Sport Psychology-Introduction to Psycology-Lecture Handout | Exercises Introduction to Psychology

Introduction to Psychology –PSY101

SPORT PSYCHOLOGY

Lesson 44

Have You Ever Thought About These Issues?

• Why don’t cricketers show a consistent performance?

• Why do they come back to the pavilion when we expected them to make a century?

• Why do sportsmen end up with a sprain or a pulled muscle when they had to play a crucial

match?

• Why do spectators cheer up their favorite teem and hoot the other one? Why do some players

become aggressive, agitated. Irritable, and even refuse to play when hooted or teased by the

crowd?

• The answers to these questions may be found in sport psychology.

Sport Psychology

• Exercise and sport psychology is Division 47 of APA.

• The branch of psychology that studies, understands, describes, and predicts the impact of

psychological variables on athletic and sport performance.

Sport psychology is the application of the prin ciples, knowledge, training, and understanding of psychology for the understanding

of factors affecting sport performance, with an aim to improve it, and to make the sportspersons feel stronger and more confident.

• “The application of psychological principles to sport and physical activity at all levels of skill

development” (Brown an Mahoney, 1984).

History of Sport Psychology

• Although man was always interested in sports, in improving sport performance, in sport

training, and in negatively affecting the performance of the opponent’s team, the history of

scientific research is not very old.

• Research in psychological aspects of sport originated in Europe and then flourished in the U.S.

• The earliest proper sport research was reported by Norman Triplett in 1897.

• He analyzed the performance of cyclists under conditions of social facilitations.

• For this purpose he used field observation and secondary data.

• He reported from his research that the presence of other competitors could facilitate better

cycling performance.

Coleman Roberts Griffith

• Known as the father of Sport psychology in North America.

• He established the first sport psychology laboratory at the University of Illinois in 1925.

• He studied the nature of psychomotor skills, motor learning, and the relationship between

personality variables and physical performance.

The formative years of Sport psychology

• The period from 1950 to 1980 is considered as the formative years of sport psychology.

• Sport psychology emerged as a separate discipline distinct from exercise physiology and motor

learning.

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SPORT PSYCHOLOGY

Lesson 44 Have You Ever Thought About These Issues?

• Why don’t cricketers show a consistent performance?

• Why do they come back to the pavilion when we expected them to make a century?

• Why do sportsmen end up with a sprain or a pulled muscle when they had to play a crucial

match?

• Why do spectators cheer up their favorite teem and hoot the other one? Why do some players

become aggressive, agitated. Irritable, and even refuse to play when hooted or teased by the crowd?

• The answers to these questions may be found in sport psychology.

Sport Psychology

• Exercise and sport psychology is Division 47 of APA.

• The branch of psychology that studies, understands, describes, and predicts the impact of

psychological variables on athletic and sport performance. Sport psychology is the application of the principles, knowledge, training, and understanding of psychology for the understanding of factors affecting sport performance, with an aim to improve it, and to make the sportspersons feel stronger and more confident.

• “The application of psychological principles to sport and physical activity at all levels of skill

development” (Brown an Mahoney, 1984). History of Sport Psychology

• Although man was always interested in sports, in improving sport performance, in sport

training, and in negatively affecting the performance of the opponent’s team, the history of

scientific research is not very old.

• Research in psychological aspects of sport originated in Europe and then flourished in the U.S.

• The earliest proper sport research was reported by Norman Triplett in 1897.

• He analyzed the performance of cyclists under conditions of social facilitations.

• For this purpose he used field observation and secondary data.

• He reported from his research that the presence of other competitors could facilitate better

cycling performance. Coleman Roberts Griffith

• Known as the father of Sport psychology in North America.

• He established the first sport psychology laboratory at the University of Illinois in 1925.

• He studied the nature of psychomotor skills, motor learning, and the relationship between

personality variables and physical performance. The formative years of Sport psychology

• The period from 1950 to 1980 is considered as the formative years of sport psychology.

• Sport psychology emerged as a separate discipline distinct from exercise physiology and motor

learning.

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The Subject Matter of Sport Psychology

• Education

• Training

• Research

• Sport performance

Psychological Characteristics of Athletes

• One of the areas of special interest to the sport psychologists is the study of personality

characteristics of athletes and sportspersons.

• One could predict sport performance and choose good athletes if one knew the psychological

indicators of sport performance

• One has to be clear about the different connotations of the words ‘athletes’ and ‘sportsmen’.

• Although the two terms are used differently in everyday life vocabulary, to a sport psychologist

these two do not mean much different. Some Research Findings

• Although not very strong empirical evidence is available on this issue, some interesting facts

are available in research literature.

• As compared to the non athletes, the athletes usually score higher on tests of: assertion

• Dominance

• Aggression, and

• Need for achievement

Athletes score lower on

• Anxiety level

• Depression, and

• Fatigue.

• These findings stand truer when the athletes are at a high skill level.

• Athletes in some sports e.g. hockey and football are more tolerant of pain as compared to

athletes in other sports e.g. bowling or golf.

• But there is some evidence suggesting that the pain tolerance may be an outcome of an

athlete’s success rather than a cause. Enhancing and Maximizing Sport Performance

• One of the major tasks of a sport psychologist is to assist the trainers, the coaches, and the

team managers as well as the sportspersons themselves in raising the level of performance.

• In this regard, a major portion of research evidence pertains to the arousal level of the

sportsperson.

• Sport psychologists have also worked in the following areas:

• Enhancing motivation

• Learning relaxation techniques

• Stress management

• Pain control and management

• Overcoming anxiety docsity.com

practice is helpful in learning skills, improving and maintaining performance. Mental Practice and Sport Performance

• Rehearsing the task mentally, imagining one’s self in the actual field.

Functions of Mental Practice

• The task at hand is rehearsed mentally. This provides a vivid image of the scenario to occur

later.

• Negative thoughts that may interfere with performance are reduced.

• The sportsperson can rehearse his/her part in a team sport.

• It helps in setting realistic goals.

The Phenomenon of Home Field Advantage

• It is a common observation that athletes and sportspersons perform better and are more

relaxed when playing in home ground.

• Psychological research does not provide a 100% solid support to this observation.

• Mixed findings are available in this regard.

• Research has shown that frenzied, yelling, screaming hometown fans may raise arousal levels

of the home team beyond the point of maximum efficiency.

• This reveals the negative effects of playing on the home ground.

• One possible fallout may be that the athletes feel more under pressure as they feel they are

expected to perform at their best, and no one is going to forgive a mistake.

• According to Mahoney, while commenting on Olympic athletes:

“At this level of competition the different between two athletes is 20 percent physical and 80 percent mental”. Mental practice can help overcome this problem. Other strategies used by sport psychologists Overcoming self consciousness

• The same tactics as those used for assertiveness training are used.

Principles of learning and sport performance

• Operant conditioning approach involving positive reinforcement is effective in raising

motivation to performance at peak level.

Sport Psychology-Introduction to Psycology-Lecture Handout, Exercises of Introduction to Psychology

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Partial preview of the text

Download Sport Psychology-Introduction to Psycology-Lecture Handout and more Exercises Introduction to Psychology in PDF only on Docsity!

SPORT PSYCHOLOGY

• Why don’t cricketers show a consistent performance?

• Why do they come back to the pavilion when we expected them to make a century?

• Why do sportsmen end up with a sprain or a pulled muscle when they had to play a crucial

match?

• Why do spectators cheer up their favorite teem and hoot the other one? Why do some players

• The answers to these questions may be found in sport psychology.

• Exercise and sport psychology is Division 47 of APA.

• The branch of psychology that studies, understands, describes, and predicts the impact of

• “The application of psychological principles to sport and physical activity at all levels of skill

• Although man was always interested in sports, in improving sport performance, in sport

training, and in negatively affecting the performance of the opponent’s team, the history of

• Research in psychological aspects of sport originated in Europe and then flourished in the U.S.

• The earliest proper sport research was reported by Norman Triplett in 1897.

• He analyzed the performance of cyclists under conditions of social facilitations.

• For this purpose he used field observation and secondary data.

• He reported from his research that the presence of other competitors could facilitate better

• Known as the father of Sport psychology in North America.

• He established the first sport psychology laboratory at the University of Illinois in 1925.

• He studied the nature of psychomotor skills, motor learning, and the relationship between

• The period from 1950 to 1980 is considered as the formative years of sport psychology.

• Sport psychology emerged as a separate discipline distinct from exercise physiology and motor

docsity.com

• Education

• Training

• Research

• Sport performance

• One of the areas of special interest to the sport psychologists is the study of personality

• One could predict sport performance and choose good athletes if one knew the psychological

• One has to be clear about the different connotations of the words ‘athletes’ and ‘sportsmen’.

• Although the two terms are used differently in everyday life vocabulary, to a sport psychologist

• Although not very strong empirical evidence is available on this issue, some interesting facts

• As compared to the non athletes, the athletes usually score higher on tests of: assertion

• Dominance

• Aggression, and

• Need for achievement

• Anxiety level

• Depression, and

• Fatigue.

• These findings stand truer when the athletes are at a high skill level.

• Athletes in some sports e.g. hockey and football are more tolerant of pain as compared to

• But there is some evidence suggesting that the pain tolerance may be an outcome of an

• One of the major tasks of a sport psychologist is to assist the trainers, the coaches, and the

• In this regard, a major portion of research evidence pertains to the arousal level of the

• Sport psychologists have also worked in the following areas:

• Enhancing motivation

• Learning relaxation techniques

• Stress management

• Pain control and management

• Overcoming anxiety docsity.com

• Rehearsing the task mentally, imagining one’s self in the actual field.

• The task at hand is rehearsed mentally. This provides a vivid image of the scenario to occur

• Negative thoughts that may interfere with performance are reduced.

• The sportsperson can rehearse his/her part in a team sport.

• It helps in setting realistic goals.

• It is a common observation that athletes and sportspersons perform better and are more

• Psychological research does not provide a 100% solid support to this observation.

• Mixed findings are available in this regard.

• Research has shown that frenzied, yelling, screaming hometown fans may raise arousal levels

• This reveals the negative effects of playing on the home ground.

• One possible fallout may be that the athletes feel more under pressure as they feel they are

• According to Mahoney, while commenting on Olympic athletes:

• The same tactics as those used for assertiveness training are used.

• Operant conditioning approach involving positive reinforcement is effective in raising

• In learning a sport observational learning is most beneficial.

• Vicarious learning can take place through direct, live observation, or through video recordings.

• Relaxation techniques

• Good nutrition

• Developing optimism through cognitive interventions

• Self Talk

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