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