Final Exam - Sports
Someone who is task (or mastery) goal oriented will most likely do which of the following?
Choose a challenging task
Someone who is ego (or performance) goal oriented will most likely do which of the following?
Compete against opponent who they believe they can beat
Filtering, over-generalization, and all-or-nothing thinking are types of:
Destructive thoughts
A basketball player who feels as though they barely have to think, and know exactly what to do, and feel as though they are in a very positive state would be described as:
Experiencing flow
Blaming the officiating for your team's loss would be attributing failure to _________ factors.
External
A tennis player is imaging himself getting ready to take a serve, and can see himself as a spectator would, from several yards away. His position is good, but he needs to turn his body slightly. What technique is the tennis player using?
External imagery
(T/F) An athlete who has the support of their home crowd, no matter their skill level or the difficulty of the situation, will always perform better than players on the visiting team.
FALSE
(T/F) An athlete's skill level does not influence the association between arousal and performance.
FALSE
(T/F) An internal focus usually results in a better performance.
FALSE
(T/F) Athletes tend to give as much credit to their own performance as their teammates' when experiencing a failure.
FALSE
(T/F) Athletes who are high on sport confidence tend to use less mastery and arousal imagery.
FALSE
(T/F) Choking is more likely to occur in the presence of strangers, rather than in the presence of supportive friends, family, or fans.
FALSE
(T/F) Cognitive-affective stress management training involves the use of biometrics to teach athletes how to bring their heart and breathing rates down.
FALSE
(T/F) Goal setting is usually more beneficial for younger or lower level athletes, who are not as disciplined as older and higher level athletes.
FALSE
(T/F) Goals that are set far in the future are often easier to meet because the athlete has so much time to achieve the goal.
FALSE
(T/F) People tend to expect their favorite team to win about 50% of the time, the same as expected for a non-favored team.
FALSE
(T/F) People tend to have similar motivations which do not change much over time.
FALSE
(T/F) People's expectations for their performance do not influence how they feel and the attributions they make.
FALSE
(T/F) Problem-focused coping is best used in situations when the athlete has no control and is mainly dealing with stress levels.
FALSE
(T/F) The transactional model states that levels of anxiety depend upon the skill level of a player, with professional or advanced players experiencing little or no anxiety in most situations.
FALSE
(T/F) The type of environment created by the coach has little impact on the motivations of the athletes.
FALSE
Which arousal regulation technique involves a series of phases, including the induction phase and waking phase?
Hypnosis
What are symptoms of cognitive anxiety?
Inability to concentrate and repetitive negative thoughts
Which of the following senses is especially important when using imagery?
Kinesthetic
The famous experiment that involved shocking dogs is a demonstration of:
Learned helplessness
Which of the following happens during the acquisition phase of PST?
Learning specific strategies for mastering psychological skills
Which arousal regulation technique often involves focusing attention on, and sometimes verbalizing, a single thought?
Meditation
Which arousal-performance-link theory says that cognitive and somatic arousal influence performance in different ways?
Multidimensional anxiety theory
Which of the following is evidence in support of the hot hand effect?
NBA players who make their first free throw attempt are more likely to make their second attempt than those who missed the first shot
Seeing external rewards as controlling, informational, or functionally significant, is part of which theory?
Need achievement theory
Which is an example of a performance goal with a focus on avoiding an undesirable goal?
Not being outscored by an opponent
Why is it important to create different types of environments for different people?
People are motivated by different things
In the study done by de Morree, Klein, & Macora (2012) on evidence for effort in the brain, what was the finding?
- Brain activity was greater when heavier weights were lifted - The brain worked harder to lift the weight when the arm was tired than when the arm was fresh - Brain activity was positively correlated with reported perceived effort
How can an athlete help themselves get into a state of flow?
- Focus - Positive attitude - Self-confidence
Why is it important to give positive and personal feedback?
- It demonstrates that coaches are genuinely interested in helping their athletes learn and improve - It marks progress towards goals - It shows that mistakes are part of learning
Why might a coach choose not to use psychological skills training?
- The coach does not believe that those types of skills can be taught - The coach lacks understanding on how PST can help athletes - The coach does not want to cut into physical practice time
What is the purpose of psychological skills training?
- To enhance confidence - To regulate arousal - To maintain concentration
How might attribution styles vary between athletes from the United States and athletes from Japan?
- U.S. athletes may be more likely to focus on internal attributions for success - Japanese athletes may be more likely to attribute success to help from their coaches and teammates - U.S. athletes may be more likely to mention their own hard work and desire to win
Which of the following athletes is most likely to experience flow?
A highly skilled, confident athlete
According to the attribution theory, if an athlete performs poorly during a game, and blames their poor performance on internal and stable factors, they are likely to _________ in their next game.
Perform poorly
A hockey player sets a goal of making at least three on-target goal attempts during practice. Which type of goal is this?
Performance
Intrinsic motivation, when compared to extrinsic motivation, leads to higher levels of:
Performance
A coach sets all the goals for players each season, rather than having players to set their own goals. Which of the following outcomes is most likely?
Players will experience decreased goal commitment
Which of the following would be considered a social reward?
Praise
According to matching hypothesis, which of the following should a baseball player use to help with nearly always striking out when the pitcher is throwing curve balls?
Problem-focused coping
A gymnast sets a goal of landing dismounts off the vault with bent knees. Which type of goal does that describe?
Process
How might the primary appraisals of high pressure situations differ between amateur athletes and professional athletes?
Professional athletes are more likely to interpret their anxiety as helpful
Milton, Solodkin, Hlustik, & Small (2007) examined how experience affects brain activity during an athletic task by having amateur and professional golfers imagine hitting a golf ball to a hole very far away. What did they find?
Professional golfers showed brain activation in areas that involve planning and carrying out specific actions
Cognitive efficiency, physical skills/training, and resilience are all parts of which model?
Sport-confidence model
Attribution theory describes how people explain their successes and failures based on locus of causality and:
Stability
If an athlete is high on confidence (according to the sport-confidence model), what would happen during a competition if the athlete made a mistake?
The athlete would bounce back from the mistake and perform well
Why should owners of teams be wary of giving players big contracts?
The players' motivation drops, and they tend not to play as well the following year
Impact on Youth stated that in a study of 12- and 13-year-old gymnasts, some of the gymnasts found setting their own goals more effective, whereas others found that coach-set goals were more effective. What seemed to be the deciding factor between the two groups?
Their locus of control
According to drive theory, why do athletes who are about to be traded show lower levels of performance than after they are traded?
They are experiencing high levels of arousal (anxiety) before the trade, and lower levels of arousal after the trade
Why might an athlete fall prey to social loafing?
They feel that their individual contribution won't be identified
According to the transactional model, an athlete playing in a high-stakes game will still perform well if:
They interpret the situation in a positive way
Why is it important that athletes are taught that their poor performances are due to controllable and unstable factors?
This allows for effort to play a role in future success
Why is it important for athletes to practice in realistic settings?
This allows the athlete to learn to manage feelings of anxiety
What is the main purpose of goal-setting for athletes?
To improve outcomes
Which of the following is an external factor that could influence the outcome of an athletic performance?
Weather conditions
Which of the following is an internal factor that could influence the outcome of an athletic performance?
Working hard during training
According to social facilitation theory, what should happen if you are good at a task, you are currently performing that task, and there are people in your presence, observing you?
You should perform even better than normal
Which type of anxiety is likely to spike or peak just before beginning a gymnastics routine in a major competition?
Somatic
Why is it preferable to set specific, rather than vague or general goals?
Specific goals are precise and measurable
What does goal setting theory say about athletes setting goals?
Athletes who set goals are energized to show increased effort
Why are athletes who use an associative attentional style more successful than athletes who use a dissociative or distraction attentional style?
Athletes who use an associative style focus on their bodily functions and feelings, and are thus more in tune with their body
Which of the following helps improve athletes' expectations for future success, leads to more positive emotions, and increases persistence on skill-building tasks?
Attribution Training
In a study by Radel, Sarrazin, & Pelletier (2009), participants were primed with either autonomous words, controlling words, or strings of letters before performing a task. What was their finding?
Autonomous choice may play an important role in enhancing intrinsic motivation, effort, and performance
Analyzing one's thoughts and feelings regarding a performance (a golfer making a shot selection, a baseball pitcher selecting the next pitch) is in which dimension of attentional focus?
Broad and internal
How might a person in the crowd (a fan of the visiting team) try to influence a home-team player to focus on irrelevant information while the player is trying to take a free throw?
Hold up a distracting sign
Which of the following is an example of a practice goal (tennis)?
Improve the accuracy of my serve
Which of the following goals is most likely to be set by an Olympic athlete?
Improving overall performance
Why do youth sports involve modifications of rules or equipment?
In order to allow for successful experiences
Athletes expect to be able to perform well in the future if they make __________, stable, and ___________ attributions for successful outcomes.
Internal; controllable
Reversal theory states that performance is impacted by how the athlete:
Interprets arousal
What is a benefit of allowing athletes to set their own goals?
It increases commitment to the goal
Why is a goal of, "trying my best" not a very effective goal?
It is general and hard to measure
How does creating and maintaining a routine help athletes perform at higher levels?
Routines create a feeling of structure and familiarity
Why might a researcher choose to use a self-report measure when measuring levels of anxiety of a sports team?
Self-report is relatively inexpensive and easy
Accepting credit for success, but blaming failure on external factors is called:
Self-serving attribution
Which of the following strategies is being used in this example: and athlete talks to herself as she prepares to shoot the basketball, "Ok, just focus, knees bent, arms strong, eyes on the net, you've got this".
Self-talk
Which strategy involves verbalizing, out loud or in one's head, specific thoughts and feelings?
Self-talk
What is the relationship between goal setting and directing attention?
Setting a goal helps athletes focus their attention on a particular aspect of the game that is related to their set goal
Which arousal regulation technique involves the athlete practicing their new skills in low-stress, and then, over time, high-stress situations?
Stress inoculation training
Which arousal regulation technique may involve measuring heart rate response to relaxing thoughts?
Stress inoculation training
(T/F) A desire to learn a new skill would be an example of intrinsic motivation.
TRUE
(T/F) A study on learned helplessness showed that if a person is not aware how they have performed, and are told that they performed worse than they actually did, they will have a poorer performance on a subsequent task.
TRUE
(T/F) Although they can be positive, social relationships can also be a barrier to goal achievement.
TRUE
(T/F) An athlete who participates in self-handicapping is likely to have low self-esteem.
TRUE
(T/F) Athletes who score higher on confidence are more likely to experience flow.
TRUE
(T/F) Athletes who set both short-term and long-term goals experience better success than those who only set long-term goals.
TRUE
(T/F) During a basketball game, calling a time-out after the opposing team has scored several points is a way to disrupt the "hot hand effect".
TRUE
(T/F) Lower level athletes often have different goals than higher level athletes.
TRUE
(T/F) One behavioral indicator of stress is nausea.
TRUE
(T/F) People feel worse about a negative outcome if they did not act, rather than if they chose to act.
TRUE
(T/F) Social approval goal orientation may lead to higher performance levels when working with a team, rather than individually.
TRUE
(T/F) Spending more time in the batting cage to practice your swing is an example of an achievement strategy to increase batting average.
TRUE
(T/F) The conditioning of your team can improve with time. This factor can be described as unstable.
TRUE
(T/F) When the body is in fight-or-flight mode, energy is shifted from the parasympathetic nervous system to the sympathetic nervous system.
TRUE
(T/F) Working on dribbling with the non-dominant hand (basketball) is an example of a process goal.
TRUE
