Review Questions and Answers

Chapter 14 – Psychology of Sport

Performance Anxiety

1) What is the nature of performance anxiety?

Performance anxiety is a future-orientated occurrence characterised by an increase in arousal. It is brought about by a stressor which could be the sport involved, the event, the occasion or the fitness of an athlete. This leads to an appraisal of the threats at hand which include potential failure, past experience and anything else that can go wrong.

2) Describe two theories of how it works.

Drive Theory – Hull (1943)

According to drive theory three factors influence performance – arousal, task complexity and learned habits. Provided the task is simple and our dominant response is the correct one then higher arousal will facilitate greater performance levels. If, though, the task is complex and the dominant response incorrect then increased arousal will lead to a decrease in performance.

Inverted U Theory

Based on work by Yerkes and Dodson (1908) the inverted U theory states that each task has an optimum level of arousal, with performance peaking at this point. Performance will drop off below or above this level, decreasing as the individual moves further from the optimal arousal point.

Could also have:

• Catastrophe Model
• Zones of Optimal Functioning
• Reversal Theory
  

3) To what extent is sport anxiety a good thing?

Theories of arousal show that a certain level of anxiety is good for an athlete prior to competing and prepares the mind and body for the stresses about to occur. The levels of anxiety and arousal that are desirable will vary with each athlete, sport and competitive situation.

4) What are the ways we can use to ‘cure’ it?

• Drug treatment
• Deconditioning
• Systematic desensitization
• Progressive muscular relaxation
• Biofeedback
• Meditation
• Hypnotic suggestion
• Cognitive orientation
• Stress inoculation
  
  
  
  

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Aggression

1) Give four definitions of aggression that are relevant to sport.

a) Hostile aggression: primary intention of the behaviour is to harm the opponent.
b) Instrumental aggression: the behaviour is likely to cause harm but it has a different aim.
c) Reactive aggression: occurs as a reaction to the behaviour of others.
d) Assertiveness: goal-centred behaviour without the intent to harm.

2) To what extent is aggression inevitable in sport?

Aggression is commonly believed to be an instinctive behaviour, with sport being an acceptable means of releasing aggressive energy. With that in mind it could be said that aggression is inevitable in sport. But really it is only inevitable in some sports, primarily sports based around physical contact, with assertiveness being the real factor inevitable to sporting contests.

3) In what ways is aggression reinforced in sport?

• Scoring pointsS
• Winning matches
• Praise from coach, team mates and supporters
• Actions of the opposition: wary, scared and deferential.

4) Why is aggression not seen in all sports or even all competitions?

There are four common mediators of aggression in sport:

• Arousal and excitement: the more aroused athletes are, the higher the likelihood of aggressive acts occurring.
• Fitness: higher fitness will mean less arousal so less chance of aggressive acts, with the opposite of course also being true.
• Performance: a better performance is linked to lower levels of aggression.
• Type of sport: aggression is not a feature of all sports, with the likelihood of contact with other competitors and the nature of the sport being the reasons for this.

Factors also present during competition include:

• Away team more aggressive
• Lower ranked team more aggressive
• If the match is close then there are less aggressive acts observed
  
  
  

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Social Facilitation

1) What was Zajonc’s theory of social facilitation?

Three main points:

• Audiences increase arousal
• Arousal inhibits learning new responses
• Arousal facilitates the performance of well-rehearsed responses.

2) List and explain the problems with this theory.

Seven main criticisms were proposed by Glaser (1982):

• It is hard to demonstrate that audiences influence drive.
• It is hard to replicate Zajonc’s findings.
• It is hard to find a physiological correlate of arousal and social facilitation.
• The universal notion of presence is more complicated than it first appears due to the nature of the audience.
• The drive model that the theory is based on has itself been criticised.
• Zajonc’s theory doesn’t explain pre-1965 works.
• The popularity of the theory meant it was not initially openly criticized or investigated.

3) Describe and explain the seven alternative theories of social facilitation.

a) Evaluation apprehension theory – Geen and Gange (1984)

This theory states that audience effects are due to the socially learned expectation of the evaluation of others.

b) Distraction conflict theory – Sanders (1981)

Postulates that the presence of an audience is arousing because it is distracting, leaving less attention for the task at hand.

c) Attentional overload theory – Manstead and Semin (1980)

The attentional overload theory states that an audience serves to increase attention on a simple task but leads to attentional overload for complex tasks.

d) Self-attention theory – Duval and Wicklund (1972)

Based around the idea that self-awareness increases arousal and self-awareness can be increased by an audience, a fact that was proved in experiments using a mirror.

e) Self-presentation theory – Baumeister (1982)

Audience effects are created by the performers’ concern about making a favourable impression on the audience.

f) Social inhibition theory – Berger et al (1981)

The presence of others inhibits overt practice.

g) Social impact theory – Latane (1981)

A bigger audience means more evaluation and if you are part of a team then the impact of an audience is shared amongst the team members, lessening the impact on individual players.

Groups and Teams

1) What makes a team work?

• Roles – each member has a specific role they follow.
• Norms – it is crucial to have rules about what is and isn’t ok with respect to the team.
• Cohesiveness – the central force that makes individuals stay as members of the team.

2) What prevents a team from working?

General term for preventative factors is process losses, which are many and varied and due to the following features:

• Inter- and intra- group processes
• Leadership
• Communication
• Consensus
• Democracy
• Presence of others

The Ringelmann effect (1913) is also an interesting theory here. It states that the bigger a team or group the less each individual feels they are achieving. This can lead to motivational losses and social loafing.

3) How do we get a team to work better?

• Increase the pleasure of tasks that are set (training and matches).
• Evaluate performances individually at times.
• Increase socialisation and positive relationships within the team.
• Stability in team line-up improves mutual knowledge and anticipation.
• Sociograms can be used to assess links between players.
  
  
  

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Leadership

1) Are leaders born or made?

The answer to this will be based on the opinion of the individual and relies on whether they favour the trait or behavioural approach. The trait approach would state that all leaders share personality characteristics in common (so leaders are born), whereas the behavioural approach would argue that it is possible to learn and teach appropriate leadership behaviours (so being made).

2) What makes a good leader?

Again this could be a personal answer depending on what type of leadership the individual has been exposed to and favours, so no real right or wrong answer.

In my opinion no one set of characteristics ensures a successful leader, and characteristics will vary greatly between leaders. A mix of standard reinforcement techniques and spontaneous behaviours is crucial, combined with a knowledge of when to use these in conjunction with relevant personal and situational cues.

3) Can you make someone a better leader?

Leadership styles can be changed for the better, due to the preference or request of team mates or to fit a particular situation a team is facing. Leadership styles are changed largely by altering the focus the leader takes, be it towards relationships, tasks, the self, or interactions.

Individual Differences

1) Explain the difference between a credulous and sceptic view of personality.

Credulous – personality is an important part of the sporting success of both the individual and team.

Sceptic – personality traits have little or no useful application in sport.

2) Explain what a trait is.

A trait is an enduring personality characteristic.

3) What is the problem with trait theory?

Trait theory does not allow for a number of factors:

• Out of character behaviour
• Moods
• Reactions
• Ageing
• Self-understanding
• Situational effects

Also it is understood that traits are not stable until the age of 30, at which point many elite athletes are thinking of retirement.

4) What is state theory and what are the good and bad things about it?

State theory is used to categorize people by the way they are behaving at a certain time. On the plus side it allows for accurate and sensitive descriptions of behaviour, but negatively it is impossible to make behavioural predictions.

Imagery and Mental Rehearsal

1) Describe the different types of mental imagery.

There are two major distinctions of mental imagery:

External–internal: if you image externally you observe yourself carrying out an action from the point of view of an external observer, whereas internal imagery involves a first-person view of the action.

Positive–negative: this relates to the outcome of the task that is imaged, if it is successful or not.

2) To what extent can you learn to ‘do’ mental imagery?

Although there is little research on controlling and learning mental imagery, I would postulate that with practice, following guidelines for mental imagery, an individual could improve confidence in their abilities to image and find a particular style that they prefer.

3) Explain the three theories of mental rehearsal.

Psychoneuromuscular: mental rehearsal produces similar effects on the body as carrying out the actual action imaged, but the effects on measures such as blood flow and EMG level are lower.

Symbolic learning: mental imagery allows cognitive aspects of action to be practised, such as strategies and spatial and temporal sequences.

Bioinformational: image created is a functionally organised set of propositions stored by the brain. Imagery is divided into propositions about stimulus and response, each with a relevant physiological component.

Motivation

1) What is the difference between intrinsic and extrinsic motivation?

Intrinsic: Carrying out a task, e.g. playing a sport, makes you feel good just because you are doing it, the rewards are purely internal.

Extrinsic: activity is carried out for external rewards and recognition, e.g. cups, medals, money, fame.

2) Explain achievement motivation.

Achievement motivation is described as the need to achieve and is a function of the difference between the desire of an individual to succeed and the fear of failure. If the desire to succeed outweighs the desire to avoid failure then achievement motivation increases. Can be expressed as a formula incorporating further factors of probability of success, incentives of success and other external factors.

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