal and cognitive anxiety.
• A critical threshold exists beyond which increased arousal leads to a sharp decline in performance.
• This decline is a direct result of the athlete's thoughts and worries.
• Choking under pressure is a common real-life example.

Reversal Model

• Individual interpretation of arousal levels dictates performance outcomes.
• High arousal can be perceived as pleasant excitement or unpleasant anxiety.
• Low arousal can be perceived as relaxation or boredom.
• Changing perceptions can quickly reverse arousal's impact on performance.

Social Facilitation Theory

• Norman Triplett's theory suggests that simple tasks improve in the presence of others, while complex tasks may decline.

Achievement Motivation Theory

• Low achievers prioritize avoiding failure and fear while high achievers focus on success.
• This theory helps explain varying performance levels across athletes.

Career Paths in Sports Psychology

• Research, teaching, and professional practice (counseling) are common career paths.

Traits vs. States

• Traits are stable personality characteristics, while states change based on situations.
• Anxiety is often a state, influenced by the particular moment.

Physiological vs. Cognitive Anxiety

• Physiological anxiety involves physical symptoms (e.g., heart rate, sweating), while cognitive anxiety focuses on worries and negative thoughts.

Individual Zones of Optimal Functioning (IZOF)

• There are three zones for optimal performance, categorized as low, moderate, and high-anxiety levels.
• Optimal performance occurs within a specific range of anxiety.

Competitiveness and Motivation

• Competitiveness is frequently a socially evaluated aspect of achievement behavior.
• Competitiveness is related to motivation.

Self-Determination Theory

• Self-determination theory is a critical theory to consider regarding the different facets of arousal and motivational elements.

Arousal and Anxiety

• Understanding the difference between arousal and anxiety is crucial, with anxiety exhibiting negative self-talk while arousal involves physical symptoms like butterflies in the stomach.
• Consistently better performance occurs in non-evaluated situations.

Direction and Intensity of Anxiety/ Motivation

• Direction of anxiety describes an individual's interpretation of anxiety (facilitating or debilitating), while intensity refers to the perceived level of anxiety.

Viewing Anxiety Facilitatively

• Recognizing anxiety as a facilitator rather than a barrier can significantly improve performance outcomes.

Situational Stress

• Situational stress involves environmental demands, individual perceptions, and stress responses.

Drive Theory and Performance

• Drive theory, while no longer a prominent theory in sports psychology, suggests that performance positively correlates with increasing arousal.

Interaction of Emotions and Arousal

• Positive emotions associated with arousal can be facilitative, and negative emotions can be detrimental to performance.

Somatic vs. Cognitive Anxiety

• Somatic anxiety relates to physical symptoms, while cognitive anxiety involves thoughts and worries.

Interactional View of Motivation

• Motivation arises from both personal factors and situational contexts and is not purely determined by one or the other.

Achievement Motivation Types

• Two types of achievement motivation are intrinsic and extrinsic.
• Intrinsic motivation is driven by internal rewards, while extrinsic motivation focuses on external rewards like recognition or prizes.

Outcome vs. Task Orientation

• Outcome orientation focuses on comparing performance to others, while task orientation involves self-improvement compared to past performances.

Attribution Theory

• Attribution theory explains how people interpret their success and failures.
• Locus of causality (internal/external), locus of control (in control/not in control), and stability (stable/unstable) are key aspects to consider.

Internal/External Factors

• Identifying internal and external factors for performance outcomes is critical in sports psychology.

Behavior Modification

• Behavior modification can be implemented to reshape undesirable participant behaviors.