Sports Psychology Test 2

SMART Goals

*people use this acronym to help them engage in goal-setting practices 1) Specific -make sure you identify a goal that is objectively measurable and specific (not a broad statement) -what can we count by when 2) Measurable -measurable 3) Action-oriented -your goal should inform you about what actions you should be taking 4) Realistic -you should be able to achieve this goal -can be a stretch but people often set goals they can't possibly reach 5) Timely -time frame for what you're trying to do and it should be reasonable 6) Self-determined -person engaging in the behavior should have a say about their goals -goals for athletes shouldn't just be set by coaches

Motivation

-"motivation is the direction and intensity of one's efforts" -when we talk about direction, its about what is it that ur going after? What's ur goal? What are you trying to do -Intensity talks about how much effort

What are the consequences of the attribution model?

-(Locus of causality, locus of stability, locus of control) -why do these explanations matter? -explanations tell us about the athlete's mindset about being successful in the future -ex: ask someone how something went.... person's explanation will show where the person is putting their locus of control... where is the control -"teacher sucks".... meaning "it's not me!" (external causality) -when athletes make internal, stable and controllable attributions for successful outcomes, they feel good about themselves and confident that strong performance could and will occur again -when athletes make internal, stable and uncontrollable attributions for negative performance, they expect that future performance will also go poorly and that there is little, if anything, they can do to change the outcome -learned helplessness

The impact of thoughts

-Attributions matter -Destructive thought patterns

Attribution theory

-Describes how people explain their successes and failures based on 3 dimensions -3 Dimensions: 1) Locus of causality 2) Locus of stability 3) Locus of control *is causality internal or external *is stability stable or unstable

What to do with attributions?

-Focus on effort -Increase sense of efficacy -Increase expectations *related to goal setting

Destructive thought patterns

-Impact of thoughts *athletes have to identify and then change destructive thoughts that can disrupt their performance -undermine the potential -can't enhance our skills -athletes with negative thought patterns often dwell on negative events and assume such events are inevitable 1) filtering... dwelling on a single negative experience 2) Overgeneralization... believing a single negative event will continue to reoccur 3) All-or-nothing thinking... thinking that if your performance is less than perfect, you are a complete failure 4) Disregarding the positive... rejecting positive experiences as not counting for some reason 5) Personalizing... assuming you are the cause of a negative event 6) Magnification.... exaggerating the importance of a single event 7) Control fallacies ... believing there is nothing you can do in a given situation *3 particular types of skills that help athletes develop more constructive thought patterns are: 1) assessing personal assumptions 2) disrupting strategies 3) decatastrophizing *thoughts impact their performance, experience and outcome

What influences attributions?

-Individual difference -Demographics -Culture *what influences attributions is a whole combination of these three factors

Locus of stability

-Locus of Stability -something that is enduring overtime OR something that is temporary or changeable... relatively permanent or unstable -ex: I can't play basketball because I don't shoot well (temporary) -Changeable... ability/skill level is changeable... can practice and become better -ex: I can't play basketball because I'm not tall enough (enduring) -height is consistent overtime... can't change that

Locus of causality

-Locus of causality ` 1) Causality -causality means the cause or the reason for my success or failure -is it something inside of me or outside of me (internal or external) -whether the outcome was caused by something within us or outside of us -ex: we won that game because the other team collapsed... not attributing much talent to me or the team (outside of me... external) -saying that the factors had nothing to do with me or my team -ex: if I lose and I say its cause the other team got lucky cause ref made bad calls (attributing causality to something else... external)

Locus of control

-Locus of control: meaning whether the outcome was caused by something we had control over (such as your conditioning) versus something we could not control (such as the conditioning of the other team) -does the athlete feel like he or she has control over the outcome/situation...can they do anything about it? -something that is being done to her (out of her control) OR something that she can control (in her control) *2 dimensions create 4 different types of explanations for different outcomes: 1) ability -internal and stable -ex: natural athleticism and intelligence 2) effort -internal and unstable -ex: working hard in training in the preseason and giving one's all throughout every practice 3) Task difficulty -external and stable -ex: specific aspects of a skill domain (hitting a knuckle ball or slider, landing a triple axel and running under a 4 minute mile), the quality of particular opponents and the coach's demands *You can improve task difficult but how do we determine the task difficult 4) luck -external and unstable -ex: weather and the officiating

Attribution errors

-Self-serving attributions -Action bias -The "hot hand"

Problem with emphasis on motivation/effort

-When someone doesn't achieve a goal they wanted to achieve -people often say "well they weren't motivated enough" -too much emphasis in the larger culture... there are other things that could affect our behavior... people point to effort too easily 1) there are other things that affect us such as environmental/social pressure 2) sometimes people set unrealistic goals 3) set realistic goals and don't know how to go about achieving the goals 4) proper training, nutrition, rest -sometimes athletes should moderate how hard they push -its possible to put in too much effort -too much time in weight room, getting hurt, etc. -sometimes when we try to solve problems with nothing but effort, we can actually set ourselves back *motivation is important but its not the explanation for everything

Pessimistic explanatory style

-an attributional style in which people tend to explain bad events as caused by internal, stable and global factors -explain bad events in these ways and to explain good events as being the result of external, unstable and specific causes

Optimistic explanatory style

-an attributional style in which people tend to explain good events as caused by internal, stable and global factors -explain good events in self-serving ways

Trait centered

-approach to understand motivation -personality -motivation is a function (comes from) of an individual's personality -your motivation level has to do with who you are as a person *problem with exclusively trait-centered view is that we ARE affected by environmental factors: 1) competition setting 2) who we are competing against 3) how important it is to us on a particular day *also, not smart to go full speed all the time -the grind of the long season takes a toll and you need to expend your energy wisely and in moderation -don't need full out and full speed motivation all the time

Interactional

-approach to understanding motivation -we have to understand how the individual interacts or matches with the situation -ex: coaches have certain leadership styles -some coaches motivates athletes by challenging them -some players gravitate to that and play harder -some players will play worse and will only play harder if you leave them alone -the coaches style is the situation and we know that athletes respond differently * not everyone responds the same way * can have same situations and individual differences * what to understand how people respond in the situation that they're in and make sense of what's going on

Situation centered

-approach to understanding motivation -motivation is primarily determined by the situation -not your personality, its the situation ex: someone is very motivated in the gym but not in the classroom -situation dependent -situation specific * raises question that we don't all react to the same situations the same way -someone can be more intense on soccer field and less motivated in classroom and some people can be the exact opposite

The "hot hand"

-attribution error -see it a lot in basketball -ex: "keep giving me the ball...I'm hot!" -there are people that analyze data of shots -basketball player is a 30% shooter and what you should expect is there are same games where he's hot and gets a couple in the row but the odds of making him the next shot is the same as the chances of the last shot.... odds of shooter of making a shot is whatever his percentage is (30% for example) and is NOT about what he made in the last 5 shots (THAT'S JUST CHANCE... BEING HOT IS NOT A THING) *this is a biased perception... an ILLUSION -give ball to best shooter and not the person that is on a streak! -HOWEVER, NO ONE BELIEVES THIS SO ITS AN ISSUE

Self-serving attributions

-attribution error -make internal, stable and controllable attributions for wins but not for losses *this type of attribution makes people feel good because it suggests that winning will happen again in the future since the outcome is in our control and stable overtime -very common in the US and individualistic cultures -ex: "i accept credit for success (internal attribution) and I blame my failure on external factors (external attribution)" -ex: "i'm still really good....when i win its cause I'm good (internal attribution), when I lose, I'm still good but something that i can't control happened (external attribution)" *the most functional type of attributions for athletes to make following poor performance may be internal, controllable and unstable -athletes sometimes explain wins and losses as internal as it makes them feel hopeful for their future that they can change the outcome since its in their control

Action bias

-attribution error -tendency to prefer to act than not to act even when that action may not lead to a better outcome -we have a preference to act rather than not act -we have to do something -we want to take action -ex: "if i try something new and we lose then ok but i don't want to sit around and just do the same old thing.. want to DO something" -ex: penalty kick in soccer -almost always the goalie will start in the middle and jump to the left and the right when in reality, a lot of goals go to the middle -psychological bias that says i can't just stand here -we see a tendency to do things -ex: if a team doesn't well and coach gets fired.. why? department thinks "i can't just sit her and do nothing!" **error in explaining things is that i have to do something but sometimes you don't...we just prefer to take action than not to take action

sports confidence model

-describes people's enduring beliefs about their competence within three distinct types of sport-related skills: 1) cognitive efficiency 2) physical skills/training 3) resilience *these beliefs are influenced by athletes' own achievements, self-regulation and the social climate

Attributions matter

-impact of thoughts -whether our attributions are correct is a different question -SO, we want to help athletes identify their thought pattern correctly -want to teach them how to challenge their thought pattern (like developing critical thinking skills) -ex: when someone says "my skills are great but my effort is low", we want them to learn do i shoot as well as i used to? is it REALLY my effort or are my skills not as good as they use to be? -"why do you explain things in this way?"...learn to assess themselves properly -quality of really really top performers - great athletes work on their most vulnerable parts and they do that because they're good at assessing themselves and discover "this is the area i could strengthen" *help athletes understand that internal and unstable factors are important determinants of successful coping, goal pursuit, persistence and ultimately achievement *athletes should see their negative outcomes as controllable and unstable *DON'T want to think that performance is linked to uncontrollable and stable factors

Culture

-influence attributions -cultural differences -depending on the culture you grow up in, you explain things based on that -there are cultures that tend to be more individualistic (individual) and then cultures who are more collectivistic (group) -ex: America is individualistic -we value individual performance -"if its all on me, then I need to improve OR overly burdensome -ex: sports articles in the USA focus on internal attributions for success such as athletic ability, personality and the desire to win -ex: Chinese media coverage emphasizes situational factors that explain the success of Chinese athletes such as rigorous training, expectations of others and national pride *when somebody explains something, there might be too much influence by one's culture that explains why one won or lost

Demographics

-influence attributions -gender, race, ethnicity: 1) gender: -success of women athletes are more likely to be explained as being a result of experience and luck -success for male athletes tend to be attributed to athletic ability and intelligence 2) race -white athletes show more optimistic attribution style than athletes of color -we see differences based on these things: -men and women explain things differently -race and ethnic background have something to do with it

Individual difference

-influences attributions -individual differences matter in our explanation style -are you someone who is more optimistic or pessimistic -different coping styles: 1) Defense mechanism -predict low levels of successful to brace myself for the outcome *its a coping style *not a representation of their performance but how they manage their emotions *all cope in a different way due to individual differences and our explanations

Problems about goal setting

-people are much less clear about their goals than they think they are -goal setting needs to be a practice with different steps involved and when its employed properly Its very powerful technique to get us at a better level of performance -Subjective goals and objective goals 1) subjective goals -a general statement of intent that is not measurable -not measurable or objective -ex: "i want to look good at my friend's wedding" -ex: "i want to perform well in the championship game" *nothing wrong with this being what you want but you can't measure whether or not you achieved your goal 2) objective goals -attaining a specific standard of proficiency on a task usually within a specified time frame -ex: "i want to perform well in the championship game by SCORING 2 GOALS AND 3 ASSISTS" **something that is measurable -ex: " i want to lose 10 pounds by the new year" **nothing wrong with subjective goal... just not always very useful ** trying to move athletes into a domain to where they can feel more powerful so they can improve their performance

Personality characteristics

-perspective on motivation -"real go-getter" -suggesting that her motivation is something intrinsic to her... there all the time -ex: Michael Jordan is seen as the epitome of highly motivated in terms of competition -even playing cards, Michael Jordan was competitive -understanding his motivation as an intrinsic quality to who he is

Explanation

-perspective on motivation -Motivation can be pointed to an explanation for our behavior -Need to focus on more than just one thing... can be so motivated to do one thing that you forget the larger focus -ex: "I was too motivated that I lost my concentration" -ex: "I was so motivated to defeat my opponent that I forgot about the larger game"

External influences

-perspective on motivation -external factor... something that affects us -ex: "I was motivated because I really dislike the other team" -ex: Music is an external factor/motivator

Need achievement

-theories of achievement motivation -a theory describing the role of both personal factors and situational factors in predicting achievement behavior; this theory takes into account people's desires to both achieve success and avoid failure as well as the probability of success and the incentive value of that success in a given situation -ranks us from low to medium to high for need of achievement -ranking in level of need for achievement -match up person to situation -tells you about someone's need for achievement -ex: someone high in need for achievement is high in competitiveness and will do better when they are being evaluated -ex: someone low in need for achievement don't like the competitiveness and will work harder when they are not being evaluated -when someone is low in need for achievement and is being evaluated on something difficult, they are ok being evaluated because they know no one expects anything **if we understand someones level of need for achievement, it will tell us how they need to be motivated

Achievement goal theory

-theory of achievement motivation -different people are motivated by different types of goals: 1) outcome orientation 2) task orientation -can understand someone's motivation by understanding what success or failure means to them -some athletes are driven by the understanding that if I don't perform well, I as a person don't have any value - not a psychologically healthy way to go about your life -if someone has this view, want to help them balance that -this is a way to understand their drive -what is their goals, what are they capable of doing and what does it mean to them -don't always differentiate between outcome orientation and task orientation: 1) outcome orientation - how you do well relative to other people -do u win -focused on how they perform compared with other people -their focus is on doing better than others 2) task orientation -your performance in relation to your own standards -how do you perform relative to what you're capable of doing rather than what other people are capable of doing -focused on improving their own skills and ability over time

Self-efficacy

-theory of achievement motivation -importance of having a belief in one's own ability to carry out a given task -motivation is driven by my own beliefs about my own abilities -ex: "i don't care about the competition level... care about my own expectations about how i should perform" -some people will win competitions but their motivation will drop down because they expected better from themselves -"i disappointed myself" *shows how they are motivated

Competence motivation theory

-theory of achievement motivation -positive experiences leas to greater feelings of competence whereas negative experiences reduce perceived competence -describes the importance of feeling worthy and competent -used often when working with children -when working with kids, you will watch a child's confidence and motivation go up as they become better at something and feel capable -ex: take a child out to a basketball court with a low basketball and a small ball, they will say they love basketball and their motivation will go up because they feel capable - to extinguish someone's motivation to play sports, u make it too difficult for someone to succeed * motivation is primarily related to feeling worthy or competent * feeling worthy or competent is what drives people

Cognition

-thoughts -what I was thinking -thoughts (cognition) and the way we explain a situation (attribution) gives us insight into someone's behavior -ex: athlete comes to see you about exercise program -understanding how THEY make sense of what's happening to them (discovering attribution and cognition) -if one applies THEIR explanation of thought to what someone else is going through, that gives minimal value... want to figure out the ATHLETE'S cognition and attributions -ex: athlete says that when somebody challenges me, I fight them.. I don't care what I was taught about sportsmanship, etc., etc.... if we hear this kind of thing, we have a different understanding of this person's behavior *HOW DOES THIS PERSON EXPLAIN THEIR SITUATION

Attributions

-what do we attribute our behaviors to -why did I do something.... here's my attribution/explanation towards why I did what I did

Increase sense of efficacy

-what to do with attributions -competence -"i have the ability to do this"

Focus on effort

-what to do with attributions -have them realize the impact of their effort -put the focus on their effort

Learned helplessness

-when someone attributes failure to stable and uncontrollable causes they experience a state known as learned helplessness -feel that their efforts will be useless and therefore stop putting forth any effort - ex: mouses receive unpleasant electric shocks -mouse does something to stop the shock -will keep trying things and if it keeps getting shocked no matter what, some learning process says its hopeless and there's no way i can stop this, the mouse gives up and says I have no hope in the situation, its just going to keep happening -ex: if child keeps failing at what they're trying to do, they just give up -why we see effects of psychology on kids sports programs -we try to make children sports more achievable so that they don't give up by failing... trying to give kids a sense of control over their athletic destiny -give tee balls in little league -lower the basket and give a smaller ball for basketball leagues for younger kids -ex: teams that get beaten badly week after week, they begin to lose more -sense of "we can't do anything about it" * we try to give these people back a sense of control

Increase expectations

-work with their expectations of themselves -whats possible -when somebody has a higher level of expectation of their performance, they then have a more accurate assessment of themselves and this improves their performance... higher level of awareness of whats involved

Extrinsic versus intrinsic motivation

1) Extrinsic motivation: - driven to do something for reasons of reward outside of satisfaction -doing something for the external reward -extrinsic motivation to participate in sports could include awards, trophies, money, praise or social status -ex: keeping a job not because you like it or feel satisfied but because you need the money - ex: studying for the test because you just want a good grade -when motivation is purely external, it doesn't feel great -typically don't like doing work that always gives us external rewards -when we are doing things solely for extrinsic reasons, you feel trapped... not very motivating - motivation is impaired when there's too much extrinsic motivation and not enough intrinsic motivation 2) intrinsic motivation: -driven to do something because its personally satisfying to us -engage in their sport for intrinsic reasons meaning factors that come from an internal source -ex: learning a music instrument.. don't want to be a pro music player but just want to do it because i like it *when we have intrinsic motivation, we work harder *with athletes, we want to tap into their intrinsic drive cause that will up motivation *athletes who are intrinsically motivated report higher levels of enjoyment and commitment to their sport and perform at a higher level **most of us need some sort of balance

Theories of achievement motivation

1) Need achievement 2) Self-efficacy 3) Achievement goal theory 4) Competence motivation theory

Types of goals

1) Outcome goals -an outcome goal focuses on the competitive result of an event -you and your opponent -ex: "i'm gonna win the sprint races" -which means you're literally beating everybody else -ex: "do you have a goal" -many people will just tell you an outcome goal -"i want to win the US open" -"I want to be a starting player on the varsity team" **not always helpful by itself -not all in our control/choice (limits how much it empowers us) a) wanting to beat your opponent -opponent can have an incredible performance b) making the variety team - coach makes that decision not us 2) Performance goals -focus on your performance or on performance objectives (measurable things during your performance) independent of other competitors -this is usually based on your past performances -achieving a particular endpoint or standard, regardless of how other teams or competitors perform -example: -performance goal for a runner -run a 5K in 26 minutes -olympic swimmer has a performance goal -want to break their performance record of 20 seconds -still may not win the race though *goals that have to do within your control...outcomes that you can affect...doesn't matter what your opponent does *may have to modify your performance goal to not mattering what the opponent does *taking the entire goal in your hands 3) Process goals -focus on the ACTIONS that somebody engages in during performance -specific actions or behaviors an athlete must do well during a competition, game or performance -ex: in order for them to perform well, "need to have my shoulders squared at the basket every time I shoot" -"follow through all my shots" *not about what happens in your overall performance... about enacting certain fundamental actions that you need in order to perform well ** people have resistance to actually doing the goals they set

Motivational Factors

1) Personal: a) personality b) needs c) interests d) goals 2) Situational factors: a) leadership-coach style b) facility attractiveness -enormous factor in recruiting elite athletes to school is showing them the facility -athlete is spending a tremendous amount of time in athletic center so its important for the facility to be nice -if we make the workout center really beautiful, more athletes want to spend time there -some people say its nota place to workout, its a place to hangout -some people say you need a bit of an edge to really have a good workout -team win-loss record 3) Participant-by-situation -there will be people who say i don't want to workout in a place thats beautiful, its too comfortable.. want to be in a place thats a bit less comfortable to really push myself -interaction leads to understanding motivation

Perspective on motivation (different ways of using motivation)

1) Personality characteristics 2) External influences 3) Explanation

Approaches to understanding motivation (broad ways of understanding how we use motivation)

1) Trait-centered 2) Situation centered 3) Interactional

Key variables in motivation

1) achievement motivation -person's efforts to master a task, achieve excellence, overcome obstacles, perform better than others and take pride in exercising talent -they are focused on mastering a task, achieving at a high level and persisting even when confronted by obstacles -someone who's simply driven to perform at the highest levels no matter what they do -after they master something, they just move on to the next thing **people who score high on achievement motivation tend to perform at high levels - ex: Ted Turner: -Captained the American sailing team, then won the cup, then started CNN, then started Turner Network of movies/tv, then started a series of steak restaurants, etc. -has to go to the highest level of everything he does - a matter of showing ur performance *different people have different amounts of achievement motivation -vary in this dimension 2) competitiveness -dispostion (personality trait) to strive for satisfaction when making comparisons with some standard of excellence in the presence of evaluative others -strive for success in sports settings, enjoy testing their skills and abilities by competing against other athletes and are particularly motivated to achieve at high levels when they are being evaluated by others -social evaluation is key component -being measured for something -someone's watching you race to see who bikes the fastest *level of competitiveness varies depending on the setting -some people are competitive everywhere but that's not typical

Steps for understanding motivation

1) consider situation and traits - personality 2) multiple motives for involvement -what is the motivation for what they're doing -why are u in this sport? - talk to athlete -observe behavior -see if u can get information from other people (teammates, coaches) 3) alter the environment (enhance motivation) -is there any way to alter the environment that will up their motivation -can they train differently -can they focus their efforts differently -relatively easy fix if we discover a slight alteration increases motivation right away 4) influence motivation -understand how you can have an affect on them 5) behavior modification to affect motives -increase intrinsic motivation

Common problems in goal-setting

1) convincing athletes to set goals 2) failure to set specific goals -make sure goals are specific 3) setting too many goals too soon -broad goals 4) failing to adjust goals -re-evaluate and adjust -as soon as athletes fail along the way, they shut down the whole thing -we have to adjust our goals... not just physical strategies but also acknowledging mental barriers for strategies (bored, etc.) -people tend not to think of other ways of achieving their goals -when we re-evaluate, we adjust 5) failing to recognize individual differences -what will work for one person won't work for somebody else -practice can be applied to everyone but strategies will vary from one person to another -have to separate and figure out what works for you 6) not providing follow-up evaluation

Why does goal setting work

1) it directs our attention to the important elements of a skill being performed 2) actually mobilizes the effort of someone when they are focused on the right thing -"here's what we are trying to do...put your energy here" -helpful when they are finding it difficult to get and stay motivated 3) prolongs persistence -people are willing to try harder for longer when they are clear about their goals -dividing large goals into smaller ones which provides opportunities for short-term success 4) helps us develop new learning strategies -we get insights about ourselves when we engage in goal setting practices -"here's what does me in every time... here's the problem" -won't be the same for everyone -helps us develop little strategies

Research on goal-setting effectiveness

1) specific goals are better than general goals -better service than just broad statements 2) goals that are somewhat challenging are better than goals that are less challenging -goals that are not as challenging we tend to drop away from...don't need to be disciplined about it 3) barriers to goal-setting vary from one athlete to another *really important -the reason athletes have trouble with goal setting is not the same from one athlete to another -some athletes have trouble articulating goals -some athletes have trouble enacting goals 4) females tend to set more goals and utilize the goals more effectively than males 5) athletes think about their goals but do not often write them down -don't engage actually in the goal setting practice 6)experience with goal-setting leads to better strategies for setting new goals -the more you do it, the more you discover strategies that actually work for themselves

Ways to up intrinsic motivation

1)consider environment 2) effort (not outcome) -not performance, just effort level 3) individual differences -remember everyone is different 4) appropriate reinforcement -use proper reward structures 5) personalized feedback -give feedback in a way that matters to that person

Designing a goal-setting system

Stage 1: -planning and preparation -go through the goal-setting process, all 3 kinds (outcome, performance, process), and then you start devising strategies to achieve all 3 -need to come up with strategies -what am i going to do - example: - famous Alabama football coach -said he's systematic in improving performance -spent hours in practice making sure linemen are getting their footwork down properly -then had to engage footwork during the drills, then scrimmages **PROCESS GOAL -set it up in such a way that you are going to master the goals that you need to succeed -devising the strategies that you need to succeed and engaging in them *make sure goals are tied to strategies that will work Stage 2: - engage in education -leading someone else or doing it yourself -gathering data on your own performance or someone else's performance relative to their goals -are you doing the strategies that we laid out -which ones are you not doing -can change the strategy, come up with replacement, find a way to make it easier for you -need to assess performance at what we laid out -because many people only work with an outcome goal, they don't have much feedback -re-evaluation process is very useful in everyday life -a lot of people don't keep up strategies -can't assess it though until we understand how they're doing in relation to their own goals

Social loafing

individuals' tendency to reduce their own individual output when their contributions on a task will be combined with those of other people -believe their own contributions will not be identified and thus do not really matter