BTEC BTEC's Own Resources PDF

BTEC BTEC's own resources 1. Know the effect of personality and motivation on sports performance The role of psychology in sport Warm-up Think about when you have played sport. Has there been a time when you have not...

BTEC BTEC's own resources 1. Know the effect of personality and motivation on sports performance The role of psychology in sport Warm-up Think about when you have played sport. Has there been a time when you have not played as well as you could have done, even though you had trained really hard? Has there been a time when you have got something wrong in a game even though this could be? you know how to perform the skill well? Why do you think 1.1 Personality yourself in. For example, you may always get angry and shout after being intentionally fouled in football Personality and the potential effects it can have on because you feel that deliberate fouls are un-sporting sports participation and sports performance have been of interest to sport psychologists and researchers behaviour, but you may be quiet and shy when you since the late 1800s. However, evidence on whether meet people for the first time because you don't want personality affects sports performance is still fairly to overawe them. These are your typical responses to limited and inconclusive. these situations and are often seen as good indicators of your psychological core. 1.2 Theories Your role-related behaviour is often determined by There are a number of theories and approaches that the circumstances you find yourself in and this is the most changeable aspect of personality. Put simply, have been suggested to try to explain personality and your personality changes as your perception of your how it can influence sports performance. The main theories you will look at are: environment changes. For example, in the same day Marten's Schematic View the Psychodynamic Theory Social environment Social environment Trait Theory Situational Approach External Role- Dynamic Interactional Approach. related behaviour Marten's schematic view In this view, personality is seen as having three different levels that are related to each other: Typical responses psychological core typical responses role-related behaviour (see Figure 17.1). Internal Constant The psychological core is what people often call 'the real you' and is the part of you that contains your Psychological core beliefs, values, attitudes and interests; these aspects are seen as being relatively constant or stable. Typical responses are the usual ways that you respond to the world around you or different situations you may find Figure 17.1: A Schematic View of Personality (adapted from Rainer Martens, 1975) 282  Unit 17 Psychology for sports performance you might be captaining your college sports team instinctive drive. It is the part of your personality that is where you show a lot of leadership behaviours, then unconscious and makes you do certain things without working as an employee at your part-time job where thinking about them, for example, a sprinter on the you will have to follow a lot of instructions. start line in the Olympic final may feel so threatened by the expectations upon them that they respond with large levels of anxiety and their muscles automatically freeze. The second part of your personality, your ego Key terms is the conscious part. The final part is your super ego, Personality - the sum of the characteristics that make a which is your moral conscience. The effect of the ego person unique. Psychological core - the part of you that contains your and super ego can be seen in sport when a football beliefs, values, attitudes and interests. player refuses to take a penalty in a penalty shoot out because they are worried about missing and letting Typical responses - the usual way that you respond to their team down. situations Role-related behaviour - behaviour determined by the Rather than just looking at different parts of personality, circumstances you find yourself in. the psychodynamic approach tries to understand the individual as a whole. This approach is not often used in sport as it focuses on the reasons for behaviour that come from within the individual and tends to ignore Psychodynamic theory the athlete's environment. However, this theory is useful The psychodynamic approach to personality says that when sports psychologists try to explain behaviour as it personality is made up of conscious and unconscious helps us to understand that not all behaviour is under parts. The first part is called the 'id' which stands for the conscious control of athletes. What do you think will be going through the sprinter's mind as he prepares for this competition final? 283  BTEC's own resources Trait-centred views dependent on your situation or environment. It argues that this is far more important than traits. Trait theories suggest that individuals have certain There is some support for the situational approach in characteristics that will partly determine how they behave. sporting behaviour, as individuals may be introverted Traits are relatively stable aspects of personality and - displaying characteristics such as tolerance early trait theorists like Eysenck and Cattell argued and shyness - but may participate in a sport that that traits were mainly inherited. There are two main dimensions to personality: requires them to be more extroverted and display characteristics like aggression in a sporting situation. an introversion-extroversion dimension a stable-neurotic dimension. Remember Introverts are individuals who don't actively seek excitement and would rather be in calm environments. A situation can influence a person's behaviour but it They tend to prefer tasks that require concentration cannot predict sporting behaviour. To be able to do and dislike the unexpected. this, you need to consider the individual's personality traits as well. Extroverts tend to become bored quickly, are poor at tasks that require a lot of concentration and constantly seek change and excitement. Extroverts are less Social learning theory responsive to pain than introverts. Extroverts are said to Social learning theory suggests that personality is be more successful in sporting situations because they not a stable characteristic, but constantly changing can cope with competitive and distracting situations and a result of our experiences of different social better than introverts. situations. It is unlikely that an individual will behave Stable individuals are people who tend to be in the same way in different situations. The theory is more easy-going and even tempered. Neurotic that individuals learn in sporting situations through two (unstable) people tend to be more restless, excitable, processes: modelling and reinforcement. Modelling have a tendency to become anxious and are more states that individuals are likely to model themselves highly aroused on people they can relate to, like individuals in the The conclusions are that trait views are too simplistic same sport or of the same gender, and that as they and that personality alone cannot predict success in a observe their behaviour, they attempt to copy it sporting environment. It can, however, be used to help Reinforcement is important because if an individual's explain why individuals choose certain sports. behaviour is reinforced or rewarded in some way it is likely that the behaviour will be repeated. Bandura, a leading psychologist, identified four main stages of Key term observational learning that demonstrate how modelling Trait - a relatively stable and enduring characteristic that is influences personality and behaviour. part of your personality. 1.Attention: to learn through observation, the athlete must have a certain level of respect and admiration for the model they are observing Remember The amount of respect the athlete has for the model will depend on their status. If the model is Although personality traits can be used with successful, attractive and powerful they will hold physiological and situational factors to try to predict the athlete's attention. who will do well in sport, there is no such thing as the right personality for all sports that will guarantee Retention: for modelling to be effective, the athlete sporting success. must be able to retain the observed skill or behaviour in their memory and recall it when needed Situational-centred views 3. Motor reproduction: the athlete must be able to physically perform the task he or she is observing The situational approach is different from the The athlete needs time to practise the skill in order trait theories approach as it says that behaviour is to learn how it should be performed 284  sychology for sports performance 4. Motivational response: unless the athlete is motivated, he or she will not go through the Remember first three stages of modelling. Motivation is dependent on the amount of reinforcement (e.g Introverts tend to be drawn to individual praise, feedback, sense of pride or long-distance running, extroverts sports like the perceived status of the model achievement), action-orientated sports prefer team- and and importance think that extroverts like football. Psychologists of the task. are drawn to these types of sport because they offer high levels of and stimulation, and the excitement Interactional view unexpected environments ever-changing, and required to keep them To predict behaviour in a sporting situation, you need interested in the activity. Athletes that are towards the unstable or to consider how the situation and personality neurotic end of the scale traits link high levels of over-arousal during the early experience and work together. This is known as the interactional of performance, which can stages lead to lower levels of approach to personality and sport behaviour. performance. The interactional approach is the view widely accepted by sports psychologists when explaining behaviour. This theory suggests that when Athletes versus non-athletes and situational factors are particularly strong, for example, individual during versus team sports competitive sporting situations like penalty shoot- Research implies that there is no such outs in football, they are more likely thing as a to predict universal athletic personality. behaviour than personality traits. The athlete However, there are who some differences between tends to be quiet and shy in an athletes and non-athletes; everyday situation is as well as between athletes in different types of likely to run towards an ecstatic crowd screaming if sport. Compared with non-athletes, athletes who he scores the winning penalty. take part in team sports are more extroverted. When compared to non-athletes, athletes in individual Personality types sports tend to be more introverted. This suggests Another approach in sports psychology that in order to study the differences between suggests that personality traits can be grouped under two athletes and non-athletes, you need to headings: consider type A and type B. the sports the athletes play before reaching People with a type A personality tend to lack meaningful conclusions. patience, have a strong urge for competition, a high desire to achieve goals, always rush to complete Elite versus non-elite athletes activities, will happily multi-task when placed under Until recently psychologists thought that successful time constraints, lack tolerance towards others and athletes display lower levels of depression, fatigue, experience higher levels of anxiety. confusion and anger, but higher levels of vigour. However, evidence which was used to draw these Type B personalities tend to be more tolerant conclusions was insufficient because it was based towards others, more relaxed and reflective than on small numbers of athletes. More recent research their type A counterparts, experience lower levels shows that personality accounts for less than 1 per of anxiety and display higher levels of imagination cent of the performance variation. andcreativity. Type A versus type B 1.3 Effects on sports In sport, type A personalities are more likely than type performance B personalities to continue participating in a sport when the situation becomes unfavourable or when they There is no direct link between personality type and are not motivated to take part. successful sporting performance. Some research has suggested that certain personality types may be more attracted to certain sports, but there is little to say that your personality will make you a better athlete. 285  DI Assessment activity 17.1 You are working with a youth sports team. The coach Grading tips complains to you about some of his youth athletes, Make sure that you first describe what saying that they don't have the right personality to make it as athletes in his team. personality is and then give a brief overview of Educate the coach about the role of personality in whether personality alone should determine sport by preparing a short written report that looks whether or not people should be picked for at all of the different factors surrounding personality sports teams. and environmental factors and their role in sports M Use different theories and examples to participation and performance. explain how personality can influence sports 1. Define personality and describe how it influences performance. sport participation and performance. Make sure that you use a range of theories 2. Explain the different theories that try to explain the and supporting materials that give link between personality and sports participation contrasting arguments so that you give as and performance. M full a picture as possible to allow the coach 3. Explain how these theories try to explain that link. to make an informed decision about their players. 4. Evaluate contrasting arguments that relate to the link between personality and sports performance. D Functional skills By exploring each of the different theories and By writing your report on personality and its effects judging their value when making your arguments, on sports performance, you could provide evidence you can develop your skills as an independent towards your English skills in writing enquirer. 1.4 Motivation Intrinsic Most definitions of motivation refer to having a drive Intrinsic motivation is when someone is participating to take part and to persist in an activity. A sport-specific definition is the tendency of an individual or team to in an activity without an external reward and/or without the primary motivation being the achievement begin and then carry on with the activities relating to of some form of external reward. Intrinsic motivation their sport. There are two main types of motivation: intrinsic and extrinsic. in its purest form is when an athlete participates in a sport for enjoyment. When people are asked why they play sport, if they reply with 'for fun', or 'because it makes me feel good' (or similar responses), they can Key terms Motivation - the direction and the intensity of your effort; be said to be intrinsically motivated it is critical to sporting success. There are three parts of intrinsic motivation: Intrinsic - internal factors, such as enjoyment. motivated by accomplishments - this occurs when Extrinsic - external factors, such as rewards. athletes wish to increase their level of skill to get a sense of accomplishment 286  Unit 17 Psychology for sports performance motivated by stimulation - this refers to seeking an rush' or extreme excitement 'adrenaline Take it further motivated by knowledge - this meanswanting being to The interaction of intrinsic and curious about your own performance, extrinsic motivation know more about it and having a desire to develop A group of children are playing football, to the new techniques or skills to benefit performance. annoyance of an old man whose house they are playing outside. He asks them to stop playing but Extrinsic they carry on because they enjoy it so much. After Extrinsic motivation is when someone behaves the way a while, the old man offers them £5 each to play for him. As the children like playing anyway, they they do because of some form of external mechanism. happily accept his offer. The next day, the children The most common forms of extrinsic motivation come come back and play outside his house again. Just through the use of tangible and intangible rewards. as before, he comes out and offers them money to Tangible rewards are things that can physically be play again but this time can only afford to pay them given to you, like money, medals and trophies, £4 The children agree to continue playing even though the amount is less than before. This pattern intangible rewards are non-physical things such as continues for the next few days until one day the old praise or encouragement. man comes out and says he can't afford to pay them For extrinsic motivation to be effective, rewards anymore. Disgruntled, the children refuse to play if need to be used effectively. If the reward is given too the old man isn't going to pay them. frequently, it will be of little value to the athlete after 1. What motivates the children to play initially? Is this a period of time, invalidating its potential impact on intrinsic or extrinsic motivation? performance. A coach needs to have an in-depth 2. At the end of the case study, what is the knowledge of the athletes he is working with to motivating factor for the children? Is this intrinsic or extrinsic motivation? maximise the effect of extrinsic rewards. 3. What effect has extrinsic motivation had on Extrinsic motivation can potentially decrease intrinsic intrinsic motivation? motivation. If the extrinsic motivator is used as a method of controlling the athlete, generally intrinsic motivation will decrease. If the extrinsic motivator to the is used to provide information or feedback Attribution theory athlete, this can benefit intrinsic motivation. The way In sport, attribution theory looks at how people in which the athlete perceives and understands the explain success or failure. It helps you understand an will original extrinsic motivator determines whether it athlete's actions and motivations. benefit or hinder intrinsic motivation. Achievement motivation theory Achievement motivation was proposed by Atkinson Key term Attribution - the reason you give to explain the outcome in 1964, who argued that achievement motivation comes from the individual's personality and is their of an event. motivation to strive for success. It is this drive that makes athletes carry on trying even when there are obstacles or when they fail. Atkinson grouped athletes into two categories: need to achieve (Nach) and need to avoid failure (Naf). Everyone has aspects of both Nach and Naf, but it is the difference between the two motives that makes up somebody's achievement motivation. 287  U14 rugby team Case study: Southern City were all bigger than them. The next player said team cheated Southern City is a U14 rugby team who have just that they lost because the other been beaten 66-0 in their opening game of the After a little silence, a player said that they had lost changing rooms season. When they got back to the players why because after they conceded the first try, the team after the game, the coach asked the The first player stopped putting effort in and didn't believe that they they thought they had lost so badly. to speak said that the shouldn't was rubbish and referee have counted. A few motivations thuld in.: nadCity of some of the pagers he gave tries that team? in the Southern players said that they lost because the other team managers and support staff to make sure the athlete is In the case study, players explained the outcome using attribution. Attributions provide explanations for your at optimal levels of motivation, without experiencing successes or failures and fall into one of the following any negative side effects. categories: Negative stability - is the reason permanent or unstable? Being over-motivated can be a big problem for to causality - is it something that comes from an athletes. Athletes are often under pressure to train external or an internal factor? perform at a high level, so feel the need control - is it under your control or not? more and more. However, over-motivation and A table of types of attribution theory with examples a gruelling schedule can lead to over-training, that are often given after winning and losing is shown staleness and burnout. Staleness can be a response in Table 17.1 below. Effects of motivation on sports Key terms performance Over-training - the athlete trains under an excessive Motivation is an essential component of successful training load, which they cannot cope with. sports performance. However, if someone is so Staleness - inability to maintain a previous performance level. motivated that they won't stop, this can cause problems. Burnout - when an athlete strives to meet training and Positive competition demands despite repeated unsuccessful attempts, and so tries harder. Can lead to the athlete Someone who is motivated to play, perform and no longer wishing to participate in activities they used train at an optimal level will experience increases to enjoy. in performance. It is the role of athletes, coaches, Type of Winning example Losing example attribution Stability 'I was more able than my opponent' (stable) 'I was less able than my opponent' (stable) 'I was lucky' (unstable) 'We didn't have that bit of luck we needed today' (unstable) Causality 'I tried really hard' (internal) 'I didn't try hard enough' (internal) 'My opponent was easy to beat' (external) 'My opponent was impossible to beat' (external) Control 'I trained really hard for this fight' (under your 'I didn't train hard enough for this fight' (under your control) control) 'He wasn't as fit as I was' (not under your control) 'He was fitter than I was' (not under your control) Table 17.1: Types of attribution with examples 288  Unit 17 Psychology for sports performance to over-training. The key sign is that the athlete is level or effort and learning techniques. When an athlete is in an unable to maintain a previous performance environment where there is a lot of focus on the outcome that performance levels may decrease significantly. are that (where they feel they will be punished if they make Other signs and symptoms of staleness mistakes, competition is strongly encouraged and only the athlete may suffer from mood swings and can those with the highest ability will receive attention) this become clinically depressed. Burnout happens when will lead to less effort and persistence from athletes and the athlete is trying to meet training and competition failure often attributed to lack of ability. demands, and has often been unsuccessful so tries To develop an effective motivational climate, use the harder. When burnout occurs, the athlete finds they TARGET technique: no longer want to take part in activities they used to enjoy. Burnout should not be confused with just Tasks - having a range of tasks that require the dropping out because of being tired or unhappy. athlete to actively participate in learning and These negative effects of motivation affect not only decision-making. players; they can also affect managers, coaches, match Authority - giving athletes authority over officials and team support staff. monitoring and evaluating their own learning and decision-making Future expectations of success and failure Reward - using rewards that are focused on Expectations of future success or failure are linked individual improvement rather than comparing to attribution theory. If you attribute to stable causes levels to other athletes. (such as skill), you are more likely to have expectations Grouping - giving athletes the opportunity to work of future success whereas if you attribute to more in groups so that they develop skills in a group- unstable causes (like luck), you are more likely to have based environment. expectations of future failure. Evaluation - focusing on an individual's effort and improvement. Take it further Timing - timing activities effectively so that all of the above conditions can interact effectively. Attributions How you attribute success or failure can affect your future expectations of sports performance. Why do you think this is? By asking lots of different questions to explore all of the possibilities within the case study for Assessment activity 17.2 on page 290, you could develop your skills as a creative thinker. Developing a motivational climate The motivational climate is the environment in which an athlete finds themselves and how this affects their Functional skills motivation positively and negatively. A motivational climate that is focused on mastery Using ICT to independently select and use a range of tasks - where athletes receive positive of theories of motivation for Assessment activity 17.2 on page 290, could provide evidence towards your reinforcement and there is greater emphasis on skills in ICT teamwork and cooperation - will help develop motivation through improving the athlete's attitudes, 289