sports psychology

self-handicapping and examples

"shooting yourself in the foot" giving excuses before outcome ex. I didn't practice, I don't care about this stuff, I'm just not good at Math, I work too many hours, My kids won't let me study, I've been too sick to study

techniques for reducing anxiety: implosive therapy

*client creates the hierarchy -This is a variant of Flooding that uses a hierarchy of fear-eliciting images that each person judges to reflect the aspects of her personal situation that are MOST and LEAST threatening. The therapist systematically works through the list, extinguishing the anxiety associated with the items lower on the hierarchy before proceeding to the more tense ones.

techniques for reducing anxiety: behavior modification

- it assumes that abnormal behaviors have been somehow reinforced -to eliminate the behaviors, you must change the reinforcement

what professional issues must a sport psychologist understand?

-Image of the Profession, Employment Opportunities, Training for the Profession, Credentialing, Ethical Principles -To be a practicing psychologist one must be licensed with a doctoral degree

techniques for reducing anxiety: study of 4 treatment conditions (wait-list, supportive counseling, prolonged exposure, stress inoculatioin)

Athletes suffered from anxiety related performance impairment were placed into 4 treatment groups: all groups improved even the waitlist, stress inoculation worked the best

what does cognitive theory assume about performance?

Emphasizes the fact that there may be a difference between an actual event and how it is interpreted by the individual. How a person thinks, influences actions Cognitive errors may impact behavior Magnification, overgeneralization, absolutist thinking Self-fulfilling prophecies may occur -expectation -action -reaction -confirmation

role theory

Explains behavior by looking at the roles, role expectations, and reference groups that affect the individual. Role = functions a person served when occupying a particular position within a particular social context. Role-expectations = the assumptions others have about the behavior "appropriate" for a given role. Reference group = those groups with which an individual identifies.

techniques for reducing anxiety: counterconditioning

Favored over extinction by sports psychologists (short term) In this technique, there is no attempt to eliminate the anxiety evoked by the CS. The objective is to use an antagonistic UCS to condition competing responses that will interfere with the existing(anxiety, fear) (make a wedge) With enough training, the new conditioned behaviors will replace the older fear reaction as the dominant response tendency when confronting a competitive situation

social facilitation theory

First Described by Norman Triplett in 1897 -Presence of audience "facilitates" performance Zajonc discovered it depends on the task 1965 -Well-practiced versus novel or new -dominant response -learned well (automatic) facilitates perfomance vs. well learned (understand) inhibits performance

locus of control

First proposed by Julian Rotter (1966). "Individuals beliefs about how much control they have over the situation they are in and what happens to them."

describe Rogers' "Humanistic Approach" why is this approach referred to as a "personcentered" approach

Humanistic Approaches make the following assumptions about personality & studying persons: Basis of all human experience is interpretation To understand the person, we must get inside his/her world of meaning Meaningful discoveries will only come from understanding the individual case (idiographic) Person-centered approach = "individuals have within themselves vast resources for self-understanding & for altering their self-concepts, basic attitudes & self-directed behavior"

techniques for reducing anxiety: cognitive control

Learned Optimism (thinking positive), Cognitve control ( control of one's thoughts), Thought stoppage (eliminate negative thoughts), reframing (reframe negative into positive thoughts), hypnosis, and energizing imagery (concentrate on machines and animals)

limbic system

Limbic System = Associated w/ emotions & drives such as food and sex

learning theory

Principles of reinforcement and punishment determine human behavior. The consequence of an action determines whether it will happen again. We learn what to do by being reinforced. We learn what not to do by being punished

field theory

Proposed in 1936 by Kurt Lewin Power of situations in influencing behavior B=f(P,E) Person = personality, race, gender, physical attributes, attitudes, beliefs, etc. Environment = other persons, temperature, situational demand, prior experience, norms, etc.

why study sports psychology?

Pursuit of excellence by athletes Sport as a political tool = such as the Olympics. High salaries in sports Recognition gained from sport Spectator interest The fitness movement

how has technology has an impact on sport?

Railroads Telegraphy Innovations in printing Sewing machine Incandescent lighting Vulcanization of rubber Stopwatches, cameras, ball bearings

what is correspondence bias? why is this important to know?

Tendency to assume that behavior reflects personality and ignore situational influences! -we need things to be predictable -what you see is what you get -if we are wrong, there is little penalty

describe social comparison theory and the three types of comparisons

When we are not sure "how we are doing" we will compare ourselves to others to find out. Unilateral comparison- same level as you Upward comparison- better than you Downward comparison- worse than me (false superiority) -need to know mean and standard deviation

homeostasis

a balanced internal state

need

a biological tissue deficit

sports

a competitive activity involving at least two competitors, requiring physical skill, following formal rules, and occurring with a formal organizational framework.

learning

a lasting change resulting from experience

techniques for reducing anxiety: imagery

a mental representation strategy in which the athlete concentrates on images in his or her mind's eye in an effort to counteract anxiety and enhance performance. -image alone can improve performance

classical conditioning

a neutral stimulus comes to elicit response

flooding/satiation

a satiation technique -this is built on the idea that we can even get too much of the things we find reinforcing -like forcing a child who tries a cigarette to smoke until he/she gets sick -staff decided to help the woman hoard more towels

amygdala

aggression and fear

arousal

all inclusive, broad-ranging continuum of physiological and psychological activation. not, neccessarily positive or negative. mostly physicological

recreation

an activity engaged in for diversion or fitness, and exemplified by jogging or skiing.

drive

an energized state to satisfy a need

incentive

an external stimulus that has come to have positive or negative value in motivating behavior

play

an informal activity such as kicking a ball around by oneself or engaging in a snowball fight.

thalamus

atop brainstem sensory switchboard

operant conditioning

behaviors are affected by the consequences that follow it involves voluntary behaviors

how is the TAT used to measure motivation?

by having subjects tell stories about ambiguous pictures & then search for motive themes in their stories

CR

conditioned response (learned)

CS

conditioned stimulus (learned)

how do we make attributions for "known" others? -consistency -distinctiveness -consensus

consistency- is the person like this on some days and not others or always like this? (time) distinctiveness- is the person like this in most situations or is this situation unique? (situation) consensus- is the behavior like what others would or are doing? (other people)

medulla

control for heartbeat and breathing

cerebellum

controls fine movement coordination, balance and equilibrium

reciprocal inhibition

counterconditioning in which stressful thoughts are paired with incompatible relaxation ex. want to stop crying then make a person laugh because you cant cry and laugh at the same time

dispositional inference

decide that a person's behavior is caused by personal characteristics (automatic) never eliminate it we always modify or alter it

situational correction

decide that a person's behavior is caused by something in the environment and other people after dispositional inference and either strengthen or weakens it

hypothalamus

directs several maintaince activities (eating, drinking, body temp) and helps govern the endocrine system via the pituitary gland also linked to emotion

assumption of the AND model

dispositional inferense is first, situational correction is second dispositional inference is easy, situational correction is hard busy percievers (those doing more than one metnal task) will be able to make dispositional inferences but should be unable to engage in situational corrections

individualized zones of optimal functioning theory

each athlete has his/her own optimal level of anxiety and zone of optimal functioning.

reversal theory

emphasizes the importance of each individual's reversible views on what constitutes his/her preferred levels of anxiety

premack principle

engaged in preferred activity. what the person would like

techniques for reducing anxiety: extinction (flooding, satiation)

extinction- the process of repeatedly presenting the conditioned stimulus (the performance situation) without the unconditioned stimulus (fear or anxiety) so the relationship between the 2 diminished -extinction in therapeutic settings is called flooding and satiation

fading and shaping

fade away bad behavior and shape in good behavior shaping- learning in steps and reinforcing each step until the goal is reached. know the number of steps and practice

reticular formation

filters incoming sensory information and relays important info to other brain areas. watch dog!

castrophe theory

high levels of both somatic and cognitive anxiety will produce a "catastrophic" decrement in performance

Extinction

if you present a conditioned stimulus without unconditioned stimulus then extinguistion of Unconditioned response occurs

levels of attribution for self

internal vs. external -who is responsible? temporary vs. stable -will this happen next time? global vs. specific -what does this tell me about the rest of who I am?

trait anxiety

more enduring than state anxiety- person is prone to anxiety in broad ranging situations. (more lasting)

games

more formal or organized activities such as "pickup" games of basketball or a soccer match involving neighborhood groups.

anxiety

negatively charged emotional state characterized by internal discomfort and nervousness. (mostly psychological)

AND model of attribution

observe someone's behavior - dispositional inference AND situational correction

motive

of or constituting an excitement to action

autonomic nervous system

parasympathetic -decreased arousal and heart rate -body maintance- digestion and increased tearing and salivation sympathetic -increased arousal and heart rate -fight or flight - slowing digestion and decreased in tearing and salviation

futile caution and when is it most likely to occur?

performance actually impaired with the supportive audience. tend to slow down performance and over think to make the supportive audience happy

positive and negative reinforcement and punishment

positive reinforcement- when behavior increases and something is added negative reinforcement- when behavior increases and something is taken away positive punishment- when behavior decreases and something is added negative punishemt- when behavior decreases and something is taken away

hippocampus

processes memories

systematic desensization

same as implosive therapy however the THERAPIST makes the list instead of the client

state anxiety

situational apprehension, the intensity of which varies with the strength of the fear-eliciting cue. (temporarily)

impact of cognitive business

situational correction requires time, effort and motivation if we are busy unable to do situational correction just dispositional inference

distributed practice

spreading out practice over time

explain weiner's cognitive attributional model and the importance of the following: O=f(A,E,T,L) and levels of attribution

task outcome (O) (success or failure) in any achievement related activity is a function of: -Ability (internal and stable) -Effort (internal and unstable/temp) -Task difficulty (external and stable) -Luck (internal and unstable)

discrimination

tell the difference between certain stimulus

Define sport psychology and briefly describe each of its three interrelated tasks.

the study of psychological and mental factors affecting participation in sport, exercise, and physical activities, and the application of the knowledge thus gained to everyday settings. Three interrelated tasks: Research Education Application

what is the achievement motive? how are people different if they score high or low on this measure?

the tendency to seek excellence TAT stories are scored for achievement by looking for three kinds of achievement imagery: Standard of excellence Unique accomplishment Long-term involvement

inverted U hypothesis

there is an optimal level of arousal for every behavior that maximizes performance (peak of performance) and once the optimal level is reached then performance will decline with more arousal. -all the theories are built on this one

thorndike, trial and error learning and law of effect

thorndike put a cat in a puzzle box got to get food and get out with the pulled a string. the cat finally understood to the pull the string to get food after trial and error

UR

unconditioned response (unlearned/automatic)

US

unconditioned stimulus (unlearned/automatic)

generalization

want learning to apply to others things in similar situations

defensive attribution

we many times make attributions to reduce our own anxiety

saliency bias

what is obvious is what we need to know -anything that sets the individual apart from others will tend to be remembered mroe than anything else