Matthew Lee
BTEC Level 3 National Foundation
Diploma in Sport
Unit 1 Assignment 1
Sports Leadership
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A Understand how personality, motivation and competitive pressure can affect sport
performance
,A1 Personality factors and assessment of personality
A2 Motivational factors
A3 Arousal – performance relationship theories under competitive pressure
A4 Stress, anxiety and sports performance under competitive pressure
A5 Self-confidence and sports performance under competitive pressure
A report on the different motivational factors that can be used by a coach via practical
application of personality tests which also details the effects of arousal, anxiety and
stress on sports performance and how self-confidence is important in the reduction of
anxiety levels.
B Examine the impact of group dynamics in team sports and its effect on performance
B1 Group processes
B2 Cohesion in effective group performance
B3 Leadership in creating effective groups
B4 Impact of processes, cohesion and leadership on a team and performance
B5 Measurement of the impact of processes, cohesion and leadership on a team and
performance using sociograms A report on group development, leadership factors and
the impact they may have on teams at different levels of sport, including use of
sociograms.
C Explore psychological skills training programmes designed to improve performance
C1 Psychological skills
C2 Designing a psychological skills training programme A psychological skills training
programme that describes different psychological training techniques.
,A report investigating the psychological principles affecting
sports performance
Introduction to Sports Psychology
Some may argue that sports psychology is ‘not an actual science’ as it is hard to prove
that it has caused any effect on an athlete's performance. This is because Psychology is
a theory and not proven like sciences such as biology, chemistry and psychics, it is
within a person’s mind. Sports Psychology is at the heart of our understanding of the
psychological effect on a sports person’s mind and allows us to develop a deeper
understanding of how thoughts, emotions and actions play a crucial part into the
performance. Often, the key factor in successful sport performance and finding sport
enjoyable is an individual’s psychological qualities. Ultimately, how psychological affects
performance is known as the Psychological Factors. Psychology is important in Football
as it allows performers to be more focused during matches and allows coaches to
develop unique specialized coaching programmes for individual footballers.
A1 – Personality
Recent evidence suggests that in sport there is a direct correlation between sports
psychology and how it can cause sport performance to increase or decrease.
‘‘Personality represents those characteristics of the person that account for consistent
patterns of behavior.’’ Pervin (1993)
Personality traits
Personality traits are relatively consistent ways of behaving and consistent across a
range of situations
Giordano’s narrow band theory states that performers are splitting into 2 groups Type A
+ Type B based upon their behaviors + characteristics. Type A people are more
outgoing, loud and easier to communicate with, are highly competitive, works fast and
has a strong desire to succeed or Type B which are non-competitive, works slow and
are lacking desire. A sporting example of a Type A athlete would be Ronaldo who is
very outgoing and expressive towards others and has a strong desire to succeed and
takes responsibilities under high pressure. Type B people are more reserved, quiet and
,relaxed. However, this model does not take into consideration the situation the person is
in by their social influences such as playing Football, having the Leadership role of a
Captain or doing admin work at a desk.
Friedman and Rosenham were two cardiologists in the 1950s who proposed that there
were two types of basic personalities amongst their heart patients and that these
personalities were based on the anxiety and stress levels of the individuals. Type A
personalities have a high desire to achieve, strong willingness to compete and win and
do not like waiting around, they usually rush to complete tasks, will be able to handle
multiple work streams and a varied workload and will be able to work confidently under
deadlines and timed conditions. They also lack very little patience when talking and
communicating with other people and experience high levels of stress on a regular
basis. Whereas, Type B personalities are more patient when talking to others and
communicating, more easy going when compared to their Type A counterparts, they
experience low levels of stress + anxiety daily and this allows them to bring forward
creative and innovative ideas.
Introverts are individuals who do not wish to go out looking to seek stimulation and
would rather be in a quiet and calm environment. This is due to the fact that they have
higher levels of arousal than others meaning that they do not need additional stimulus in
order to function and work well. They rely on their performance by themselves and do
not need external support. Introverts prefer tasks that require focus and concentration
and do not tend to like activities that have sudden dramatic changes. This explains the
fact that introverts tend to prefer sports where there are repetitive unchanging tasks
such as long-distance marathon running or sports that require extreme focus such as
darts.
Extroverts are people who are by nature under-aroused. This means that boredom
levels rise quickly, struggle with tasks that require a lot of focus and concentration, who
constantly obtain excitement and motivation when they interact with others, giving
extroverts high levels of stimulation. This explains the fact that extroverts tend to prefer
high-energy team sports such as football and rugby.
Stable individuals can be more calm, tempered, composed and easy to talk to. Stable
individuals are most likely to be Introverts and Type B personality types. Neurotic
people are unstable causing them to become anxious and more highly aroused causing
them to feel agitated and too excited.
Social Learning theory
, Social learning theory suggests that personality is not a stage characteristic but
constantly changing which as a result of our experiences at different social situations in
life. Social Reinforcement is important because if an individual's behaviour is rewarded
they are more likely to repeat the behaviour as they have received positive
reinforcement. This links to Bandura’s theory who identified 4 main stages of
observational learning and demonstrates how modeling influences personality +
behavior. These are Attention, Retention, Reproduction and Motivation. Ultimately,
social learning theory improves the performance during sport as behavior and skills are
picked up through experiences, imitating players and role models and leaders allowing
them performers to have a higher level of performance to work towards.
Many young footballers continue to imitate Eric Cantona’s horrific moment of madness
as this relates to social learning theory. Modeling states that individuals model
themselves on people they can relate to observe behavior and attempt to copy. Eric
Cantona’s kick was famous on national TV and this caused The Younger Generation to
observe this behavior and attempt to copy Role Models Cantona aggressive behavior
and bring it into the school by causing violence to their Peers. I believe that this Theory
is related as Infants as they grow older, begin to copy their Significant Others such as
their Brothers and Parents. This caused Parents and Teachers to try to control the
situation and stop violence in the school. Bandura suggested that individuals learn in
different sporting situations through four main stages of observational learning that
demonstrate how modeling influences personality and behavior; these stages are
Attention, Retention, Motor reproduction and Motivational response. Attention states
that you are most likely to learn through your observations of role models or significant
others. The more you admire the sports performer you are observing the more likely it is
for you to retain information and continue to observe the performer. Retention is when
for modeling to be effective, observed skills and information must be retained so that
they can be applied to sporting situations when required. Motor reproduction is when
you must be able to physically perform the task you are observing. You will need time to
practice difficult, more high-level skills. Finally, motivation response refers to that
without sufficient motivation you will stop being able to experience attention, retention
and motor reproduction. Motivation can be achieved through positive reinforcement
such as feedback and praise, the willingness to do the task and how important it is to
the performer.
Interactionist suggests athletes have a certain level of respect for the model they’re
observing when situation factors are particularly strong e.g. competitive situations –
penalty shoot outs. Interactionist theory suggests that when sport performers gain
responsibility and leadership their personality styles change.
