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Sport Psychology Radboud Notes
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1Lecture 1: Introduction & X-Model
Sport psychology studies the effects of psychological factors on sport-related
behavior, performance and well being.
The field is developed from different academic disciplines/origins: more main
disciplines like physical, biological and social sciences and more specialized fields
like biomechanics, exercise physiology and sport sociology, and of course
psychology.
When studying a sport psychology topic, there are 3 different orientations:
- Psycho-physiological approach (effects of neurological and biofeedback
measures)
- Social-psychological approach (how different coaching styles affect
motivation)
- Cognitive-behavioral (how self-talk affects an athlete’s performance)
Example topic: “imagery effectiveness”
1) Psycho-physiological orientation: “examine the effect of imagery
using MRI scan”
2) Social-psychological orientation: “examine relationship of athlete
imagery use from a team-level perspective to team cohesion”
3) Cognitive-behavioral orientation: “examine the effects of imagery on
performance”
Questions can be studied and answered from different perspectives:
- Person: Individualistic approach
- Environment: Situational approach
- Person x Environment: Interaccionist approach (the most contemporary
view, gives the broadest insight)
Triplett (1898): When a cyclist performs alone, he is not as energetic as when
competing against a fellow competitor. By increasing your energy, you cannot
increase your performance endlessly. When arousal gets high, there is an increase
in performance levels but this is true for gross motor skills. But when the skill
involves fine motor skills (coordination, agility) the optimum point of arousal shifts
to the left.
Zajonc (1965): Social Facilitation theory (people show increased level of effort as a
result of the presence of others) and audience effect (audience creates arousal).
But if you are practicing a fine motor skill which you haven’t learned yet, having
people around you will not facilitate the learning. This happens with automatized
skills or simple tasks.
, 2
Ogilvie (1960): One of the first applied sport psychologists, found that different
types of athletes have different personality characteristics (extreme sport athletes
are more intelligent and emotional stability and independence than other athletes)
Aim: help athletes develop mental skills which are necessary to…
- Perform optimally in challenging situations
- Experience personal highlights (feel enjoyment)
- Develop to their full potential
Peak performance: A state of exceptional functioning
In order to reach peak performance:
- Psychological skills: Goal setting, Imagery, Attentional focus, Relaxation…
- Individual differences: Motivation, Self-efficacy, people’s dispositional
abilities and skills…
- Environmental factors: Coach effectiveness, Peers/team members, Parents,
Opportunities…
Four units of performance/sports skills:
1- Mental skills 2- Physical skills 3- Technical skills 4- Tactical skills
Deliberate practice is necessary, but not enough and Talent is necessary, but not
enough. But together, when you reach the mental part and focus and reach the
optimum level.
There is a conflict between internal validity (aim of fundamental research) and
external validity (ecological validity): Researchers blame practitioners for a low
internal validity in their measures (not measuring what they want to really) and the
more applied sport psychologists blame the researchers for their overly-simplistic
models that don’t really capture reality.
X-Model for Sport Behavior
Interactionist approach (both personal and environmental factors are important)
1- SPORT SITUATION
- Task demands (high jump, football, discus throwing)
- Task circumstances (football: artificial glass, ball, referee / speed skating:
humidity, skate, indoors or outdoors) that might influence the game
- Task conditions (rules of the game, time regulations, rewards, substitutes,
labor contract)
- Task relations (team or solo, relation coach-athlete, colleague-competitors,
communication)
, 3
2-PERSON/ATHLETE
- Stable (habitual) characteristics: physical (weight, power, speed), technical
()ability), psychological (persistence, mental toughness, goal orientation,
need for achievement), tactical (reading the game).
- Momentaneous (variable) characteristics: current capacity (injury, fatigue,
goal state, state anxiety)
Relevant distinction: ACTUAL (trained characteristics when you enter a
competition) VS REQUIRED (what are the required characteristics of this team?)
the aim is CONGRUENCE between both
3- SPORT BEHAVIOR
- Effort (Psychological: willing and motivated to spend effort, Physiological:
capacity to give effort like lung capacity)
- Action plan/Strategy/Tactical plan
- Movement behavior (executing the task, part of the sport behavior)
perception, selection of strategy and action
One way to analyze sport behavior is Action Theory (Sport behavior (3) can be
ordered hierarchical-sequentially
- Football: defensive actions, transition, Offensive actions
- Offensive actions: dribbling, passing, Shooting
- Shooting: position support leg, assess speed of ball, kicking
Etc…
4- SPORT OUTCOMES (result of 3- SPORT BEHAVIOR)
- Performance
Objective performance: height, time, scored goals, distance…
Subjective performance: jury, gymnastics, boxing…
Combination: ski jumping
- Results (it’s the translation of performance into points)
Game result: the score, win/lose, ranking…
with the same performance, the result may differ depending on the performance of
others. These two are not the same thing. An athlete may prove their personal best
but as a result maybe his fellow competitor has improved even more and he did not
win.
5- OUTCOMES for the PERSON (temporary or permanent personal changes)
- Positive (enjoyment, feeling of competency, self-efficacy)
- Negative (fatigue, injury, comparing yourself to others, depression)
, 4
Lecture 3: Motor Learning
There are two sides of the spectrum regarding motor control, some people are
experts and others may have Parkinson’s (basal ganglia) disease.
Ways of registering movement:
- Zoopraxiscope (one of the first ways, protection of a lot of photos into film
via projection)
- Optotrak (made of markers that emit infra-red lights with very high
frequency, if you attach these to your body and make a reconstruction of the
movement precisely - disadvantage: light travels in straight directions so
you can lose markers out of sight because you only have one camera and it’s
also very expensive)
- VICON (most used nowadays - video based system with PASSIVE markers
(no light) and you have a lot of cameras and it’s cheaper)
The degrees of freedom problem: “The many degrees of freedom of the motor
system need to be reduced such that effective control is possible.”
(The brain has to decrease as much as possible the degrees of freedom.)
If we move, how can we coordinate these movements? Your body moving around in
space has a lot of degrees of freedom (a lot of things that need to be controlled)
We have over a 100 joints (and 10000 motor units) and controlling all of them
independently would be very difficult.
According to Bernstein, the solution to control the degrees of freedom in motor
learning proceeds in 3 stages:
- Stage 1: Some of the degrees of freedom are temporarily frozen (not
involved in active control) or they become coupled. The most rigid stage.
- Stage 2: An increased number of degrees of freedom are actively involved in
control. Refining the skill. Most athletes stay in this stage.
- Stage 3 (Autonomous stage): You use your whole body to move, forces
related to the movement are exploited/incorporated in the control (elastic
forces…) and execution of the movement (elite athletes).
According to industrial designers, there is a trade off between flexibility and
controllability.
A shopping cart has 4 wheels (4 degrees of freedom) that can move independently.
Shopping carts are easily maneuverable - maximum of flexibility. Reasonable
control (they have their own will).
In normal cars, there are 2 rear wheels that are fixed and 2 front wheels controlled
by one steering wheel. They narrowed down to 1 degree of freedom, there is less
flexibility (difficult to parallel park) but maximum control.
Stages of Learning by Fitts & Posner
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